…Predicts There’ll Be A Runoff in Presidential Election
By Jeremy Fregene
Former Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, has said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will not make it to the second round of the 2027 presidential election, insisting that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has no pathway to victory.
Speaking on Channels Television yesterday, el-Rufai predicted that the next presidential contest would likely go into a runoff as no candidate may secure the constitutional majority in the first ballot. He declared that, in such a scenario, Tinubu would, at best, place third.
“I was governor of Kaduna State and one of Tinubu’s strongest campaigners, yet I could not deliver the state to him. Tinubu himself could not win his own state with his governor in place,” el-Rufai said. “So, this idea of Tinubu being unbeatable is self-delusion. By my calculations, his worst-case scenario is no victory in the first round, and he will not even be on the ballot for the runoff.”
The former governor warned that Tinubu’s reliance on incumbency power would not save him. “He may think he has money, INEC, police, army—let him invite former President Goodluck Jonathan for a chat and ask if he didn’t have all those in 2015, and yet we got him out. The case now is even worse,” he said.
El-Rufai, who recently left the APC, vowed to retire Tinubu in 2027 alongside other opposition leaders. He listed former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and former Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi among those with the political weight to unseat the ruling party.
“We formed the APC; we know where the dead body is buried. Atiku knows where the PDP’s dead body is buried. Together, we can face the APC. We don’t need outsiders to defeat them,” he said.
He accused Tinubu of presiding over worsening insecurity and a collapsing economy. “Things are worse today under Tinubu than before. That is the truth Nigerians will take to the ballot,” el-Rufai charged.
On his blocked ministerial nomination in 2023, el-Rufai revealed he had no regrets and would have resigned if appointed. “I had no desire to be a minister. Tinubu begged me to join his cabinet but later changed his mind. If I had been appointed, I would probably have resigned. I have been a minister before when I was younger. My ambition was never to serve under this government,” he said.
El-Rufai was nominated as Minister of Power but reportedly failed to secure Senate confirmation due to security concerns. He maintained that, had he been appointed, the power sector would have been “significantly transformed.”
El-Rufai’s remarks come as opposition figures rally under the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in preparation for 2027. The former governor said the coalition has both the experience and the structure to challenge Tinubu and the APC.