Thursday, May 15, 2025 - 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.
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