Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has raised alarm over Nigeria’s political trajectory, likening it to the rule of Cameroon’s long-serving President Paul Biya.
He cautioned that without decisive action in the 2027 elections, President Bola Tinubu could mirror Biya’s decades-long grip on power.
While receiving former Vice President Atiku Abubakar at his residence, who came to sympathize with him following last month’s attack during the African Democratic Congress (ADC) inauguration in Kaduna, El-Rufai criticized the Tinubu-led government, branding it a betrayal of democratic principles.
He accused the APC-led government of centralising power rather than strengthening federalism.
“Honestly sir, to me, it is even a disgrace. I mean, for people to behave the way they are behaving, it means that all the years of saying that we are for democracy and NADECO, all the claims that we are fighting for true federalism and so on, it was all a pretense, all fake again. Because this government (Tinubu’s administration) is trying to centralize everything instead of devolving power to the lower levels.”
“The sum total of this is that we are facing an evil of such a large proportion in the history of this country that if we don’t come together and end this Tinubu administration by 2027, Tinubu will try to be our Paul Biya. All the signs are there, this is how Paul Biya started,” El-Rufai said.
El-Rufai further claimed that the Tinubu administration poses a more serious danger to Nigeria’s democracy than any military regime the nation has experienced.
