Daniel Bwala, the special adviser on public communications and media to President Bola Tinubu, has dismissed the relevance of the political coalition being championed by former Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, asserting that the movement lacks traction and has already lost momentum.
Speaking on the AIT programme Focus Nigeria on Wednesday, May 14, Bwala criticised the initiative. “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,” Bwala said. “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.”
Bwala argued that the political strength of the North is often exaggerated, pointing to a group of elites who, he said, do not truly represent the region. “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,” he said.
Without initially naming el-Rufai, Bwala referred to a former governor generating attention through a political coalition. “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,” he said. When pressed by the anchor on whether he was referring to el-Rufai, Bwala responded, “Okay, yes.”
He contended that el-Rufai’s political relevance began to decline even before the end of his tenure as governor. “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,” Bwala said. “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?”
Citing electoral outcomes in Kaduna, Bwala claimed that el-Rufai’s waning popularity was evident during his second term in office. “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,” he said. “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.”
Bwala added that even within the coalition space, there are calls for el-Rufai to return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). “Even among the people who are talking about coalition now, he said he wants to move somewhere. They say, come back to PDP,” he said.
Defending President Tinubu’s popularity, Bwala dismissed claims that the president lacks support. “Now, the complaint they give, they will say the president is not popular. We went to Katsina with the president two weeks ago, roughly two weeks ago. From the airport to the city, people lined up,” he said.
