Following the refusal by the Senate to confirm his appointment as a minister, the immediate former governor of Kaduna state and one of President Tinubu’s ministerial nominees, Nasir El-Rufai, has allegedly expressed an interest to excuse himself from being part of President Tinubu’s cabinet.
Reports revealed that El-Rufai in a meeting with the president on Tuesday, said he was no longer interested in becoming a minister but would continue to contribute to Nigeria’s development as a private citizen.
He told the president that he needed more time to concentrate on his doctorate programme at a university in The Netherlands.
However, the former governor has allegedly recommended Jafaru Ibrahim Sani as his replacement for the Kaduna State ministerial slot.
Sani had served as commissioner in three ministries in Kaduna State during El-Rufai’s administration as governor of the state.
Premium Politics earlier reported that the Senate failed to confirm El-Rufai and two other ministerial nominees, citing security reports from the State Security Service as the reason why they were confirmed.
The other two nominees were Sani Danladi, a former senator from Taraba, and Stella Okotete from Delta State.
During his meeting with the president, El-Rufai said he was aware of the Senate’s decision and had sought an appointment with the president to discuss it.
Similarly, President Tinubu told El-Rufai that he had received some petitions critical of his ministerial nomination, urging the former governor to give him 24 hours to review the petitions and the SSS report to the Senate, before making a decision.
Meanwhile, the former FCT minister insisted that he was no longer interested in the ministerial slot, noting that some forces around the president were scheming to block his emergence as a federal minister.
The ministerial nominee had earlier disclosed during his confirmation hearing on August 1 that President Tinubu had asked him to work on the power problem facing the country, noting that the president had given a target of seven years for Nigeria to stop experiencing power outages.
However, El-Rufai at the Tuesday meeting, 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 earlier done on the energy problem in the country.
