Politics

Gov el-Rufai, 6 others echo calls for Buhari’s re-election

Published

7 years ago

January 13, 2018

The immediate past Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has reportedly withdrawn his interest in being part of President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet. According to report, presidency sources said Mr 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,” a source said. Another insider also said that the former governor suggested a new ministerial nominee — Jafaru Ibrahim Sani — for Kaduna State, saying the President would find him very useful and resourceful. Mr Sani served as commissioner in three ministries in Kaduna State (Local Government Education and Environment) while Mr El-Rufai was governor.

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Seven governors, including Gov. Nasiru el-Rufai of Kaduna State, on Friday met with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, and reiterated the need for him to re-contest in the 2019 presidential election.

El-Rufa’i, who spoke to State House correspondents after the closed door meeting with the president, said though their meeting was apolitical, the governors wanted him to continue running the country beyond 2019.

According to him, people are free to continue to speculate about the 2019 elections, but he and other governors are interested in continuity and stability of the country.

He said: “We are politicians and those of us you see here want the president to contest the 2019 election, we have no apologies for that.

“We believe in Mr. President, we want him to continue running the country in the right direction. People can speculate about 2019, we have no apologies.

“Whether they are right or wrong is beside the point. Everybody is entitled to his or her own opinion but as governors, and most of us here with the exception of Yobe Governor, are first term governors.

“We are interested in continuity and stability and we want the president to continue with that.

“Like our leader, the governor of Kano said, we just happen to be here by coincidence and we went to pray and decided to felicitate with the president and we feel satisfied that anytime we see him, he is getting better and better.’’

Other governors, who met with the president alongside with el-Rufa’i, were Gov. Abubakar Bello of Niger; Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe, Yahaya Bello of Kogi, Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano, Jibrilla Bindo of Adamawa and Simon Lalong of Plateau.