Former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has said that President Bola Tinubu, not the National Assembly, was responsible for his exclusion from the ministerial list.
Speaking on Monday during an interview on Arise TV’s Prime Time, El-Rufai dismissed claims that the Senate rejected his nomination over security concerns.
“The National Assembly had nothing to do with it, the president didn’t want me in his cabinet,” El-Rufai said.
El-Rufai, a founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), also criticised the party’s leadership, stating that its organs have been inactive since Tinubu assumed office.
“I’m a founding member of the APC, but I have concern about how the party is being run… how many people sacrificed a lot to ensure that it was an internally democratic party with progressive ideals, two years after the election of President of Tinubu, none of the party organs is functioning. The progressive ideals are not being pursued with any vigour,” he said.
The former governor revealed that after extensive negotiations, Tinubu personally requested his support and assured him of a ministerial nomination, which came with certain conditions. However, the president later withdrew the offer.
“Since I left office and the president begged me publicly to support him, I said I would and I don’t want anything. I am a self-made man I don’t need anything. Through two months of negotiations we finally agreed that he would nominate me as minister and there were certain conditions I attached to that, along the line, either the president changed his mind. Please don’t believe the story that the National Assembly rejected me, they had nothing to do with it, the president didn’t want me in his cabinet,” he added.
On the alleged security concerns cited for his rejection, El-Rufai challenged the claim, insisting there was no report against him.
“What was the security issue the National Assembly had against me? Where is the report? There were far less qualified, less experienced that scaled through because the president made a call. He is a human being he’s entitled to change his mind,” he said.
