El-Rufai’s Political Capital Crashes: Mahdi Shehu Warns Opposition Against “Suicide Alliance”
El-Rufai’s Political Capital Crashes: Mahdi Shehu Warns Opposition Against “Suicide Alliance”
Human rights activist and fiery social critic, Mahdi Shehu, has declared that former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, is no longer the political force his allies believe him to be, warning opposition parties that banking on him ahead of 2027 would amount to “political suicide.”
Reacting to the outcome of last weekend’s by-elections in Kaduna State, Shehu argued that the results from Basawa, Zaria Kewaye, and Chikun/Kajuru constituencies should serve as a loud and clear warning: El-Rufai has lost touch with the electorate he once dominated.
“The people of Zaria have not forgotten. Their school children, pensioners, teachers, and health workers still carry scars from his era,” Shehu wrote in a scathing X post on Tuesday.
ADC’s 146 Votes: “A Party in Destitution”
Pointing to the abysmal showing of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), which managed just 146 votes out of 17,452 cast in Basawa, Shehu mocked the party as “an orphaned, destitute movement regardless of the noise it made during campaigns.”
“The 146 votes scored by ADC means El-Rufai must go into deep soul searching, repent, ask for forgiveness, and seek the face of God,” he jabbed.
A Burden, Not an Asset
Shehu stressed that El-Rufai has become more of a liability than an asset, and warned parties such as the PDP, SDP, Labour Party (LP), and ADC that hinging their electoral strategies on him would be like “playing casino with a blind player.”
“It sends a clear message that while El-Rufai may be loud, relying on him for success in future elections is a clear suicide mission,” he warned. “A mental giant could as well turn out to be a political destitute with no value on election day.”
Lessons for the Opposition
Although the ruling APC won Basawa with 10,996 votes, Shehu noted that the PDP’s 5,499 votes showed a stronger-than-expected performance. He advised opposition parties to choose their allies and strategists wisely.
“If ADC, SDP, PDP, and LP wish to make any impact in future elections, they must rely on actors with minimal toxic political backlog, not those who inflicted deep political lacerations on the people,” he cautioned.
“Every Day for the Thief…”
Shehu concluded with a searing proverb aimed at the former governor:
“Every day for the thief, one day for the owners. It is an initial harvest time for El-Rufai.”
With APC still dominant, PDP showing signs of revival, and El-Rufai’s influence visibly shrinking, the Kaduna by-elections may have offered a preview of Nigeria’s political fault lines as the country edges closer to 2027.
By Haruna Yakubu Haruna
