Bwala: El-Rufai’s popularity declining… his coalition has fizzled out

Daniel Bwala, special adviser on public communications and media to President Bola Tinubu, says the coalition being championed by Nasir el-Rufai, the former governor of Kaduna, has already lost steam.

Speaking on Focus Nigeria, a programme on AIT, on Wednesday, Bwala described el-Rufai’s political movement as one with no real influence or connection to grassroots politics.

“I know that the southern people generally have a sentiment that the north has done eight years. The south should be allowed to do eight years,” he said.

“These southern people who have this sentiment, they are even in the political parties where northerners have contested. They will not vote for the northern candidate. They will vote for a southern candidate. And it is fair, just, and equitable.”

Bwala said when people talk about northern politics, they often elevate a few elite individuals, who, according to him, do not represent the region.

“When we talk of the north, there are times there is a misconception. People identify five eggheads and call them the north. Some of them are disconnected from the source,” he said.

“I give you an example of a governor; a former governor that left us, and he’s moving a coalition, generating buzz, according to them.”

When asked by the programme anchor if he was referring to el-Rufai, Bwala replied, “Okay, yes.”

He said el-Rufai’s political popularity had declined significantly before he left office.

“Now, take, for example, there are some people from the south or elsewhere: when they see him talking, they will think as if he will move like a clap of thunder out of a blue sky,” he said.

“But in politics, those who look at politics – it’s called political science because it’s a science behind politics. You look at stats, you look at numbers, you look at trajectory, right?”

Bwala said the former governor’s administration lost the public support during his second term.

“In the second half of his term, when he was doing his second term, he was so unpopular that the APC lost three senate seats and a number of house of representatives, and the president lost the election there,” he said.

“So, people won’t look at those. But political scientists, they look at those things as indices. And they know that this one is like Andrew Liver Salts.

“Even when he started, it was like that. Like he dropped Andrew Liver Salt, and then it calmed down. That’s what is happening. Nobody talks about him. Nobody looks for him.”

He added that even those discussing a new political front are urging el-Rufai to return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“Even among the people who are talking about coalition now, he said he wants to move somewhere. They say, come back to PDP,” Bwala said.

The president’s aide also pushed back against claims that Tinubu lacks popularity.

“Now, the complaint they give, they will say the president is not popular. We went to Katsina with the president two weeks ago, roughly two weeks ago. From the airport to the city, people lined up,” he said.

On April 16, el-Rufai said the Tinubu administration is the “worst and most corrupt” in Nigeria’s history.

He also described the government as the most intolerant since Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1999.

“This is the worst federal government in Nigerian history, and all the indices have shown it,” he said while addressing journalists in Katsina.