{"id":118098,"date":"2025-04-29T22:22:56","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T21:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=118098"},"modified":"2025-04-29T22:22:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T21:22:56","slug":"defection-voters-not-apc-governors-will-determine-2027-election-result-el-rufai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/defection-voters-not-apc-governors-will-determine-2027-election-result-el-rufai\/","title":{"rendered":"Defection: Voters, not APC Governors will determine 2027 election result &#8211; El-Rufai"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">By Myke Agunwa<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Former Kaduna State Governor and chieftain of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has dismissed the wave of defections to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), saying at the end of balloting, it is the voters, not the number of governors in the ruling party will determine the outcome of the 2027 election.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to him, the defection of all governors into the ruling party would not change the will of the Nigerian electorate. He added that his mission in the SDP is to return power to the people and end the reign of godfathers.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He recalled that even as a sitting Governors, Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwolu and himself could not deliver their respective states to the APC despite the power of incumbency.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Speaking to journalists in Kano, the former Kaduna State Governor maintained that the real power to determine the fate of candidates in the next general elections lies with the people.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cAs far as I\u2019m concerned, the defection of high-profile politicians is not the issue.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThese defections are good for headlines and to sell newspapers, but politically on the ground, if you don\u2019t have the people, your profile means nothing.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWe want to return politics to the people, not to godfathers or so-called high-profile politicians.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He continued, \u201cA governor has only one vote. Nigerians have millions. If the people say no, it\u2019s over.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cEven the president had a sitting governor and still lost Lagos. I was governor of Kaduna State.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cI fought hard to deliver the president in my state, but I lost. Governors don\u2019t determine election results \u2014 the people do.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The former governor expressed confidence that the SDP would serve as the best alternative to the APC and the PDP, noting that both the ruling and main opposition parties have been hijacked by powerful forces.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cI believe the SDP can recreate a major political force in Nigeria. Nigerians are yearning for a credible alternative \u2014 a new brand of politics, new faces, and a new style of governance.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe APC started well but ended up being pocketed by one or two individuals. We want to avoid that in the SDP.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWe are building a party that no one owns, that offers a level playing field for all aspirants, \u201d he added.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">El-Rufai further disclosed that there are concerted efforts to strengthen the SDP, targeting the registration of three million voters in Kano State alone.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWe are currently focused on building the party from the grassroots, \u201d he stressed.<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Myke Agunwa Former Kaduna State Governor and chieftain of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has dismissed the wave of defections to the ruling All Progressives Congress&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":118099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Defection: Voters, not APC Governors will determine 2027 election result - El-Rufai - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/defection-voters-not-apc-governors-will-determine-2027-election-result-el-rufai\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Defection: Voters, not APC Governors will determine 2027 election result - El-Rufai - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Myke Agunwa Former Kaduna State Governor and chieftain of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has dismissed the wave of defections to the ruling All Progressives Congress&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/defection-voters-not-apc-governors-will-determine-2027-election-result-el-rufai\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-29T21:22:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Nasir-el-Rufai-1.jpg.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"686\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Our Reporter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Our Reporter\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/defection-voters-not-apc-governors-will-determine-2027-election-result-el-rufai\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/defection-voters-not-apc-governors-will-determine-2027-election-result-el-rufai\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Our Reporter\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\"},\"headline\":\"Defection: Voters, not APC Governors will determine 2027 election result &#8211; 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