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El-Rufai to Tinubu: Defeat awaits you! *Invite Jonathan, get his experience
Nasir el-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna, on Sunday, left an advice for President Bola Tinubu – meet with Goodluck Jonathan and share his 2015 experience because the same fate awaits you in 2027 when you will be shown the way out of the Presidential Villa.
A guest of Sunday Politics, a public affairs programme on Channels Television, the former governor told his host that the President would not even make a second position in the election, in an election where he is expected to square up with Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, his opponents in the 2023 edition.
Despite beating the duo to emerge President, in a highly-disputed polls that was challenged all the way to the Supreme Court, El-Rufai, who hinged his position on the dismal outing he claimed trailed Tinubu’s tenure since the last two years, predicted the worst-case scenario in which there would be no outright winner in the coming election.
However in the runoff election which he envisaged could follow, he contended that Tinubu would not be on the ballot, because he would most naturally come a distant third, given how he had messed up Nigeria adding that the President would share the fate of Jonathan, who as President, was sent out of office by the late Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 under the All Progressives Congress (APC), currently still in power.
The former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), who spoke against the backdrop of the defections of many political heavyweights in Nigeria into the APC, which the supporters attribute to Tinubu’s performance, dismissed the development as a non-event, given that Jonathan also enjoyed the same endorsements.
Arguing that despite such outings, the real votes rested with the people rather than political leaders, he said: “It’s not governors moving to a party that will make that party win elections. I was governor of Kaduna state. I was one of Bola Tinubu’s biggest campaigners, but I couldn’t deliver the state to him.
“Bola Tinubu himself couldn’t win his state with his own governor in place. So, these things are not as theoretical as people want them to be. If you want to engage in self-delusion, you are free to do so. I will not tell you how we are going to win, but I tell you very clearly — the worst-case scenario in the 2027 elections is that no winner will emerge in the first round.
“We may have to go for a runoff, and Bola Tinubu will not be on the ballot for the runoff, because he will, at best, be third in the election. He has no pathway to win. I have done the math. I have done the analysis. He cannot. He will, at best, be third.
“But he can deceive himself. He may think, oh, you know, I have money, because they have taken all the money in the country, I have INEC, I have the police, I have the army. You know what, President Tinubu, invite ex-President Goodluck Jonathan for a chat, and ask him if he didn’t have all these in 2015, and we got him out. Is the case still the same? Similar to 2015? It’s worse.
“It’s like those who say Tinubu has never lost an election. That can be contested, but it’s okay. He’s a political strategist, he’s this, he’s that. Wait. I Nasir El-Rufai, have said, if you want to learn some lessons, invite President Goodluck Jonathan for a chat over coffee, and ask him what happened in 2015. That’s all.”
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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