My father never wanted ministerial job – Bello El-Rufai

Recall that the Senate in August, confirmed 45, out of the
48 ministerial nominees sent by the President.

But, during the confirmation of the ministerial list sent by
Tinubu, the Senate refused to confirm El-Rufai’s nomination as well as those of
two other nominees for appointment as ministers.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio, said the three nominees
not confirmed would be subjected to further security checks and urged those not
confirmed to take their matter to the President.

The ministerial nominees rejected were El-Rufai, Stella
Okotete (Delta), and Sani Danladi (Taraba). 

Speaking on the development, Bello said he was disappointed
when he learnt that his father’s nomination was rejected.

He said, “I was in the National Assembly when my father’s
nomination was rejected. It was very disappointing and still is. Myself, the
Governor of Kaduna State, Uba Sani, and one of my father’s commissioners, Mr
Hafiz Bayero, played a key role in convincing my father to work with this
current government.

“He (Nasir) didn’t want it. It’s hard for Nigerians to
believe it because they feel it is everyone in Nigeria who wants to be a
minister.

“To be fair to him, he didn’t want the job. We convinced him
that, with the antecedents of Asiwaju, he would create an excellent team as he
did in Lagos.

“The President wanted to work with him. It was clear when he
came to Kaduna. We also had an idea of what his portfolio would be. It was
meant to be power and gas. He insisted to the President in private that Nigeria
would not sort its electricity issue if gas was not put under the other
components of power.

“The irony is that nothing has been rougher than the lack of
power in the last two weeks. I’m disappointed because Nigeria lost an effective
administrator in my father, one who is willing to make difficult decisions to
solve a problem.”

Bello, further said many Nigerians do not really know his
father.

He said, “My father is a very simple person who’s been
stereotyped a lot. I got a video of him where people say this or that about him
without even knowing him.

“My father does not go out of his way to change what people
think about him. He doesn’t really care.

“There’s a perception that he’s anti-Christian. But, the
closest person to him since we (children) were four years old was a man from
Cross River State, Peter Jones.

“Religion is personal to us. As minister of the Federal
Capital Territory, he demolished mosques. The imam said he hated Islam. He
demolished churches and the Christians said he hated Christians. Maybe, it is
the wrong imams and pastors who have issues, not him.”

The Kaduna lawmaker added that his father was highly flawed
in many ways.