These, undoubtedly are not the best of times for the immediate past governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir el-Rufai as the Senate has denied him and two others of ministerial confirmation.
After seven days of screening, the Senate has confirmed 45 of the 48 ministerial nominees presented by President Bola Tinubu.
However, Nasir El-Rufai was denied confirmation on Monday, August 7th, 2023 over security report. The other two nominees are former Deputy Governor of Taraba State, Senator Abubakar Danladi and Stella Okotete from Delta State.
For those who don’t know, the trio of El-Rufai, Danladi and Okotete had petitions against their nominations.
According to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, the Senate did not clear them because of security reports that must be cleared.
Interestingly, when el-Rufai appeared before the Senate for screening, the Chairman, Senate Services Committee, Senator Sunday Karimi (APC, Kogi West), said he had a heavy petition against the former Kaduna governor.
Senator Karimi said; “Mr President, I have a petition written against the nominee over the issue of insecurity in Southern Kaduna when he was governor. If I am permitted, I will like to read the petition.”
However, Senate President Akpabio, objected and said; “This is not the place to consider petitions, we will sit with the petitions later and refer them to relevant authorities. Please, take a bow and go, my brother,” he told el-Rufai.
Meanwhile, the billion dollar question on the lips of many Nigerians is “what is next for the former Governor of Kaduna State if he didn’t get the ministeral appointment”?
