El-Rufai: Southern Kaduna Feel So Entitled, I Didn’t Marginalize Them

..Says no regrets over support for Tinubu’s Muslim- Muslim ticket

Predicts Tinubu would finish third in 2027 election

By Eshiorameh Sebastian, Abuja

Former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai has denied allegations that he marginalised the Southern Kaduna region during his tenure, instead accusing its Christian leaders of feeling “so entitled.”

He also revealed that he has no regrets over his support for President Bola Tinubu’s Muslim-Muslim ticket in the 2023 election, describing it as a successful political strategy. However, in a surprising political prediction, El-Rufai stated that based on his calculations, President Tinubu would finish third in the 2027 presidential election.

The former governor made these comments during an appearance on Channels Television’s ‘Sunday Politics’ programme. Addressing the long-standing claims of marginalisation from Southern Kaduna, El-Rufai was defiant, stating, “They can think what they think. I don’t tolerate nonsense. Governance is not a joke. When you are governing ten million people like I did in Kaduna, you don’t discriminate. Nobody can blackmail [me] because he is Christian [and think] the law doesn’t apply to him.”

He elaborated on this notion of entitlement, claiming that a delegation from the region approached him after his election to complain about receiving only 25% of government positions, having been accustomed to 50%. “I said on what basis? This is the feeling of entitlement that I faced. It has to be wiped out,” he said. To support his argument against marginalisation, El-Rufai asserted that the eight local government areas of Southern Kaduna accounted for 60% of the state’s civil service during his administration. He also cited his actions against other groups, including Muslims, to prove his impartiality. “There are people in Southern Kaduna that feel entitled to behaving in a certain way but I didn’t take it. I dealt with them, just like the IMN, the El-Zakzaky’s people who thought they could do anything and get away with it, we dealt with them. El-Zakzaky’s people are Muslims like me but we dealt with them. I didn’t take any nonsense from them.”

He attributed much of the criticism against him to his decision to stop certain financial benefits that previous governments had allotted to community leaders. “The reason why my enemies are very vehement at hating me is because I don’t care what they think… There are some Southern Kaduna Christian leaders who are used to getting money from the government every month, $20,000 to go to medical check ups every year, but I stopped it. Funding pilgrimage, just as I stopped every other thing that I saw as waste of government resources. I cannot be popular.”

On the subject of the controversial Muslim-Muslim ticket that brought President Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima to power, a strategy he strongly supported, El-Rufai expressed no regrets. He framed it purely as a pragmatic move to win the election. “It was a strategy to win the election. It was not a religion strategy. We have done Muslim-Muslim Ticket, tell me how the Christian have [been] shortchanged. Now we have cured the fear for Muslim-Muslim ticket and it worked.”

This support, however, does not extend to the current administration’s future prospects. Now a leader of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) coalition, El-Rufai has intensified his criticism of President Tinubu and made a stark prediction about the 2027 election. “I’ve done my maths,” he declared, “Tinubu will come third.” He confidently stated that Tinubu has no “pathway to win” the election outright on the first ballot, suggesting that “the worst-case scenario is that there will not be any winner in the first ballot.”

He urged Nigerians to evaluate the government based on their personal well-being, posing the question, “Ask yourself, is your life better now under President Tinubu?” He further added that there is “no pretense of good intentions” and that the government should be open to assessment.

Addressing his own political ambitions, the former governor dismissed any desire to be a minister, stating he was a minister at the age of 43 and has no need for the position. He did, however, acknowledge that he had been considered for the role of energy minister, for which he had a clear roadmap to transform the sector.

El-Rufai, who was a key campaigner for President Tinubu in the 2023 elections, has now joined forces with political figures like former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Labour Party candidate Peter Obi. He also commented on the issue of party loyalty and victory, noting that “I was in APC yet I did not deliver my state. Bola Tinubu did not win his state.”

He further critiqued the government’s handling of insecurity, claiming that while officials often announce that terrorists have been killed, the “elements are often found in the streets.” On the commitment of some of his new allies to govern for only a single four-year term, El-Rufai expressed skepticism. “I want them to stop making this kind of commitment. Nobody believes them. Things change once they get in,” he said, adding that such a promise is “even unfair.”