Posted by Samuel on Thu 12th Feb, 2026 - tori.ng
Responding, Bashir El-Rufai said Atiku should rather assume the role of a statesman and political godfather in what he described as a critical period in the country’s history.
Bashir El-Rufai, son of former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai, has indicated that the African Democratic Congress (ADC) is unlikely to nominate former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as its presidential candidate for the 2027 general election.
Bashir made the remark on Thursday in a post on X while reacting to a comment by a user @Osi_Sauve, who had written: “If your presidential candidate is Atiku then you will woefully lose. Just stating the obvious.”
Responding, Bashir El-Rufai said Atiku should rather assume the role of a statesman and political godfather in what he described as a critical period in the country’s history.
“It won’t be Atiku. I believe Atiku should be the statesman and the Godfather of this historic changing precipice of our nation,” he wrote.
He added that he would support a popular candidate from the South-East paired with a strong and widely accepted Northern figure, arguing that such a strategy would be difficult for opponents to defeat.
“They are easily defeated by my calculus with that strategy,” Bashir El-Rufai stated.