Immediate past Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has withdrawn his interest in being part of President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet, Chronicle NG can reliably confirm.
According to sources in the presidency, Mr. El-Rufai informed President Tinubu during a meeting on Tuesday that he was no longer interested in becoming a minister but would still make his contribution as a private citizen to the development of Nigeria.
One of our sources said, “He also told the president that he needed time to concentrate on his doctorate programme at a university in The Netherlands.”
Jafaru Ibrahim Sani, a former commissioner in kaduna State, was proposed as a replacement by the former governor, saying the President would find him to be very valuable and resourceful, according to another insider who spoke to this medium.
Mr Sani served as commissioner in three ministries in Kaduna State (Local Government Education and Environment) while Mr El-Rufai was governor.
Mr El-Rufai visited the President at the presidential villa a day after the Senate confirmed 45 ministerial nominees after a week-long screening of 48 of them.
The red chamber of the national assembly, however, withheld his confirmation and those of two others, citing security reports from the State Security Service for the action.
The two others were a former senator from Taraba, Sani Danladi, and a nominee from Delta State, Stella Okotete.
The president then requested a grace period of 24 hours from the Senate so that he may evaluate the petitions and the SSS report before making a judgment.
At that time, Mr. El-Rufai stated that he was no longer interested in serving as a minister since it looked that the president’s allies were working hard to prevent his appointment as a federal minister.
On August 1, Mr. El-Rufai revealed at his confirmation hearing that Mr. Tinubu had requested him to collaborate with him on the nation’s electricity crisis.
He claimed that the President has set a deadline of seven years for Nigeria to be free of power interruptions.
Mr El-Rufai is studying for a doctorate in public policy at the United Nations University, Maastricht.
His acquaintances claim that while he was getting ready to step down as governor in May of this year, he expressed a desire to leave public life and focus on his PhD study.
But that was before President-elect Tinubu asked him to join his government and tasked him with repositioning the ineffective power sector in the biggest economy in Africa.
