‘My father never wanted ministerial job’, El-Rufai’s son, Bello, claims

Bello, a son of former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, claims his father was not too keen on becoming a minister in the President Bola Tinubu’s administration as it took concerted efforts and pleas from him and other family members for his father to accept the ministerial nomination from Tinubu.

Bello, the lawmaker representing Kaduna North Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, who made the revelation in an interview with media personality, Seun Okinbaloye, on a podcast, ‘Mic on Podcast’, however, noted that the rejection of his father as a minister by the Senate robbed Nigeria of the opportunity of having an astute and effective administrator to man a Ministry in the country.

“I was in the National Assembly when my father’s nomination was rejected. It was very disappointing and still is. Myself, the Governor of Kaduna State, Uba Sani, and one of my father’s commissioners, Mr Hafiz Bayero, played a key role in convincing my father to work with this current government,” Bello said.

“He 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.

“To be fair to him, 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.

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“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.”

Bello who is the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Banking Regulations, also threw light on what many Nigerians do not know about his father.

“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, his 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.”

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