Election: You’ll “leave Nigeria in body bags” if…, El-Rufai tells foreign powers

The Kaduna state governor, Nasir el-Rufai, has urged “foreign powers” who may have been engaged by some politicians to interfere with the Nigerian general elections to jettison the idea because, “they would go back in body bags.” Governor El-Rufai made the statement while speaking during an NTA Live programme on Tuesday evening. He was reacting to the recent statements by United States, European Union and the United Kingdom who showed doubts, saying the coming elections in Nigeria may not be credible.

They accused the executive arm of the Nigerian government of undermining the democratic tenets and principle of separation of powers, citing the recent suspension of Justice Walter Onnoghen as the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, by President Muhammadu Buhari. But, disagreeing with them, the governor, who said Nigeria is an independent country, also added that nobody would come to Nigeria and tell her what to do or how to run her affairs.

According to the governor, “Those that are calling for anyone to come and intervene in Nigeria, we are waiting for the person that would come and intervene, they would go back in body bags.” “Nobody will come to Nigeria and tell us how to run our country. We have got our independence and we are trying to run our country as decently as possible and we know the history of those countries that are trying to teach us.

“We know their history, we also know their own stages of development and they went through these challenges. So, please, let us work together, let us challenge one another, but don’t lecture us.”