Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, has claimed that Nasir El-Rufai could not have been governor of Kaduna State without riding on the popularity of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
“There is a dynamic around El-Rufai. El-Rufai needed a solid revolutionary person to thrive. On his own, El-Rufai may not win the Senate,” Bwala said during an interview on TVC News on Thursday.
“He won governorship because of the Buhari factor and got re-elected because of the Buhari factor. If you leave him now to go and run for Senate in Kaduna, he would not win.”
El-Rufai has been critical of the Tinubu administration and the All Progressives Congress (APC) despite being a member of the party. He is rumoured to be considering forming a coalition to defeat Tinubu in 2027 although El-Rufai earlier said he had no plan to leave the APC.
Bwala said Tinubu was not losing sleep over the ex-governor’s criticisms.
“El-Rufai, as he said, is still in APC. You treat him like a brother. I know his grandstanding. I know he is having some trouble finding a path,” he said.
“If you leave a governing party, which you have influence, and think that you can undertake a mission, you have to have a place that is working to do that.
“He does not have the capacity to make the president unsettled. No opposition party, even if combined, can make the president unsettled.”
Bwala dismissed the threat of the opposition to upstage the Tinubu administration: “There is no organised political party in Nigeria other than APC. Almost all opposition parties are trying to find their way.”
