{"id":175140,"date":"2025-08-20T08:54:36","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T07:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/el-rufais-political-risks-and-zarias-memories"},"modified":"2025-08-20T10:06:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T09:06:50","slug":"el-rufais-political-risks-and-zarias-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufais-political-risks-and-zarias-memories","title":{"rendered":"El-Rufai’s Political Risks and Zaria’s Memories"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Human rights activist, Mahdi Shehu, has said the results of the recent Kaduna State by-elections show that former governor Nasir El-Rufai no longer holds the political weight many of his allies assume.<\/p>\n

He described El-Rufai as a political burden and warned opposition parties that relying on him for electoral victories would be a clear suicide mission.<\/p>\n

Shehu revealed this in a post on X on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The commentator also mocked the performance of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), which secured only 146 votes out of the 17,452 cast in the Basawa State Constituency election.<\/p>\n

According to him, such a score reveals that the party is in destitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny party that scored 146 votes out of 17,452 votes casted is a party in destitution, an outcast and orphaned no matter the crowd it mobilized during the electioneering campaign,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

He added that the rejection of ADC and its allies in Basawa, Zaria Kewaye, and Chikun\/Kajuru constituencies was a direct message to El-Rufai.<\/p>\n

\u201cZaria people and voters have not forgotten, neither have their schooling children, nor their pensioners, teachers and health workers,\u201d Shehu wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 146 votes scored by ADC means he needs to go into soul searching, repent, ask for forgiveness and seek the face of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shehu also warned opposition parties; PDP, SDP, LP and ADC against depending on El-Rufai to boost their chances in future elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also sends a clear message to ADC\/SDP\/PDP\/LP, that while El- RUFAI may be vocal, relying on him for their success in future elections is a clear SUICIDE mission and a CASINO with a blind player. A mental giant could as well turn out to be a political destitute with no value on election day.\u201d<\/p>\n

While noting that the PDP put up what he called impressive outings in the by-elections, Shehu argued that parties must choose their strategists carefully.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf ADC, SDP, PDP and LP wish to make any impact in the coming elections, they must rely on actors with minimal toxic political backlog, not those who have inflicted deep political lacerations on people,\u201d he advised.<\/p>\n

He concluded with a proverb: \u201cEvery day for the thief, one day for the owners. It is an initial harvest time for El-Rufai.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Basawa constituency, a total of 17,452 votes were cast, with APC receiving 10,996 votes, PDP 5,499, SDP 811, and ADC 146.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Nigeria<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. Human rights activist, Mahdi Shehu, has said the results of the recent Kaduna State by-elections show that former governor Nasir El-Rufai no longer holds the political weight many of his allies assume. He described El-Rufai as a political burden and warned opposition parties that relying on him for electoral victories would be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":175138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[1651,15521,254,3694],"class_list":["post-175140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-el-rufai-2","tag-mahdi-shehu","tag-nigeria","tag-zaria"],"yoast_head":"\nEl-Rufai's Political Risks and Zaria's Memories - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Human rights activist, Mahdi Shehu, has said the results of the recent Kaduna State by-elections show that former govern ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufais-political-risks-and-zarias-memories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"El-Rufai's Political Risks and Zaria's Memories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Human rights activist, Mahdi Shehu, has said the results of the recent Kaduna State by-elections show that former govern ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufais-political-risks-and-zarias-memories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-20T07:54:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-20T09:06:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/08\/sm_1755668359.303453.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"423\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufais-political-risks-and-zarias-memories#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufais-political-risks-and-zarias-memories\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"El-Rufai’s Political Risks and Zaria’s Memories\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-20T07:54:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-20T09:06:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufais-political-risks-and-zarias-memories\"},\"wordCount\":403,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufais-political-risks-and-zarias-memories#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/08\/sm_1755668359.303453.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"El Rufai\",\"Mahdi Shehu\",\"Nigeria\",\"zaria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufais-political-risks-and-zarias-memories#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufais-political-risks-and-zarias-memories\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufais-political-risks-and-zarias-memories\",\"name\":\"El-Rufai's Political Risks and Zaria's Memories - 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