After giving up on being appointed to a ministerial position, Nasir El-Rufai, the former governor of Kaduna State, flew out of the country.
El-Rufai will first visit Egypt, according to a reliable source, before traveling to Europe.
President Bola Tinubu had nominated 48 ministers, and the Senate had last week confirmed the appointment of 45 of them.
El-Rufai as well as two other nominees, Stella Okotete (Delta) and Danladi Abubakar (Taraba), weren’t confirmed since the senate claimed they weren’t yet in possession of security clearance.
A petition against el-Rufai was reportedly brought during his screening last week by Kogi west senator Sunday Karimi.
The outcome of the former governor’s Tuesday meeting with Tinubu at the presidential mansion in Abuja was kept private.
Premium Times said, however, that El-Rufai informed President Tinubu that he was no longer interested in becoming a minister but would instead continue to make his contribution as a private person to the development of Nigeria.
Another source was cited by PT as saying that the president was also informed that the man required time to concentrate on his doctoral study at a Dutch university.
According to a different source, the former governor of Kaduna nominated Jafaru Ibrahim Sani as a new ministerial candidate.
El-Rufai reportedly also informed the President that, due to his departure from the federal executive council, he would be returning the following day with his team to submit the preliminary work completed thus far on the energy sector.
The team, according to the online platform, included Tolu Oyekan of the Boston Consulting Group, Ayodele Oni, a lawyer, and Eyo Ekpo, a former commissioner at the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). Hafiz Bayero, a former commissioner and administrator of the Kaduna Capital Territory Authority, was also a member of the group.
El-Rufai’s spokesperson, Muyiwa Adekeye, did not provide any comments when approached.
