A former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufaihas withdrawn his interest in joining President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet, Newslodge can exclusively report.
Presidency sources said El-Rufai told President Tinubu in a meeting on Tuesday that he was no longer interested in becoming a minister but would continue to contribute his share to Nigeria’s development as a private citizen.
“He also told the president that he needed time to focus on his PhD program at a university in the Netherlands,” one of our sources said.
Another insider also told this outlet that the former governor suggested a new ministerial candidate, Jafaru Ibrahim Sani, for Kaduna state, saying the president would find him very useful and resourceful.
Mr. Sani served as a commissioner in three ministries in Kaduna State (Local Government Education and Environment) while Mr. El-Rufai was Governor.
El-Rufai visited the president at the presidential villa a day after the Senate confirmed 45 ministerial candidates after a week of selecting 48 of them.
The legislative upper house, however, withheld his confirmation and that of two others, citing security reports from the State Security Service for the action.
The other two were a former senator from Taraba, Sani Danladi, and a candidate from Delta State, Stella Okotete.
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Our sources said that upon learning of the Senate’s ruling on his case, El-Rufai, who only returned to Nigeria from London on Monday, sought and secured an appointment to meet with the president.
At the Tuesday afternoon meeting, President Tinubu, according to our sources, told the former governor that he had received some critical petitions with his ministerial nomination.
The president then requested a 24-hour grace period to review the petitions and the SSS report to the Senate so that it can make a decision.
It was at this point that El-Rufai responded that he was no longer interested in being a minister because it seemed that some forces around the president were plotting hard to block his emergence as a federal minister.
El-Rufai had revealed during his confirmation hearing on August 1 that Tinubu asked him to work with him on the energy problem facing the country.
According to him, the president had set a seven-year target for Nigeria to stop experiencing power outages in the country.
At Tuesday’s meeting, El-Rufai also reportedly told the president that since he would no longer be on the federal executive council, he would return the next day with his team to present the preliminary work done so far in the sector. energetic.
The team that accompanied the former governor to make presentations to the president on Wednesday included Eyo Ekpo, former commissioner of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC); Hafiz Bayero, former Commissioner and Administrator of the Kaduna Capital Territory Authority; Tolu Oyekan of the Boston Consulting Group and Ayodele Oni, attorney.
Olu Verheijen, the special adviser to the President on Energy Affairs, gave a presentation on Gas.
El-Rufai is studying for a doctorate in public policy at the United Nations University, Maastricht.
His associates say that as he was preparing to step down as governor in May of this year, he indicated his desire to step out of public life and focus on his doctoral program.
But that was until President-elect Tinubu asked him to join his cabinet so he could charge him with the responsibility of repositioning the inefficient energy sector in Africa’s largest economy.
It’s unclear what suddenly went wrong between the two men, so a government agency blocked El-Rufai’s ministerial nomination without the president lifting a finger.
When contacted, Muyiwa Adekeye, El-Rufai’s media adviser, declined to comment for this story.
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Let hear it in the comment below if you do have an opinion on this; EXCLUSIVE: El-Rufai Withdraws Interest In Ministerial Appointment, Recommends Replacement