El-Rufai Forgot History Of Yoruba-Fulani Politics Which Don’t View Northerner Kindly -Olarewaju Mocks

The PDP presidential candidate’s special assistant on digital media and strategy, Demola Olarewaju, recently addressed the rift between President Bola Tinubu and Nasir El-Rufai in a statement posted on his official X account. Olarewaju made fun of El-Rufai, who had been an influential Northern Tinubu campaigner in 2023.

He brought attention to what he perceived as El-Rufai’s and others’ ignorance of Yoruba political history inside the APC.

Northern APC campaigners like El-Rufai and his cohort completely disregarded Yoruba-Fulani political history from before independence all the way up till 1999.

The Yoruba political lineage from which Tinubu hails has a very negative impression of Northerners. He was not of Obasanjo’s family, as was mistakenly believed, Olarewaju stated. Reports of tensions between Tinubu and El-Rufai have been escalating, prompting the remarks.

Although El-Rufai was instrumental in rallying Northern Nigerians behind Tinubu during the campaign, their relationship seems to have deteriorated ever since Tinubu became office. El-Rufai was the governor of Kaduna State at the time.

The views made by Olarewaju illustrate the profound differences in Nigerian politics. The aftermath shows how difficult it is to keep the country united when its citizens have such different political and ethnic interests.