Nasir El-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna State, says he was not rejected by the National Assembly as a ministerial nominee.
Speaking on Tuesday during an interview on Arise TV’s Prime Time, El-Rufai said President Bola Tinubu simply “changed his mind on the nomination”.
He said in the interview:
“The president begged me publicly to come and serve in his government. After two months of negotiations, we finally agreed that he would nominate me as minister. I think along the line, either the president changed his mind. Please don’t believe the story that the NASS rejected me; the National Assembly has nothing to do with this. The president didn’t want me in his cabinet.
“What was the security issue? I have been the governor for 8 years in one of the most difficult states in the country. Where is the report? What about other ministers who are far less qualified and have huge controversies around them that scale through because the president makes a call” .
When asked if he’s retiring from politics anytime soon, he replied:
“I’m not ready to retire from politics, so sooner or later I may have to find another platform to pursue the progressive values that I believe in if I can’t find them in the APC.
“One thing I can say for sure is that PDP is not a party I will go to ever. I thought about it and decided long ago, and nothing has changed; in fact, if anything, the PDP has gotten worse.”
On Tinubu’s policies, he said:
“I support some of (Tinubu) policies; most of the economic policies are the right orthodox policies, but the sequencing is wrong and the quality of the people implementing the reforms leaves much to be desired.
“As a private citizen, I can afford to be reckless and say, ‘You know what? We gave the southerners their chance. They gave us Tinubu; has he done well? If he hasn’t done well by 2027, let’s vote him out.’.
On Tinubu’s lopsided appointments, he said:
“President Tinubu is appointing his own boys, not because they’re Yoruba, and most of his appointments do not reasonably cover the Southwest. People should stop confusing the two; the appointments are not balanced, but it’s not a Yoruba thing. Please don’t punish the Yorubas.”.
