Former Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has been in the news lately. He has led a new group of opposition agitating to wrestle power from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu come 2027 when the presidential elections holds again. He has been talking to the likes of former Vice President, Abubakar Atiku, Labour Party former presidential candidate, Peter Obi, former Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, former running mate to ex President Muhammadu Buhari under CPC, Pastor Tunde Bakare, former APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu and so many others.
El-Rufai has gone on to join the SDP, and is encouraging the other personalities listed above to join him in what he believes would be a powerful coalition that would give the ruling party a run for its money at the next presidential election in 2027 when President Tinubu will expectedly contest for 2nd term. Indeed, unconfirmed reports have since emerged that Mallam El-Rufai has become the new national leader of the SDP. And he will be counting on the support of allies such as Peter Obi, Rauf Aregbesola, Pastor Tunde Bakare, to make good his threat of unseating President Tinubu ome 2027.
Many have been particularly surprised at the kind of support Pastor Tunde Bakare has been giving El-Rufai in the course of his quest to form a coalition that he believes will give the APC a good fight at the polls. City People can authoritatively reveal that both Mallam Nasir El-Rufai and Pastor Tunde Bakare, the Lead Pastor at Global Community Church, formerly Latter Rain Assembly, are very close. They have been friends and close political allies for several years running. When El-Rufai was contesting for governorship of Kaduna in 2015, it was reported that Pastor Bakare supported his friend with over N100m. Pastor Bakare himself confirmed this.
Mallam Nasir El-Rufai himself has openly admitted that his return to politics after he left office as FCT Minister was down to the insistence Pastor Tunde Bakare. Bakare’s insistence, he said, was why he became a governor. El-Rufai disclosed this years ago when, as Governor of Kaduna State, he visited Pastor Bakare at the Latter Rain Assembly located in Lagos.
He said: “I am close to President Buhari today. But I would not be here today as governor if Pastor Bakare did not make me to join the CPC.
“I was hounded after I left office as FCT Minister, I was persecuted. I swore I would not have anything to do with government again.
“I was bitter. I felt that Nigeria deserves what it gets. But Pastor Bakare said no, I will pray for you and the bitterness would go.”
El-Rufai also disclosed recently that Pastor Bakare took him to former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Speaking with the BBC, the former governor declared that he never joined APC because of Buhari.
El-Rufai, who has since left the APC for the Social Democratic Party, SDP, insisted that the former ruling party had derailed.
He pointed out that everyone in APC was working for themselves and looking for money.
According to El-Rufai, “the government is commercialised, everything has a price tag.”
He added “Justice has been kept at bay, those who worked for the party were ignored instead of being compensated. If there is any position or appointment, they give it to a Lagos boy, etc.
“That is why we’ve been speaking, we spoke, we said this is not the party we know. The party is dead. I said the only option is for me to meet Pastor Tunde Bakare, because he dragged me into APC.
“He took me to Buhari. I did not join the APC because of Buhari, it was Pastor Bakare, who dragged me to APC and courtesy demands I should let him know.
“Buhari too, I told him I was leaving the party, I sought his blessings and prayers. He said he has given me his blessings and prayers.
“We are the ones in politics, he (Buhari) is now father of the land and has been praying for us, so what remains?”
But why is Mallam Nasir El-Rufai bitter with Mr. President? Why is he determined to lead a coalition force that will unseat the president from office come 2027? City People can authoritatively confirm that El-Rufai’s sudden contempt for President Bola Tinubu has to do with the ministerial appointment that eluded him under the current administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He, apparently, has not forgiven the president for that embarrassment. Many would recall that Mallam Nasir El-Rufai’s name was one the big names touted to pick a ministerial job and a juicy one for that matter -the power ministry (Electricity). It was indeed a shock to everyone as he got a ministerial snub at the very last minute when the Senate rejected his nomination.
A very bitter El-Rufai spoke recently about his ministerial snub. According to El-Rufai, the President personally begged him to serve as a minister in his administration to help address Nigeria’s electricity crisis.
Speaking in an interview, El-Rufai dismissed claims that he left the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) after being denied a ministerial position.
“Yes, that’s what they say, but did I contest for minister?” el-Rufai said.
He further stated that Tinubu made multiple efforts to convince him to join the cabinet.
“Mr. President begged me, and even the whole world knows he begged me in Kaduna, and he asked me to come and work with him. I didn’t accept it until we met and talked with him. He told me that he wants me to tackle the issue of electricity,” El-Rufai added.
“He said all past presidents have failed, and he wants to be the president that would make that electricity issue come to an end. Because of this challenge, I thought he was real.”
Responding to question on whether he regretted supporting Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election, El-Rufai, who has been a critic of the ruling party and Tinubu’s administration in the last months, said he did not but admitted he was disappointed.
– WALE LAWAL
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