{"id":194273,"date":"2026-02-10T09:54:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T08:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/el-rufai-says-no-zoning-in-presidential-primaries"},"modified":"2026-02-10T11:01:46","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T10:01:46","slug":"el-rufai-says-no-zoning-in-presidential-primaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufai-says-no-zoning-in-presidential-primaries","title":{"rendered":"El-Rufai Says No Zoning in Presidential Primaries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has declared that the African Democratic Congress (ADC) will not adopt zoning or any form of consensus arrangement in its presidential primary ahead of the next general elections.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on Trust Tv, El-Rufai said the party is committed to conducting free, fair, and transparent primaries, where all aspirants will be given equal opportunity to contest without pressure, imposition, or forced withdrawal.<\/p>\n<p>El-Rufai disclosed that the ADC leadership is currently working on its manifesto and policy platform, while also engaging prospective presidential, governorship, and other aspirants to build internal unity ahead of the primaries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the top level, we are preparing our manifesto and our platform. We are also working on getting our presidential aspirants, governorship aspirants, and other aspirants to come together and agree on a process that will guarantee free and fair primaries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, the party has resolved that no zoning arrangement will be applied and that no aspirant will be compelled to step down in favour of another.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere will be no zoning, no consensus, and no forcing anyone to step down. Everyone will be given the opportunity to contest, and whoever wins will be supported by all,\u201d El-Rufai stated.<\/p>\n<p>He also dismissed claims that the ADC lacks grassroots support, insisting that the party\u2019s growing influence is evident across the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you don\u2019t think the ADC has grassroots support, ask some members of the National Assembly to go to their constituencies without gathering soldiers and police to guard them,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has declared that the African Democratic Congress (ADC) will not adopt zoning or any form of consensus arrangement in its presidential primary ahead of the next general elections. Speaking on Trust Tv, El-Rufai said the party is committed to conducting free, fair, and transparent primaries, where [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":194272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-194273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>El-Rufai Says No Zoning in Presidential Primaries - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has declared that the African Democratic Congress (ADC) will not adopt zon ...\" \/>\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-rufai-says-no-zoning-in-presidential-primaries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"El-Rufai Says No Zoning in Presidential Primaries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has declared that the African Democratic Congress (ADC) will not adopt zon ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufai-says-no-zoning-in-presidential-primaries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-10T08:54:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-10T10:01:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/sm_1770717551.355894.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=\"1 minute\" \/>\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-rufai-says-no-zoning-in-presidential-primaries#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufai-says-no-zoning-in-presidential-primaries\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"El-Rufai Says No Zoning in Presidential Primaries\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-10T08:54:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-10T10:01:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufai-says-no-zoning-in-presidential-primaries\"},\"wordCount\":275,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufai-says-no-zoning-in-presidential-primaries#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/sm_1770717551.355894.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufai-says-no-zoning-in-presidential-primaries#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufai-says-no-zoning-in-presidential-primaries\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/el-rufai-says-no-zoning-in-presidential-primaries\",\"name\":\"El-Rufai Says No Zoning in Presidential Primaries - 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