The former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has declared that the Southwest and President Bola Tinubu’s supporters are playing with fire ahead of the 2027 elections.
El-Rufai said there is an ongoing grievance between members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Tinubu’s supporters.
He lamented that the relationship between Tinubu and the North is gradually deteriorating, a situation that might spell doom for him in 2027.
In a statement on X titled “Southwest, Tinubu’s supporters playing with fire,” El-Rufai wrote:
“It is actually premature to be talking about the 2027 elections less than two years into our first tenure, but what is happening in the political arena is forcing me to speak to it, for, as they say, ‘a stitch in time saves nine.’
“As an APC member, I naturally would want my party to win re-election in 2027.
“However, as a realist, I have my concerns.
“I recall that during the 2019 party primaries, when I saw the way our party was handling the primaries, I wrote that if the party wasn’t careful, it could go the way of the PDP, which lost power after 16 years.
“I predicted then that if we didn’t return to our promised progressive path and ideology and instead stayed obsessed with just winning elections at any and all costs, just like the PDP, we could lose power at the federal level by 2031.
“When I wrote that, we were not faced with the current situation we are faced with. Indeed, I never imagined that we would be in the current situation any time soon, surely not under President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“Note: I am not talking about the present economic situation and the like. I am talking about the current and increasing ‘ghaghagha’ in our party and among APC members and supporters of the PBAT administration.
“Incidentally, many Nigerians have a short memory. Permit me to jog the memories of some short-memoried and uninitiated political neophytes.
“Many will recall that, as we approached the 2023 presidential election, with the conduct of some individuals, I desperately cautioned that we should be careful and not play with the North.
“Somehow, common sense prevailed, and we succeeded, unarguably and undeniably, with the unquantifiable help of the North (the records of the election results prove so).
“Less than two years into the tenure, we are witnesses to how the relationship between the North and President Bola Tinubu, or rather his administration, is quickly deteriorating, driven by the words and conduct of, unfortunately, many from the President’s geopolitical zone and tribe. Truth be told.
“I have read and heard the arrogant posturing and braggadocio by some people who I refer to as political rabble-rousers, but I get more worried each day as it keeps looking more and more like a movie we have seen before.”