Bwala downplays El-Rufai’s political relevance

Special Adviser on Public Communications and Media to President Bola Tinubu, Daniel Bwala, has downplayed the political relevance of the coalition led by the former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, saying the movement has already lost momentum.

Speaking on Focus Nigeria, a programme aired on AIT on Wednesday, Bwala said the initiative lacks grassroots connection and real influence.

“I know that the southern people generally have a sentiment that the north has done eight years. The south should be allowed to do eight years,” Bwala said.

“These southern people who have this sentiment, they are even in the political parties where northerners have contested. They will not vote for the northern candidate. They will vote for a southern candidate. And it is fair, just, and equitable.”

He argued that northern political clout is often misunderstood and overstated by spotlighting a few elites who do not truly represent the region.

“When we talk of the north, there are times there is a misconception. People identify five eggheads and call them the north. Some of them are disconnected from the source,” he said.

Without initially naming el-Rufai, Bwala alluded to him as a former governor leading a coalition that “generates buzz.”

“I give you an example of a governor; a former governor that left us, and he’s moving a coalition, generating buzz, according to them,” he said.

Pressed by the programme anchor if he meant el-Rufai, Bwala confirmed: “Okay, yes.”

According to Bwala, el-Rufai’s political stock had waned even before he left office.

“Now, take, for example, there are some people from the south or elsewhere: when they see him talking, they will think as if he will move like a clap of thunder out of a blue sky,” he said.

“But in politics, those who look at politics – it’s called political science because it’s a science behind politics. You look at stats, you look at numbers, you look at trajectory, right?”

Bwala pointed to declining popularity and electoral losses in Kaduna during el-Rufai’s second term as evidence of his fading influence.

“In the second half of his term, when he was doing his second term, he was so unpopular that the APC lost three senate seats and a number of House of Representatives, and the president lost the election there,” he said.

“So, people won’t look at those. But political scientists they look at those things as indices. And they know that this one is like Andrew Liver Salts.

“Even when he started, it was like that. Like he dropped Andrew Liver Salt, and then it calmed down. That’s what is happening. Nobody talks about him. Nobody looks for him.”

Bwala also noted that even within the coalition conversation, el-Rufai is being encouraged to return to the Peoples Democratic Party.

“Even among the people who are talking about coalition now, he said he wants to move somewhere. They say, come back to PDP,” he said.

Defending President Tinubu’s popularity, Bwala dismissed opposition narratives suggesting otherwise.

“Now, the complaint they give they will say the president is not popular. We went to Katsina with the president two weeks ago, roughly two weeks ago. From the airport to the city, people lined up,” he said.