By Felix Morka
Since his failed bid for a ministerial appointment, former Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has gone into a political tailspin. His speedy fall from commanding heights to the political clown he has become needs forensic study. His attack of President Bola Tinubu’s administration as incompetent, clannish and undeserving of a second term, at a meeting in Sokoto on Saturday, August 2, 2025, is yet another outburst of a waspish politician.
El-Rufai and his partners in African Democratic Congress (ADC) are the most confused, clueless, rudderless and pitiful opposition politicians our country has ever known. They bring nothing to the political table except their oversized ego, wild entitlement mentality, obscene desperation and predatory presidential ambitions.
Beyond baseless headline attacks against the present administration and the All Progressives Congress (APC), El-Rufai and cohorts have not presented and, quite frankly, cannot present policy prescriptions with potential for more effectiveness than those already being implemented by the Tinubu administration, with strong indicators of success.
All three major contestants in the 2023 presidential election campaigned to remove fuel subsidy and harmonize multiple foreign exchange regimes in recognition of the urgency and seriousness of the country’s economic challenges. Upon his election and inauguration, President Tinubu swiftly implemented policy reforms as he promised.
After their crushing defeat at the polls, Atiku and Obi, seemingly, recanted their policy reform positions in order to justify sitting shamelessly at the table of hypocrisy and hurling invectives at President Tinubu and APC for implementing reform policies they also promised Nigerians.
If El-Rufai and his cohorts detest the administration’s policy reforms as much as they claim, why have they not presented policy proposals to restore fuel subsidy as it was and return the country to the ruinous era of fixing Naira’s value and operating multiple foreign exchange regimes that fed the greedy and insatiable appetite of the likes of El-Eufai, Atiku, Obi and Rotimi Amaechi for decades? And while at it, to tell Nigerians how they would finance the resultant massive deficit that would ground the economy to a devastating crumble.
El-Rufai’s claims are as mischievous as they are hollow. With a steady rebound in our economy and other indicators of verifiable progress in all sectors, including the ongoing revolution in agriculture; high performing stock exchange market; improved power generation and transmission; increased oil production at nearly 1.8mbpd; consistent trade surpluses; unprecedented infrastructural development – with 420 roads and bridges underway; strategic retooling of our military capabilities with 49 advanced aircrafts; unprecedented NELFUND for students, with fast declining inflation and rising consumer confidence, and more, El-Rufai’s verdict of “poor governance and failed leadership” falls flat as no more than the rants of an inconsolable sulker.
The rejection of El-Rufai as a Minister cannot justify his allegation of clannishness against the administration. A senseless claim like that can only come from someone who haughtily equates his selfish interest with the interest of an entire ethnic nationality. President Tinubu is easily one of the most detribalized and patriotic Nigerians alive. No tribe, ethnic or religious group has been sidelined like El-Rufai wants Nigerians to believe.
For a former Governor who left a sordid legacy of obnoxious marginalisation of ethnic and religious minorities in Southern Kaduna; who sponsored sectarian violence and weaponised demolitions against innocent citizens; and hung a debt profile of N284 billion on tax payers, according to the Debt Management Office (DMO), El-Rufai is the poster child of bad governance and failed leadership.
It is now clear to all Nigerians that El-Rufai and his cohorts in ADC are on a mission to upend the presidential rotational principle designed to promote national unity and cohesion in the country through the imposition of Atiku as presidential candidate of ADC in the middle of a southern presidency rotation.
It was Atiku’s selfish and obdurate refusal to respect the rotation principle during the 2023 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential primary election that directly resulted in PDP’s virtual cremation. El-Rufai and Atiku want to do to Nigeria what Atiku did to PDP. El-Rufai, Atiku and hijacked ADC constitute a clear and present threat to the unity, peace and progress of Nigeria.
Nigeria is witnessing an era of visionary and transformational leadership under President Bola Tinubu. The administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda has fundamentally repositioned our nation for steady growth and progress.
We are confident that Nigerians will sustain their support for our great Party and renew President Tinubu’s mandate come 2027, to consolidate on what now looks to be the most outstanding first term record of achievement of any President in our nation’s history.