Nasir el-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna
Nasir el-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna, says President Bola Tinubu would require a miracle to secure re-election in 2027.
Speaking on ‘Prime Time’, an Arise Television programme, el-Rufai urged Nigerians to reflect on their experiences since Tinubu assumed the reins on May 29, 2023.
“We have to ask the people to make up their minds. Do you like what is happening? This is just two years. If your life has gotten better since Tinubu was sworn in, fine, but if not, why not give some other people a chance?” he said.
El-Rufai said polling conducted by his group in various regions, particularly in the south-east and north, showed a 91 percent disapproval rating for the president.
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He added that the disapproval rating in Lagos, Tinubu’s home state, stands at 78 percent.
“We have done some polling in many parts of the country, particularly in the south-east and the north. President Tinubu has a 91 percent disapproval rating. Even in Lagos, he has a 78 percent disapproval rating,” he said.
“This is a scientific poll. In some states in the south-west, such as Ondo and Ekiti, he is doing somewhat better than a 78 percent disapproval rating, but nowhere is he doing better than 50 percent, even in the south-west.”
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He described the Tinubu administration as a failure, highlighting a “tanked” economy, collapsed security architecture, and “lack of clear trade and investment policies”.
The former minister also questioned the government’s financial transparency, stating that despite increased revenue generation, there are no visible results.
“The guy (Tinubu) is gone; he has performed miserably. The economy has tanked, the security architecture has failed, there are no clear trade, industrial and investment policies, and everything is going wrong,” he said.
“They are raising lots of revenues, but we don’t know where the revenues are going because there are no results.”
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El-Rufai is one of the coalition leaders seeking to wrest federal power from Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the next presidential election.
Other notable leaders of the coalition are former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Rotimi Amaechi, a former governor of Rivers; and Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election.
