2027: El-Rufai consults stakeholders to stop Tinubu’s return bid

The former governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai is leaving no stone unturned in his consultation ahead of 2027 general election as he has met with the Social Democratic Party Stalwarts, individuals and some former political office holders to chat a way forward.

Notably, he has Shehu Gabam, Teslim Folarin, Abubakar Gada, Kamel Akinlabi and others in attendance to a meeting he personally organized in Abuja.

El-Rufai was quoted to have a privy to President Bola Tinubu’s plan to return for a second term of office in 2027, a development that may have triggered his move early enough to start assembling political stakeholders to stop him.

El-Rufai, who was a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory during the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo is currently a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, but fell out with President Ahmed Bola Tinubu after he was nominated for a ministerial appointment, and was indicted in a report over security concerns.

The meeting which took place at Senator Abubakar Gada’s residence over the weekend in guise of ‘ breakfast’, the source said was at the instance of El-Rufai, who has visited the SDP’s headquarters last week in Abuja.

CAPITAL POST recalled that El-Rufai after his visit to the SDP headquarters where he met with officials of the opposition party behind closed doors, he immediately visited Senator Abdul Ningi who represents Bauchi Central Senatorial District on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and who is currently on suspension over alleged padding of the 2024 budget by the 10th National Assembly.

However, details of his meeting with the embattled Bauchi lawmaker in the upper legislative Chamber has not yet emerged, El-Rufai’s deft moves in past two weeks suggested that he has been reaching out to politicians who he felt are not part of Tinubu’s government with a view to forming a common front or a coalition ahead of 2027 general election.

A source privy to the meeting with the SDP National Chairman, Shehu Gabam disclosed that the party count it a privilege hosting the person of El-Rufai on political issues and pointed out that the party was ready with open arms to find a way of getting the country back from its lost glory.