2027: Why I’ll back Tinubu over El-Rufai – Chidi Odinkalu

Former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Professor Chidi Odinkalu, says he would choose to support President Bola Tinubu over former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, if faced with such a political choice. He made the statement during an interview on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande aired on Channels Television on Sunday. Odinkalu, […]

Former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Professor Chidi Odinkalu, says he would choose to support President Bola Tinubu over former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, if faced with such a political choice.

He made the statement during an interview on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande aired on Channels Television on Sunday.

Odinkalu, a respected lawyer and human rights advocate, justified his stance by referencing El-Rufai’s controversial comments and actions while serving as governor, particularly his admission of paying off foreign terrorists allegedly responsible for attacks in Southern Kaduna and other parts of Nigeria.

He further condemned El-Rufai’s public defense of those actions, calling them dangerous and a gross misjudgment in dealing with terrorism.

“He went on air to provide theological justification to why paying money to mass killers of Nigerians was a wonderful thing. He still walks in the streets. Nobody has prosecuted him. Maybe, if we start prosecuting people like that, we will start sending the message across that how to deal with terrorists is not by paying them,” Odinkalu said, expressing frustration at the lack of accountability.

While Odinkalu has been openly critical of President Tinubu’s administration, scoring it “less than abysmal,” he insisted that such a government is still preferable to one led by someone like El-Rufai, who, in his view, has demonstrated a troubling approach to governance and national security.

He also used the opportunity to criticize the state of opposition politics in Nigeria, particularly targeting members of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), accusing them of failing in their democratic responsibility to challenge the government effectively.

“All the people in ADC have a constitutional fundamental right to association. I totally agree we need to have a strong opposition. That is where I have problem with the people in ADC because they’ve wimped out the responsibilities of opposition. In the entire period that President Tinubu has been in power, they’ve offered less than zero,” Odinkalu stated.

“I told you that my score for the President Tinubu administration was less than abysmal, the only thing worse than that score is the performance of these characters. They’re even worse as opposition than APC has been in government,” he added.