Former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has said President Bola Tinubu is unlikely to make it to the second round of the 2027 presidential elections, predicting a runoff for the first time in Nigeria’s history.
Speaking on Sunday Politics on Channels Television, El-Rufai argued that the president’s chances would be determined by his performance in office and the track record of governors under his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), rather than political alignments.
“The worst-case scenario in the 2027 elections is that no winner will emerge in the first round,” El-Rufai said. “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.”
The former governor, who once campaigned vigorously for Tinubu, admitted that he could not deliver Kaduna State to the president during the 2023 polls.
“I was one of Bola Tinubu’s biggest campaigners, but I couldn’t deliver Kaduna to him. Bola Tinubu himself couldn’t win his own state with his own governor in place,” El-Rufai stated.
He added that Nigerian voters would judge based on “performance, not theory” and warned against what he described as “self-delusion” within political circles.
El-Rufai had earlier cautioned that Nigeria would be at risk if the APC retained power beyond 2027, insisting that voters would ultimately decide the fate of the ruling party.
