Former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has made a bold prediction about the 2027 presidential election, stating that President Bola Tinubu will not only lose but will struggle to place higher than third.
Speaking on Sunday Politics, a Channels Television programme, El-Rufai said he has done a thorough political analysis and concluded that the 2027 elections are unlikely to produce a winner in the first round and that Tinubu will be absent from the final runoff.
“I have done the maths, I have done the analysis. Tinubu has no pathway to win. At best, he will come third,” El-Rufai declared.
He added that even with the influence of state machinery, such as INEC, security forces, and financial resources, victory is far from guaranteed. Drawing parallels with former President Goodluck Jonathan’s loss in 2015, he said:
“President Tinubu may think he has money, INEC, the police, the army. But if he wants to learn a lesson, he should have a chat with ex-President Jonathan. He had all these in 2015 and we got him out. The situation now is even worse.”
The former governor, who is now affiliated with the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and a known critic of the Tinubu administration, stressed that promises of incumbency power and political might have been overstated.
Despite being a strong campaigner for Tinubu in 2023, El-Rufai admitted:
“I was one of Bola Tinubu’s biggest supporters, but I couldn’t even deliver Kaduna State to him.”
