‘Atiku should be a statesman, not presidential candidate’, says El-Rufai

‘Atiku should be a statesman, not presidential candidate’, says El-Rufai

Bashir El-Rufai, the son of former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai, has indicated that the African Democratic Congress (ADC) will not nominate former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as its presidential candidate for the 2027 general election.

The comment was made on Thursday in a post on X, where Bashir responded to a user named @Osi_Sauve. The user had written: “If your presidential candidate is Atiku then you will woefully lose. Just stating the obvious.”

In his reply, Bashir suggested that Atiku should instead take on a more advisory role in Nigeria’s political landscape. “It won’t be Atiku. I believe Atiku should be the statesman and the Godfather of this historic changing precipice of our nation,” he wrote.

Bashir further explained that he would back a strong candidate from the South-East, paired with a well-accepted Northern running mate.

He argued that such a pairing would be difficult for opponents to defeat, stating: “They are easily defeated by my calculus with that strategy.”