Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has launched a blistering personal attack on Senate President Godswill Akpabio, accusing him of single-handedly crippling the upper legislative chamber and acting as a political proxy for President Bola Tinubu.
Speaking during a political discourse, El-Rufai dismissed narratives blaming the Senate as an institution for its current dysfunctions, insisting the rot begins and ends with its presiding officer.
'The Problem Is Akpabio'
"Let's be clear. It is not the Senate that is the problem," El-Rufai asserted. "Akpabio, who is a scumbag by every definition, is the problem."
The former governor did not stop there. He described the Senate President as "nothing but Asiwaju's lapdog"—a pointed reference to Tinubu's traditional title—alleging that Akpabio has surrendered the independence of the legislature to executive manipulation.
Drawing from a personal history stretching back to the 1990s, El-Rufai claimed intimate knowledge of his target's character. "I don't consider him distinguished. We know each other way back since the '90s. I think I am qualified to call him a scumbag, and he knows why," he added, declining to elaborate further.
A Call to Arms
El-Rufai urged senators uncomfortable with the current leadership direction to stage a robust protest when the National Assembly reconvenes. "That's what's going on. And the senators will have to come back and protest to stop this from happening when they reconvene," he said, suggesting that opposition within the chamber has been suppressed rather than absent.
Context of a Divided House
The outburst arrives amid escalating tensions over the Senate's handling of several high-stakes legislative matters, particularly the ongoing amendments to the Electoral Act and the fierce battle over electronic transmission of election results. Critics accuse the Akpabio-led Senate of capitulating to executive preferences at the expense of electoral integrity.
Silence from the Opposition
Neither Akpabio nor the Presidency has issued any formal response to El-Rufai's incendiary remarks. Political watchers interpret the silence as either strategic restraint or an acknowledgment that engaging the former governor on his chosen terms offers little upside.
What remains clear is that El-Rufai's language—deliberately vulgar, unambiguously personal—has escalated the temperature of what was already a simmering conflict. Whether it will galvanise dissent within the red chamber or simply deepen existing fault lines is the question now hanging over the National Assembly.
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