Former governor of Kaduna state, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has traveled out of Nigeria, immediately after withdrawing his interest in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s ministerial appointment.
According to Daily Trust, El-Rufai was off to Europe, but will be in Egypt first.
Recall that El-Rufai was said to have told President Tinubu at a meeting on Tuesday that he was no longer interested in becoming a minister but would continue to contribute his quota to the development of Nigeria as a private citizen.
The senate had last week approved the appointment of 45 out of the 48 ministerial nominees submitted by President Bola Tinubu.
El-Rufai, and two other nominees; Stella Okotete (Delta) and Danladi Abubakar (Taraba) were not confirmed as the senate said they were awaiting security clearance about them.
Although Senate President Godswill Akpabio was silent on what informed the body’s decision to reject three ministers.
Whereas the grounds for withholding confirmation for the two other nominees, Abubakar Danladi of Taraba and Stella Okotete of Delta, were publicly documented, even if unstated by Akpabio, El-Rufai’s fate has been stranded in the realm of high-octane speculations that have proven rather stubborn for his supporters to quell.
Some of his opponents swore the hold was due to Mr El-Rufai’s handling of ethnic and sectarian clashes that overshadowed most of his tenure as a two-term governor; while others cited the politician’s insinuated propensity for corruption and betrayal of allies.
The development prompted the former governor met with Tinubu at the presidential villa in Abuja, on Tuesday, but the outcome of the meeting was not made public.
But Premium Times quoted presidency sources as saying El-Rufai told President Tinubu that he was no longer interested in becoming a minister, but would continue to contribute his quota to the development of Nigeria as a private citizen.
“He also told the president that he needed time to focus on his doctorate programme at a university in The Netherlands,” Premium Times quoted another source to have said.
Another source was quoted as saying the former governor suggested a new ministerial nominee — Jafaru Ibrahim Sani — for Kaduna.
El-Rufai also reportedly told the President that since he would no longer be in the federal executive council, he would return the next day with his team to present the preliminary work done so far on the energy sector.
It was said that the team that accompanied the former governor to make presentations to the president on Wednesday includes Eyo Ekpo, a former commissioner at the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC); Hafiz Bayero, a former commissioner and administrator of the Kaduna Capital Territory Authority; Tolu Oyekan of the Boston Consulting Group and Ayodele Oni, a lawyer.
When contacted, Muyiwa Adekeye, spokesman of El-Rufai, did not respond to comment.
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