By Ola Kay
One of the children of the former governor of Kaduna State, who is a member representing Kaduna North Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Bello El-Rufai, has bragged about the fact that said Nigeria as a nation missed an effective administrator in the person of his father, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, after the Senate declined the confirmation of his appointment as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
El-Rufai junior made the disclosure in an interview with Seun Okinbaloye, ( a media personality and political journalist with Channels Television) on a podcast, Mic on Podcast, monitored by this digital publication.
According to the young politician, it took his persuasions and other family members for El-Rufai to consider the ministerial nomination from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
It would be recalled that, the Red Chamber (Senate) had on August 2023 during the confirmation of the ministerial list sent by the President, rejected El-Rufai’s nomination, alongside two other nominees for appointment as members of President Tinubu’s cabinet.
Then, 45 out of the 48 nominees were confirmed, while the remaining thee nominees, Nasir El-Rufai,(Kaduna), Stella Okotete (Delta), and Sani Danladi (Taraba), were to be subjected to further security scrutiny, according to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
Reacting to all that played out then, Hon. Bello, who is the Chairman, House Committee on Banking Regulations, explained how he got disappointed about his father’s nomination being turned down, “To be fair to him,( Mallam Nasir El-Rufai), he didn’t want the job. We convinced him that, with the antecedents of Asiwaju, he would create an excellent team as he did in Lagos.
“The President wanted to work with him. It was clear when he came to Kaduna. We also had an idea of what his portfolio would be.
“It was meant to be power and gas. He insisted to the President in private that Nigeria would not sort its electricity issue if gas was not put under the other components of power.
“The irony is that nothing has been rougher than the lack of power in the last two weeks.
“I’m disappointed because Nigeria lost an effective administrator in my father, one who is willing to make difficult decisions to solve a problem.
He used the opportunity to state the fact that Nigerians never really knew the personality of his father.
He said: “He (Nasir) didn’t want it. It’s hard for Nigerians to believe it because they feel it is everyone in Nigeria who wants to be a minister.
Bello described his father as one who is willing to make difficult decisions to solve a problem.”
About his father’s personality which he claimed many didn’t know, he said that, “My father is a very simple person who’s been stereotyped a lot.
“I got a video of him where people say this or that about him without even knowing him.“
“My father does not go out of his way to change what people think about him. He doesn’t really care.
“There’s a perception that he’s anti-Christian. But, the closest person to him since we (children) were four years old was a man from Cross River State, Peter Jones.“Religion is personal to us.
” As minister of the Federal Capital Territory, he demolished mosques. The imam said he hated Islam. He demolished churches and the Christians said he hated Christians.
” Maybe, it is the wrong imams and pastors who have issues, not him.”
Despite the public perception in some quarters, Bello El-Rufai placed his father in the class of what he described as ‘astute administrators’ like Dora Akunyili, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Nuhu Ribadu, Charles Soludo and Akinwunmi Adesina.
Also recall that in May, 2023, Bello El-Rufai took the second wife, Aisha, in a private wedding in Abuja. Aisha is the daughter of the former Military Administrator for Plateau and Niger states, Colonel Habibu Shuaibu.
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