By Emmanuel Aziken

Mallam Nasir El-Rufai may have emerged as the Disrupter-in-Chief in the plot to stop a second term for President Bola Tinubu in 2027.

Just two days after defecting from the All Progressives Congress, APC, to the Social Democratic Party, SDP, the former Kaduna State governor was already, according to analysts, fully acting his new role.

Last Wednesday, supporters of El-Rufai stormed the Abuja National Headquarters of the SDP with placards, calling for the exit of Dr Olu Agunloye as National Secretary.

The protesters, who carried placards, accused Agunloye of fraud. Agunloye is being tried in court over an alleged $6b fraud relating to the Mambilla power project.

The shocking sight of the new party members turned protesters forced Agunloye to petition the Inspector General of Police for police protection.

However, Sunday Vanguard reports that the demand for Agunloye’s exit appears to be mainly championed by some allies of El-Rufai who fear that the SDP’s National Secretary’s past links to Tinubu and, if not, ethnic identity would hinder the political goal of stopping the president from a second term.

“The El-Rufai people feel that it would be illogical to have somebody from the South-West hold that critical position of National Secretary when you are fighting against the second term quest of somebody from the South-West,” a source privy to the development said.

Plan B
The fight within the SDP following the entry of El-Rufai only reflects the fears of many over the prospects of the opposition against Tinubu who mounted the presidency in 2023 despite the challenges he got from within the Muhammadu Buhari presidency and the majority of the party’s governors.

Besides the suspicions around Agunloye, political actors are also raising suspicions that Tinubu may have gone ahead of El-Rufai into the SDP.

That claim, according to some political watchers in Abuja, flows from the fact that the SDP has been mentioned as the famous Plan B that Tinubu hoped to fall back to had he not won the APC presidential ticket in 2022.




https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/03/disruptor-in-chief-inside-story-of-the-el-rufai-2027-agenda-to-stop-tinubu/