Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has said he was never personally close to President Bola Tinubu, adding that his support for the President during the 2023 elections was purely in the interest of party unity.

Speaking during an interview on Arise Television’s Prime Time on Monday, El-Rufai explained that his alignment with Tinubu was not based on friendship or shared ideology but out of loyalty to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

He said, “Personally, Bola Tinubu was never someone I was close to, even in the party. In the party, I was a Buhari boy; Bola [Tinubu] had his boys, and Buhari had his boys; we are ‘Buharists’, and no apologies.

“Tinubu never really liked me, and we never got along. The person I got along with was Baba Akande, and as his deputy national secretary, we were among the first leaders of the party.

El-Rufai clarified that once Tinubu secured the APC presidential ticket, he committed himself to delivering victory in Kaduna as a loyal party member. “As far as I was concerned, once Tinubu got the ticket, it became my duty as a party man to do my best to deliver in Kaduna and solve problems,” he said.

The SDP chieftain also predicted Tinubu’s defeat in the 2027 elections, citing overwhelming disapproval ratings across key regions. “In the southeast and the north, President Tinubu has a 91% disapproval rating. Even in Lagos, his own base, it’s at 78%,” he claimed.

El-Rufai said, “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 on May 29, 2023, fine, but if not, why not give some other people a chance?

“We have done some polling in many parts of the country, particularly in the southeast and the north. President Tinubu has a 91% disapproval rating; even in Lagos he has a 78% disapproval rating.

“In some states in the Southwest he is doing a bit better; in Ondo and Ekiti, he is doing better, with a 78 per cent disapproval rating, but there is nowhere he is doing better than 50 per cent, even in the Southwest.

“The guy is gone; he has performed miserably. The economy has tanked, the insecurity architecture has failed, there are no clear trade and investment policies, and everything is going wrong.

“They are raising lots of revenues, but we don’t know where the revenues are going because there are no results.” (Vanguard)