IT WON’T BE ATIKU – EL-RUFAI PREDICTS ADC’S PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

February 12, 2026 • Dons Eze • 1 min read

Bashir El-Rufai, son of former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has suggested that the African Democratic Congress, ADC, will not field former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as its presidential candidate in 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.

Dons Eze

DONS EZE, PhD, Political Philosopher and Journalist of over four decades standing, worked in several newspaper houses across the country, and rose to the positions of Editor and General Manager. A UNESCO Fellow in Journalism, Dr. Dons Eze, a prolific writer and author of many books, attended several courses on Journalism and Communication in both Nigeria and overseas, including a Postgraduate Course on Journalism at Warsaw, Poland; Strategic Communication and Practical Communication Approach at RIPA International, London, the United Kingdom, among others.