Nigeria’s Presidency on Monday accused former Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, of leading a “gang of desperados” allegedly plotting against President Bola Tinubu, dismissing his recent comments that Tinubu could not secure re-election in 2027.
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, in a statement posted on his X handle, described those pushing for Tinubu’s removal as “power-hungry politicians” who feel politically displaced.
“Nasir El-Rufai confesses here that four years is not enough for a political office holder to make ‘meaningful changes’. Yet he is at the forefront of the gang of political desperados plotting President Tinubu’s ouster, just two years into his tenure. What a contradiction!” Onanuga wrote.
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El-Rufai, speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Sunday night, claimed Tinubu had no pathway to victory in 2027, predicting that the president would finish third in a possible runoff.
“I was governor of Kaduna State; I was one of Bola Tinubu’s biggest campaigners, but I couldn’t deliver the state to him. Bola Tinubu himself couldn’t win his own state with his governor in place,” El-Rufai said.
He added: “The worst-case scenario in the 2027 elections is that no winner will emerge in the first round. We may have to go for a runoff, and Bola Tinubu will not be on the ballot because he will, at best, be third. I have done the maths, I have done the analysis; he cannot win.”
The former governor likened Tinubu’s situation to that of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, who lost to Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 despite incumbency advantages.
In response, Onanuga insisted that Tinubu’s administration had achieved “meaningful changes” in two years. He cited growing foreign reserves, stock market gains, harmonisation of the exchange rate, and four consecutive months of inflation decline.
“Phenomenal wealth creation in the stock market has seen ASI skyrocket from 53,000 points to over 140,000 points. Over N26 trillion in additional wealth has been created in the market under Tinubu’s watch,” he said.
Onanuga also highlighted reforms in education and social welfare, including the rollout of student loans through NELFUND and cash transfers to vulnerable households. He noted that states and local governments were receiving more federal allocations, enabling them to fund capital projects and create jobs.
“The governors said they have never had it so good,” Onanuga said. “Yet, these power-hungry politicians want the President, who has achieved so much, to be removed, all because they have become politically displaced and irrelevant. May they never succeed in their plot against our nation and people.”
The presidential adviser concluded by warning that El-Rufai’s recent remarks could haunt him politically. “Please save the video. We shall confront Nasir with it when electioneering starts,” he wrote.
