•El-Rufai, Tinubu and Ganduje
National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, yesterday fired salvos at former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai for attacking President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over the 2027 election.
He urged Northerners interested in contesting for president to wait till 2031, reports The Nation.
“President Tinubu will serve his two terms”, he added.
The former Kano State governor said it is daydreaming to think that the Presidency would shift to the North in two years because of the extant North-South zoning agreement.
“When a leader from the northern part of this country was in office for eight years, we advocated that the next president in our party should come from the South.
“Luckily enough, we worked very hard with the cooperation of Nigerians.
“Our president has come from the South and he is going, inshallah, for the second term in 2027. And then after that, it will turn to the northern part of this country,” he told members of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Media Centre (PBAT Media Centre) and Tinubu Northern Youth Forum (TNYF) during their visit to him at APC National Secretariat in Abuja.
Ganduje spoke on a day El-Rufai, a founding member of the APC, in a post on his verified X handle, threatened that the North would reject President Tinubu in 2027 the same way President Goodluck Jonathan was rejected by the region in 2015.
He wrote: “It is actually premature to be talking about 2027 elections less than two years into our first tenure, but what is happening in the political arena is forcing me to speak to it, for as they say, ‘a stitch in time saves nine’.
“As an APC member, I naturally would want my party to win re-election in 2027.
“However, as a realist, I have my concerns.
“I recall that during the 2019 party primaries when I saw the way our party was handling the primaries, I wrote that if the party wasn’t careful, it could go the way of the PDP which lost power after 16 years.
“I predicted then that if we didn’t return to our promised progressive path and ideology and instead stayed obsessed with just winning elections at any and all cost, just like the PDP, we could lose power at the federal level by 2031.
“When I wrote that, we were not faced with the current situation we are faced with.
“Indeed, I never imagined that we would be in the current situation any time soon, surely not under President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“Note: I am not talking about the present economic situation and the likes.
“I am talking about the current and increasing ‘ghaghagha’ in our party and among APC members and supporters of the PBAT administration.
“Incidentally, many Nigerians have a short memory. Permit me to juggle the memories of some short memoried and uninitiated political neophytes.
“Many will recall that, as we approached the 2023 presidential election, with the conduct of some individuals, I desperately cautioned that we should be careful and not play with the North.
“Somehow, common sense prevailed, and we succeeded, unarguably and undeniably with the unquantifiable help of the North (the records of the election results prove so).
“Less than two years into the tenure, we are witnesses to how the relationship between the North and President Bola Tinubu or rather his administration is quickly deteriorating, driven by the words and conduct of unfortunately, many from the President’s geopolitical zone and tribe. Truth be told.
“I have read and heard the arrogant posturing and braggadacio by some people who I refer to as political rabble rousers, but I get more worried each day as it keeps looking more and more like a movie we had seen before.
“May I remind some persons that, more than the performance or lack thereof of the President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan administration, it was his attitude, and that of people around him, towards the North that ultimately brought him down and by extension the PDP that had boasted that it would rule Nigeria for 60 years.
“In the lead up to the 2015 Presidential election, in spite of the popularity of General Muhammadu Buhari Rtd and the gathering of political heavyweights under the umbrella of the then newly formed APC, one key factor that led to former President Jonathan and the PDP losing that election was underestimating the North and the disrespect and insult directed towards the North, notably led by the then first lady and accentuated by elements from the Southsouth geopolitical zone and particularly his Ijaw kinsmen, many of them with little or no political weight and many of whom were living full time in NICON and Sheraton hotels Abuja then (with newly found free money).
“Funny enough, many of these individuals contributed little or nothing to Jonathan’s victory in 2011.
“Indeed, many of them forgot that it was the agitation by groups like the Save Nigeria Group (SNG), spearheaded by the likes of Pastor Tunde Bakare, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, Mr Yinka Odumakin (RIP) and co that eventually led to then VP Goodluck Jonathan becoming the acting President in the first place following the incapacitation of former President Shehu Musa Yaradua (God rest his soul).”
He continued: “Driven by ego and the arrogance of power, these Southsouth and PDP elements increasingly and I dare add naively went against the North, where the PDP still had considerable influence and support then, in the most condescending manner and in so doing gradually lost the support of the North to the advantage of Buhari and the APC coalition. The rest, as they say, is history.
“Today, as I Iook at the rambunctiousness of some APC members and fellow supporters of President Bola Tinubu, especially from the Southwest geopolitical zone, I wonder if people have any sense of history and if they truly understand Nigerian politics.
“I read some people say that President Tinubu is not former President Jonathan, Jagaban is a political juggernaut and master strategist, etc.
“All that I totally agree with. No question whatsoever. However, politics is not a one-champion show.
“While PGEJ lacked equivalent political gravitas and sophistication (with all due respect to him) as PBAT, he had the then formidable PDP behemoth which could have actually seen him through but for the grievous ‘political mistake’ of messing with the North.
“Love or loathe that fact, the North remains the kingmaker in Nigerian politics, at least, as of today. Any politician or political party that plays with that reality might pay a steep political price for it.
“People who ignore history are bound to fall victim and to repeat mistakes of the past.
“I just want to prod our political senses, in case some of us are forgetting, in the euphoria of tribal and geopolitical politics.
“I hope better sense will prevail and soon too. It is whom you love that you chastise.
“In all, I continue to wish PBAT and my party, the APC, well.
“With almost exactly two years to the month to the 2027 general elections, let’s focus and continue to deliver the promised dividends of democracy to Nigerians.”
‘Reforms yielding positive results’
Ganduje disagreed with the former governor, saying that the dream of power shift to the North in 2027 would be a mirage.
He said the party would religiously follow its zoning policy of “the North-South sharing formula,” which it had strictly adhered to since 2015.
Ganduje, who reflected on the threat by El-Rufai, insisted that the next president could only come from the North after Tinubu’s two terms.
The party chairman, who acknowledged the challenges confronting the country, attributed them to long-standing issues that require bold corrective measures.
He said: “There is no doubt that many things went wrong over a long period of time, and it requires surgery before we can get it right.”
Ganduje then expressed confidence in President Tinubu’s policies, pointing out that the country is already witnessing positive results, particularly in the area of economic revitalisation.
He stressed: “We are happy that we have started seeing the outcome of the reforms, especially on the economic front, and we believe this will continue to yield positive results so that the legacy and the Renewed Hope Agenda will be achieved.”
The leader of the PBAT Media Centre, Dada Olusegun, said members of the centre would correct the wrong information been peddled against the administration.
He said the centre would give adequate publicity to the 2027 campaign of the administration.
The national coordinator of the Tinubu Northern Youth Forum, Mallam Auwal Ibrahim, said his group would deliver five million votes to the President in 2027.
The group acknowledged that the policies and programmes introduced by the administration have started to yield positive results in the region.
El-Rufai, others as critics
Since his ministerial bid collapsed in 2023, El-Rufai has been attacking the administration instead of routing his complaints and misgivings through the channels provided by the party.
Last week, he joined other politicians and critics, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, at the two-day Democracy Conference in Abuja to denounce the Tinubu government and the APC, thereby portraying himself as the face of internal opposition in the party.
El-Rufai said at the Abuja conference: “I no longer recognise the APC. No party organ has met in two years – no caucus, no NEC, nothing. You don’t even know if it is a one-man show; it’s a zero-man show.
“The problems that led to the creation of the APC remain unresolved, but I no longer believe the APC is interested in addressing them. The distance between me and the party is widening.”
Atiku criticised Tinubu, saying that his government had derailed.
Two days ago, the former vice president visited former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta, capital of Ogun State, along with some associates, in a move that was believed to be connected with 2027 elections. He denied it.
Also last week, former Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi flayed the party leadership for not allowing the organs to function.
He said the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) and National Caucus meetings were not held.
He also took a swipe at the Tinubu government, saying its good intentions are not enough.
Another APC leader, former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, has continuously derided the federal government.
