2027 Election: Did El-Rufai Visit Church to Mobilise Pastors Against Tinubu? Fact Comes Out
- Nigerian politicians are preparing for the 2027 general election, and the media have been covering their moves
- Comments appeared on social media claiming that a prominent opposition figure and practicing Muslim, Nasir El-Rufai, attended a church service
- The posters alleged that El-Rufai attended the church to mobilise pastors against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu; Legit.ng fact-checked the claim
Legit.ng journalist Ridwan Adeola Yusuf has over 9 years of experience covering politics, elections, and governance in Nigeria.
Kaduna, Kaduna state - Several posts on the social networking site Facebook claim that Nasir El-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna, attended a church service to mobilise pastors against President Bola Tinubu ahead of the 2027 election.
Legit.ng recalls that on March 10, El-Rufai resigned his membership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Source: UGC
El-Rufai-Tinubu past fraternisation
In the build-up to the 2023 elections, El-Rufai was one of the northern leaders who insisted that power must return to the south after the tenure of now-late former President Muhammadu Buhari.
El-Rufai supported the presidential ambition of Tinubu.
After Tinubu won the election, El-Rufai was nominated as a minister, but the senate withheld his confirmation, citing security concerns.
The development was interpreted by political analysts as a move to whittle down his influence in the presidency.
Announcing his decision to dump the APC and President Tinubu, El-Rufai said he had raised several concerns about the “capricious trajectory” within the party, but the leadership allegedly failed to address them.
Presently, the 65-year-old is a key member of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) coalition platform.
A post with an accompanying photograph of El-Rufai in a church-like setting reads:
“Breaking news: El-Rufai attended church service today to start collection of pastors and bishops for 2027 against Tinubu. This minister pain am.”
The same claim can be found here and here.
But did El-Rufai, a Muslim, attend a church service to mobilise pastors ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 elections? Legit.ng checked.
Source: Twitter
El-Rufai attended funeral mass
We conducted a reverse image search on one of the images. The results led us to the original post by El-Rufai on his verified X (formerly Twitter) page.
According to the May 1, 2025, post, the images were taken during the funeral mass of Mathias Anohu, a chief and ex-Anambra commissioner. Anohu passed away on Monday, January 6, 2025, at the age of 84.
El-Rufai’s post reads:
“We joined the Anohu family at the funeral mass held this morning in Okija for Chief Mathias Chidi Anohu. May his kind soul rest in peace.”
While the images show El-Rufai at church, Legit.ng found no reports about El-Rufai attending a church service to mobilise clerics against the incumbent Nigerian leader.
Therefore, there is no evidence to back up the claim.
Read more on former Kaduna governor Nasir El-Rufai:
- "You can’t ignore him": Shettima praises El-Rufai amid controversies
- El-Rufai mentions what he did for Tinubu: "I contributed to this country’s problems"
- El-Rufai pictured with President Bola Tinubu's official spokesperson Bayo Onanuga in Abuja: "Why are their faces like this?"
Research, policy needed to fight fake news — Expert
A certified fact-checker trained by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Jennifer Stephen, has urged stakeholders to adopt evidence-based strategies in combating false claims.
Speaking with Legit.ng, Stephen stressed the importance of addressing the root causes of misinformation through targeted research and policy development.
“Another way is to carry out detailed field research to uncover the enabling factors of information disorder like misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation. Then use that data to create policy papers and formal policies that hold people promoting information disorder accountable.”
El-Rufai challenges Tinubu's appointees
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that El-Rufai urged those in President Tinubu’s administration to be conscious of the future, noting that they will one day be out of power.
El-Rufai said Mohammed Adoke was one of those who stood behind former President Goodluck Jonathan and persuaded him to concede defeat to late ex-President Muhammadu Buhari after the 2015 election.
Editorial assistant Ololade Olatimehin provided exclusive commentary from a certified fact checker for this report.
Source: Legit.ng
