The former governor of Kaduna State and SDP chieftain, Nasir El-Rufai has disclosed that he and Tinubu were never close on personal levels, adding that the president would never win the 2027 election.
He further stated that his support for the President during the 2023 elections was purely in the interest of party unity.
El-Rufai disclosed this during an interview on Arise Television’s Prime Time on Monday.
He said; “Personally, Bola Tinubu was never someone I was close to, even in the party. In the party, I was a Buhari boy; Bola [Tinubu] had his boys, and Buhari had his boys; we are ‘Buharists’, and no apologies.
“Tinubu never really liked me, and we never got along. The person I got along with was Baba Akande, and as his deputy national secretary, we were among the first leaders of the party.
El-Rufai emphasized that he gave total commitment to ensuring Kaduna victory the moment Tinubu secured the APC presidential ticket, he said he made sure to “deliver and solve problems”.
On Tinubu losing the 2027 election, El-Rufai said;
“In the southeast and the north, President Tinubu has a 91% disapproval rating. Even in Lagos, his own base, it’s at 78%.
“We have to ask the people to make up their minds: do you like what is happening? This is just two years. If your life has gotten better since Tinubu was sworn in on May 29, 2023, fine, but if not, why not give some other people a chance?
“We have done some polling in many parts of the country, particularly in the southeast and the north. President Tinubu has a 91% disapproval rating; even in Lagos he has a 78% disapproval rating.
“In some states in the Southwest he is doing a bit better; in Ondo and Ekiti, he is doing better, with a 78 per cent disapproval rating, but there is nowhere he is doing better than 50 per cent, even in the Southwest.
“The guy is gone; he has performed miserably. The economy has tanked, the insecurity architecture has failed, there are no clear trade and investment policies, and everything is going wrong.
“They are raising lots of revenues, but we don’t know where the revenues are going because there are no results.”
