Former governor of Kaduna state and a kingpin of the coalition for 2027 presidential election, Mallam Nasiru El-rufai has said that the coalition will never fail.
He also said the coalition was a work in progress.
El-rufai stated this on Tuesday in Abuja fielding questions from journalists.
Some persons have criticised the coalition and its members, expressing reservations over its workability.
However, speaking in Abuja on Tuesday, the former governor of Kaduna state said no fear should be expressed over the coalition.
He posited that the coalition members had no personal interest but the interest of Nigerians and Nigeria.
Asked about his concerns over the defections of politicians into the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), he said, “I am not worried. In fact, I’m very happy that there are gale of defections, because Nigerians are not defecting.
“It is greedy and hungry politicians and those that are looking for money, contract, appointments, offices that are defecting. The other class of those defecting are those that know that the EFCC or ICPC can intimidate them, because they know what they have done. If they have done what is not quite right, they know that the corruption agencies can be weaponised against them.
“Those are the people that are defecting. But the Nigerian people, those that actually vote, are not defecting. They are not interested in the EFCC.
“Neither are they interested in the PDP. And this is what I think the SDP and the coalition of political parties or groups that we are working with is targeting. We believe that the 2027 elections will be between the APC and Nigerians.
It’s not between the APC and governors or senators or House of Representatives.
“In fact, most of those office holders are totally discredited today due to the failures in governance experience across the country. So I’m not worried at all.
“As a sitting governor in Kaduna State, I did my best to get Bola Tinubu elected, but he lost. So the fact that you’re a governor doesn’t mean you can write the results of the elections. People have to go out and vote for you, the candidate that you want.
El-rufai also reacted to the report attributed to Alhaji Tanko Yakassia on 2027 that no candidate could defeat President Tinubu in 2027, as he said, that’s his opinion.
“Everyone is entitled to his opinion. But Tanko Yakassia, I think, is a little disconnected from what is happening on the ground.
“People are tired of old politicians that are available to be compromised, giving magisterial opinions on what they know nothing about. Anybody that thinks that it is possible for President Bola Tinubu to get re-elected, is living in another country, not Nigeria. It is impossible for Bola Tinubu to get re-elected.
“I don’t see a pathway for him, no matter how disorganised the opposition is. Who would vote for him? But that’s my opinion. As you can see, he’s very, very different from Tanko Yakassia’s opinion.
He’s entitled to his opinion. As an elder, I don’t want to disrespect him by going beyond that.”
On the coalition coherence, he said, “The coalition is a work in progress. We are coherent in the sense that the objective of the coalition is not about grabbing power.
“It’s about putting Nigeria back on track. All the leaders of the coalition have put their personal ambitions aside and are working towards creating a unified platform that will defeat the incumbent government so that we install a government that puts the people of Nigeria first, not a few people, not families and friends, not a small circle of people that take in the resources of the country as if they own those resources.
So that discussion is going on and it’s not concluded, so I don’t want to prejudice the outcome.
But this is our objective and we’re pursuing it with due diligence.