Political columnist and public affairs analyst, Majeed Dahiru, has suggested that President Bola Tinubu’s administration could face an early end in 2027 if former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, successfully mobilizes Northern political influencers to support Labour Party’s Peter Obi.
Dahiru made this statement on Channels Television’s “The Morning Brief” program on Friday, where he discussed recent opposition realignment talks and El-Rufai’s potential influence on the political landscape leading up to the next general election.
“If I may put it straight. The day El-Rufai decides and can galvanize the opinion moulders in the North to zero in on Peter Obi, for instance, as the candidate, that will be the end of the Tinubu administration,” Dahiru stated.
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The discussion arose amidst ongoing coalition talks ahead of the 2027 election, coinciding with the defections of Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, his deputy Monday Onyeme, and former Governor Ifeanyi Okowa from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), along with other key PDP figures in the state.
Dahiru addressed the reported resistance from PDP governors to these coalition talks, attributing it to southern regional interests.
He argued that the PDP governors’ preference for President Tinubu stems from southern solidarity, as many of them are from the South and are reluctant to oppose a fellow southerner in power.
He cited historical precedents, such as the Alliance for Democracy (AD) not fielding a presidential candidate in 2003 to support Olusegun Obasanjo, and the movement of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) governors to the PDP during Umaru Yar’Adua’s presidency.
Regarding El-Rufai’s recent defection from the APC to the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Dahiru described the former governor’s rift with Tinubu as both ideological and personal.
“El-Rufai has a grouse against the president — a legitimate grouse — because he worked for the president. Hate him or love him, he has a basis to be angry,” he said. “He has been working assiduously to undermine the president, particularly in the Muslim North, where he is like the caliph to Buhari. He’s the brainbox of the Muslim North.”
Dahiru suggested that El-Rufai could significantly influence the political landscape if he chooses to support a Southern candidate, particularly from the South-East.
“Let me give him a tip: if he really wants to sit at the back of the president, what he should do — and I think they may already be on that path — is convince the Muslim North to look towards the South for a candidate. Specifically, the Southeast. If he’s able to do that — and I know he can; he has the capacity — to shift support to someone like Peter Obi, then that will be the end of the Tinubu administration.”
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