A photo combo of ex-Kaduna governor Nasir el-Rufai (left) and Nasarawa governor Abdullahi Sule.
By Valentine Amanze
Nigeria’s Progressives Governors’ Forum (PGF) can’t do nothing about the ministerial nomination ordeal of former Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai.
Nasarawa State Governor and member of the ruling party’s PGF, Abdullahi Sule, who made the disclosure, further revealed that the embattled el-Rufai was still a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) despite his rejection as a ministerial nominee by the National Assembly in August 2023.
“el-Rufai has not left our party; he is still part of our party,” Sule said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday.
“What led to his (el-Rufai’s) nomination, what led to his rejection by the Senate or by the security agencies, to be honest with you, are not issues we discussed either at the Progressives Governors’ Forum or even the Nigeria Governors’ Forum. They are not issues because what doesn’t concern us, we can do nothing about it.
“It is the prerogative of Mr President to nominate whoever should be his minister and he nominated. Also, there are agencies including the National Assembly that either confirm or reject and they rejected (him),” said the Nasarawa governor.
Also read: N423b scam: Ozekhome defends El-Rufai
El-Rufai was one of the northern powerbrokers who insisted that the APC presidential ticket for the 2023 general elections be given to a Southern candidate in line with the unwritten principle of rotation of power between the Southern and the Northern regions in Nigeria.
This was after the eight-year tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari, from the North-West geopolitical zone.
El-Rufai, who was Kaduna governor between May 2015 and May 2023, was vocal in his choice of ex-Lagos governor Bola Tinubu as the flag bearer of the party in the last general elections.
The then Kaduna governor, alongside his northern colleagues, backed Tinubu against two other northern juggernauts who were also aspirants – then Senate President Ahmad Lawan and ex-Jigawa governor, Mohammed Badaru.
Tinubu later clinched the APC ticket and was elected Nigeria’s president during the February 2023 presidential poll.
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