Former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, on Monday said he was not rejected by the National Assembly as a ministerial nominee.
El-Rufai, while speaking in an interview on Arise TV, The Prime Time, said President Bola Tinubu simply “changed his mind on the nomination” he added that he never wanted to be Minister after he had concluded his two terms as Governor.
He claimed that Tinubu appealed and begged him to work for him so that they could resolve the electricity challenge in the country, which no president had done.
El-Rufai, who debunked the claims that the National Assembly rejected him because of a security report from the Department of State Services (DSS) said, “Since I left office and the president begged me publicly to support him, I said I would and I don’t want anything.
He said: “The President is entitled to change his mind. It is a job I never wanted in the first place. I was a Minister 20 years ago.and I told Tinubu I didn’t want to be Minister. I am not interested.
“He appealed to me, begged me. 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 to accept.”
I am a self-made man I don’t need anything. Through two months of negotiations we finally agreed that he would nominate me as minister and there were certain conditions I attached to that, along the line, either the president changed his mind. Please don’t believe the story that the National Assembly rejected me, they had nothing to do with it, the president didn’t want me in his cabinet.”
On the alleged security concerns cited for his rejection, El-Rufai challenged the claim, insisting there was no report against him.
