El-Rufai: Tinubu Publicly Begged Me To Be Minister In His Government But Changed His Mind

Former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has debunked reports that he was rejected during his ministerial screening by the National Assembly, and has said that it was President Bola Ahmed Tinubu himself who, for reasons best known to him, changed his mind after publicly begging him to serve as a minister in his administration.

The former governor said this in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Monday in his first interview granted to any media organisation since he left office in 2023, where he also said that he is at peace and he has no issue with either Tinubu or the Tinubu administration.

He said, “I have no issues with the Tinubu administration, people say I’m a critic of the administration, I’ve never said a word about the Tinubu administration. My comment in a panel on democracy in Nigeria had to do with the APC. I’ve never, since I left office and the president begged me publicly to come and serve in his government – I had my plans and I told President Tinubu from day one when he asked me to support him, I said I would but I don’t want anything, because politics in Nigeria is always about what do I get for giving you support?

“I’m not in politics for that reason, I’m not in politics to get anything. I have a surname, I am a self-made man, I have made my money before coming into public office, I don’t need anything. After eight years in Kaduna, I was nearly burnt out. I was struggling for eight years and I wanted to take a break, and I had my private plans. The president publicly appealed to me to put my plans on hold, and through two months of negotiation, we finally agreed that he would nominate me as minister, and there were certain conditions I attached to that.

“I think along the line, either the president changed his mind or something else, because, please don’t believe the story that the National Assembly rejected me, the National Assembly had nothing to do with this. The president didn’t want me in his cabinet, he changed his mind. Whatever it is, frankly, I don’t care, and I told him and I moved on. And since I moved on, I have not said a word, I have not granted any interview, I have not commented on the government, but it is within my right as a founding member of the APC, as one of the 34 people that signed the INEC formed that got the party registered, it is within my right to ask why is my party not functioning, and that’s all.”

When asked if he was certain about Tinubu changing his mind on the agreed ministerial position, as the National Assembly has said that he failed to meet the ministerial criteria based on security issues, El-Rufai said, “What was the security issue? I had been a governor for eight years in one of the most difficult states in the country, okay? I had been minister 20 years earlier. I’ve been in public life the last 25, 26 years. What is the security issue? Where is the report? What about other ministers far less qualified, far less experience, with huge controversies around them that scaled through because the president made a call?

“So please, leave that aside, I don’t want to focus too much on that. The president is a human being, and he is entitled to change his mind, and it’s not an issue. It is a job I didn’t want in the first place. So, the slightest opportunity I had, the security thing was a good thing for me, because it enabled me to say Mr President, I’m gone, and I went home with my life. Now, since then, has anyone released that report?

“What is the security issue, what is this, what is that. The only reason I’m talking about this is because anytime I make any comment about the party is running or not running – oh, I visit a friend of mine, Tinubu’s hacks go on, oh, it’s because he didn’t get a ministerial nomination. Guys, I was minister 20 years ago in my forties, and I told Tinubu I did not want to be minister, I was not interested. He appealed to me, begged me, and he gave me a challenge. What was the challenge? Nobody has sorted out electricity, no president has defeated the electricity mafia, you and I can work to defeat it. It was the challenge that made me accept. Now, I had an opportunity to serve my country, and the person that gave me that opportunity changed his mind, and it’s okay. I’ve moved on with my life.”

The former governor was then asked if he had interacted with the president recently, to which he responded, “We have met a couple of times, we have met at Baba Akande’s birthday anniversary last year, and the president asked me to come and see him. I met him once, we discussed, and you know, let’s find ways. I said, Mr President, I don’t have any problem, I am fine, life is good. He said, you know, we still have to find ways to work together, I said I’m waiting. You tell me how we can work together, but I want to assure you, as I told you even before the elections, I am fine. I have a private life which predates politics, and I am pursuing my life. Look at me, do I look like I’m stressed? I have put on weight, I sleep better, I don’t have to read security reports about bandit attacks here. I am at peace.”

Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi

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