Special adviser on public communications and media to President Bola Tinubu, Daniel Bwala, has downplayed the political relevance of former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, saying his coalition movement has already lost momentum.
Naija News reports that Bwala, while speaking on ‘Focus Nigeria’, a programme aired on AIT on Wednesday, said the coalition initiative lacks grassroots connection and real influence.
Without initially naming El-Rufai, Bwala said a former governor who left the All Progressive Congress (APC) is moving a coalition that many consider is generating buzz.
Pressed by the programme anchor if he meant El-Rufai, Bwala confirmed: “Okay, yes.”
Bwala pointed to declining popularity and electoral losses in Kaduna during El-Rufai’s second term as evidence of his fading influence, stressing that nobody talks or looks for him.
Bwala also noted that even within the coalition conversation, El-Rufai is encouraged to return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He said, “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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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?
“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.
“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.
“Even among the people who are talking about coalition now, he said he wants to move somewhere. They say, come back to PDP.”
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