“I Supported Tinubu out of Party Loyalty, Not Friendship” – El-Rufai

Former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has stated that he never shared a personal relationship with President Bola Tinubu and only supported him during the 2023 elections out of loyalty to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Speaking in an interview on Arise Television’s Prime Time on Monday, El-Rufai said his alignment with Tinubu was never based on friendship or ideological alignment.

“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,” he said.

“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 explained that once Tinubu clinched the APC presidential ticket, he fulfilled his obligation as a loyal party member. “As far as I was concerned, once Tinubu got the ticket, it became my duty as a party man to do my best to deliver in Kaduna and solve problems,” he said.

The former governor, now a chieftain of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), also predicted Tinubu’s defeat in the 2027 general elections, citing alarming disapproval ratings.

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“In the southeast and the north, President Tinubu has a 91% disapproval rating. Even in Lagos, his base, it’s at 78%,” he noted.

“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,” El-Rufai added.