Former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has withdrawn his interest in being part of President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet.
Premium Times report that Presidency sources said El-Rufai told President Tinubu at a meeting on Tuesday that he was no longer interested in becoming a minister but would continue to contribute his quota to the development of Nigeria as a private citizen.
“He also told the president that he needed time to focus on his doctorate programme at a university in The Netherlands,” one of our sources said.
El-Rufai visited the President at the presidential villa a day after the Senate confirmed 45 ministerial nominees after a week-long screening of 48 of them.
The upper legislative chamber, however, withheld his confirmation and those of two others, citing security reports from the State Security Service for the action.
El-Rufai, according to an associate is studying for a doctorate in public policy at the United Nations University, Maastricht.
His associates say as he prepared to leave office as governor in May this year, he had indicated his desire to exit public life and concentrate on his Ph.D. programme.
But that was until then President-elect Tinubu asked him to join his cabinet so he could charge him with the responsibility of repositioning the inefficient power sector in Africa’s largest economy.
Premium Times
