Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Strategy, has described those calling for the removal of the president as “power-hungry politicians” who feel politically displaced.
This comes amid comments made by former Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir el-ERufai, that Tinubu would not be re-elected in 2027.
The former Kaduna governor had, in an interview on Channels Television’s Politics programme on Sunday night, said: “I was governor of Kaduna State; I was one of Bola Tinubu’s biggest campaigners, but I couldn’t deliver the state to him. Bola Tinubu himself couldn’t win his state with his own governor in place. So, these things are not as theoretical as people want them to be.
“If you want to engage in self-delusion, you are free to do so. I will not tell you how we are going to win, but I tell you very clearly, the worst-case scenario in the 2027 elections is that no winner will emerge in the first round.
“We may have to go for a runoff, and Bola Tinubu will not be on the ballot for the runoff because he will, at best, be third in the election. He has no pathway to win. I have done the maths, I have done the analysis; he cannot, he will, at best, be third.
“But he can deceive himself; he may think, oh, you know, I have money, because they have taken all the money in the country, I have INEC, I have the police, I have the army. You know what, President Tinubu, invite ex-President Goodluck Jonathan for a chat, and ask him if he didn’t have all these in 2015, and we got him out. Is the case still the same? Similar to 2015? It’s worse.
“It’s like those who say Tinubu has never lost an election. That can be contested, but it’s okay, he’s a political strategist, he’s this, he’s that. Wait.
“I naturally have said, if you want to learn some lessons, invite ex-President Goodluck Jonathan for a chat over coffee, and ask him what happened in 2015. That’s all.’’
But reacting yesterday, Onanuga, in a statement via his X handle, accused el-Rufai of being at the forefront of the campaign of removing the President, despite admitting in the past that four years was not enough for any leader to deliver “meaningful changes.”
