When Power Mongers Regroup: Inside the ADC Circus
ADC: El-Rufai and the Coalition Trust Deficit, By Bolaji Akinyemi
El-Rufai once stood in Lagos, puffed up with confidence, and declared that he could teach the state how to retire the political godfather holding it hostage. The subtext was clear to everyone present—he was referring to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. That moment, theatrically bold, was not just about Lagos politics; it revealed a man intoxicated with power and eager to play kingmaker anywhere, everywhere—even where he had no moral claim.
But who is Nasir El-Rufai, truly? Beyond the technocratic sheen and eloquence in English, what legacy did he leave behind in Kaduna?
A legacy of religious and ethnic polarization.
A legacy of brutal suppression of dissenting voices.
A legacy of intolerance, especially against Christians and minority ethnic groups in Southern Kaduna—a region that, in many ways, mirrors the structural injustice Southern Nigeria faces.
How in the world could darkness receive light and walk it down hand in hand through the aisle to an audience in dare needs of nothing but light?
El-Rufai proudly touted his Muslim-Muslim ticket as a political masterstroke, not minding the dangerous precedent it set in a fragile and multi-religious society. He jeered at the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), and was gleeful when Tinubu’s Muslim-Muslim presidency triumphed. This is public record, not propaganda.
Let us be honest: No one in the North worked harder than El-Rufai to install Tinubu in 2023. His loyalty to the APC cause was total. So much so that Tinubu publicly begged him to be part of his government—a moment that seemed too dramatized to be genuine. Many of us, even before that performative display, had warned of the danger an El-Rufai would pose in Tinubu’s administration. Tinubu, ever the long-game strategist, may have seen what we saw. Perhaps the Senate’s rejection of El-Rufai’s ministerial nomination was not a spontaneous rebellion but a scripted sacrifice to disarm public anxiety.
Yet, it strains belief that a Godswill Obot Akpabio led Senate would act against the President’s wishes to see El-Rufai on his cabinet. It stretches logic that the same security services that remained conveniently deaf and blind to the allegations surrounding Akpabio and Ganduje corruption would suddenly discover a dossier damning enough to block El-Rufai. The real story may still be lurking in the shadows, but it is clear: Tinubu knew El-Rufai was too dangerous to bring close at that time in view of now and the journey to 2027.
The political antecedents of President as a leader who reward political labour and loyalty is engaged upon the wall of Nigeria. So what led to the rejection of El-Rufai by Tinubu and his inner circle? The silence of the President and the Presidency on the “kurukere” activity of El-Rufai should be worrisome to every deep thinker. On how he suddenly became the face of a “new” coalition seeking to rescue Nigeria?
Let’s not be naïve.
There is a trust deficit in this coalition, and it is embodied in his point man; Nasir El-Rufai.
What does it say about the coalition’s sincerity that a man who championed tribal and religious bigotry is now the self-appointed usher for Peter Obi into a supposed national salvation alliance?
Can the middle belt ethnic minorities in Nigeria forget the trauma of Southern Kaduna? Will Plateau seeing El-Rufai side by side Obi, still trust him with the magnitude of the votes they deliver in 2023?
Can Christians across the country forget how El-Rufai belittled their faith in Kaduna State, raise their fears, mocked their protests, and governed with such brazenness that even moderate voices were silenced?
Yet this same man now stretches his hand toward Mr. Peter Obi, a man he and APC successfully crucified on the cross of bigoted propaganda in 2023.
Obi must not lose sight of the fact that he rose on the wings of justice, youth energy, and a vision of inclusion. He should return to his demographic constituent and says, “Let’s walk together again”!
Let us ask: Is this coalition a trap or truly a transformational movement?
Some may argue that politics is the art of the possible, that coalitions require strange bedfellows. But there is a line between strategic compromise and suicidal alliance. To walk blindly with a man like El-Rufai is to legitimize his legacy. And this is where the Obidient movement must pause and reflect.
Where Is the Obidient Movement Headed?
The Obidient movement remains the largest organic political force in Africa today—fueled by righteous anger, youthful energy, and a longing for something pure and just. But beyond the hashtags and Twitter Spaces, what has truly been built?
Where is the polling unit structure?
Where is the ward-level coordination?
Where are the local government foot soldiers turning digital momentum into grassroots victory?
A movement that does not organize itself becomes vulnerable to hijack by political veterans—like El-Rufai—who understand how to exploit momentum for their own gain. The coalition may be El-Rufai’s Trojan horse, and the Obidient movement must ask: What exactly is being carried inside it?
Peter Obi, for all his discipline and integrity, must recognize that the people trust him because he is different—not just from Tinubu and Atiku, but also from the likes of El-Rufai. His brand is one of moral clarity, and to mix that brand carelessly with the ambiguous ambitions of Kaduna’s former emperor is to blur the line that defines him.
What is the endgame of this coalition? To win power at any cost, or to birth a new Nigeria?
If it’s the former, then they are no different from the APC and PDP they claim to oppose.
If it’s the latter, then it must begin with moral clarity, not political convenience.
Final Thought
The ADC’s embrace of El-Rufai’s coalition may seem like momentum, but it is loaded with contradictions. Nigerians are not as politically illiterate as they were once thought to be. We have seen alliances of convenience before. They gave us Buhari for the exigencies of Tinubu’s eventual rise to power. They gave us decay wrapped in the cloak of “change.”
We must not be fooled again.
The Obidient movement must demand clarity—not just from Peter Obi, but from any political coalition that seeks to ride on their backs. If the future of Nigeria will be built on a true foundation, it must not be led by the architects of our old divisions.
We cannot use darkness to birth light.
Let El-Rufai build his own movement, if he can. Let Obi build his own structure, which he must.
Please, let El-Rufai not insult our intelligence by painting bigotry as a strategy.
– Bolaji O. Akinyemi
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