Politics
Disrupter-In-Chief: El-Rufai’s 2027 Agenda Against Tinubu
By Emmanuel Aziken
Mallam Nasir El-Rufai may have emerged as the Disrupter-in-Chief in the plot to invest a second term for President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
Just two days after defecting from the All Progressives Congress, APC to the Social Democratic Party, SDP the former Kaduna State governor was already fully acting his new role. Last Wednesday supporters of El-Rufai stormed the Abuja national headquarters of the SDP with placards calling for the exit of Dr Olu Agunloye as national secretary.
The protesters who carried placards in demanding for Agunloye’s exit as national secretary of the SDP accused him of fraud. Agunloye is being tried in court over an alleged $6b fraud relating to the Mambilla power project. The shocking sight of the new party members turned protesters forced Agunloye to petition the Inspector General of Police for police protection.
However, GWG.ng reports that the demand for Agunloye’s exit is mainly being championed by some allies of El-Rufai who fear that the SDP’s national secretary’s past links to Tinubu and if not, ethnic identity would hinder the political goal of stopping the president from a second term in 2027.
“The El-Rufai people feel that it would be illogical to have somebody from the Southwest hold that critical position of National Secretary when you are fighting against the second term quest of somebody from the Southwest,” a source privy to the development said.
The fight within the SDP following the entry of El-Rufai only reflects the fears of many over the prospects of the opposition against Tinubu who mounted the presidency in 2023 despite the challenges he got from within the Muhammadu Buhari presidency and the majority of the party’s governors.
Besides the suspicions around Agunloye, political actors are also raising suspicions that Tinubu may have gone ahead of El-Rufai into the SDP. That claim according to some political watchers in Abuja flows from the fact that the SDP has been mentioned as the famous option B that Tinubu was to have fallen back to had he not won the APC presidential ticket in 2022.
GWG.ng reports that in the approach to the APC presidential convention in 2022 that there were unverified reports that Tinubu was considering using the SDP platform to actualise his ambitions following the perceived threats he was getting at that time from agents of the Buhari regime.
However, whatever his actions in the SDP, stakeholders believe that the party is not the last bus-stop for El-Rufai and his collaborators in the plot to stop Tinubu’s second term.
The falling out with Tinubu despite his yeo-man role in rallying Northern governors to back Tinubu at the last minute is generally perceived as a payback by Tinubu’s associates following his previous engagements incitements prior to 2022.
He had in 2019 boasted of how he defeated godfathers in Kaduna and urged Tinubu’s foes in Lagos to do the same.
However, the turning point in their relationship was just before the 2022 presidential primaries when El-Rufai pulled away from the plots against Tinubu to back the former Lagos State governor as the APC candidate.
That decision according to many was based on realpolitics.
El-Rufai knew that Tinubu was about the only one with the financial muscle in the South to wrest the presidency and he quickly jumped onboard.
Tinubu appreciated El-Rufai’s gesture and publicly begged him to play a role in his government. El-Rufai was said to have jettisoned his plans to proceed abroad for further studies to head the new government’s energy team.
However, the plan unfolded when the Senate refused to clear him based on a security issue.
A Senate source told GWG.ng that contrary to claims that there was a security report against El-Rufai that nothing of such was produced.
A senator speaking on the condition of anonymity told GWG.ng:
“What we were told by Akpabio was that there was a security issue with El-Rufai from the DSS, but he did not circulate the report,” the senator said.
That was, however, an unconventional route as many recall that in the past that DSS reports on nominees were circulated among senators. The case of Mr Ibrahim Magu who was repeatedly refused clearance by the Senate in part based on contradictory security reports from the DSS
The allegation that Tinubu didn’t want him in his government despite the nomination is something that has rubbed off negatively on the former governor. He is also concerned by the insinuation of a security question around him and it was gathered that El-Rufai may go to court to force Akpabio to produce the security report.
A source in the opposition privy to the ongoing developments confirmed that El-Rufai is not contesting any elective position in 2027 but is focused on mobilising against the Tinubu second term agenda.
“What he is interested in is sending Tinubu and his people back to Lagos,” one prominent associate of Atiku Abubakar now relating with El-Rufai told GWG.ng.
While he is not very popular with the grassroots, his capacity for organisation is one that makes him a special advantage in the camp of the opposition. Besides, El-Rufai who played a key role in persuading northern governors to support Tinubu during the 2022 presidential primries of the APC is said to be in regular touch with some of the northern governors.
Remarkably, El-Rufai who helped to damage Peter Obi in 2022/3 in realisation that the leader of the Obedient Family would be on the 2027 ticket in one way or the other has already started inclining towards him.
In the clearest indication to that, his son, Bashir issued a tweet on Monday on how his former party, APC deceived him about the good qualities of Peter Obi.
Whatever, suggestions that the SDP would be the final bus-stop for the opposition appears unlikely.
The 2023 presidential candidate of the party, Adewole Adebayo in an interview on Arise News television on Friday, March 14 reiterated his intention to again contest, indicative of a split among the opposition coalition.
While emphasising his determination to contest the 2027 presidential election irrespective of those joining the party, he said:
“Let us understand something. I don’t worry about that; everybody who is coming in knows I will run in 2027.”
A source among the opposition camp was, however, dismissive of the suggestion of the SDP being the vehicle to be used against Tinubu’s second term in 2027.
“It is neither here nor there. We are not pushing the narrative of persons or parties, but rather a bonding to produce victory,” the source revealed.
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