- Safiu Kehinde
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, has slammed former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, over his allegations against President Bola Tinubu.
Reacting to El-Rufai’s account on the controversies surrounding his rejection by the National Assembly during his screening for ministerial nomination, Bwala labelled the ex-governor’s claims as incoherent and disorganized.
The President’s media aide, in a post on his X handle on Tuesday, claimed El-Rufai’s allegations during his interview on Arise TV’s Prime Time programme yesterday, were aimed at distorting the truth in other to re-shape history and patterns.
NPO reported that El-Rufai had accused Tinubu of deceiving him with request to serve in his cabinet.
He alleged that the President never wanted him in the cabinet despite begging him for support.
As against the rejection claim, El-Rufai said the National Assembly had nothing to do with it.
“The president begged me publicly to come and serve in his government. After two months of negotiations, we finally agreed that he would nominate me as minister.
“I think along the line, the president changed his mind. Please don’t believe the story that the NASS rejected me; the National Assembly has nothing to do with this. The president didn’t want me in his cabinet.” El-Rufai said.
Dismissing any security report that purportedly nailed him and prevented him from being cleared for ministerial position, El-Rufai said that having been governor in one of the most volatile states in the country, there was no report whatsoever that nailed noting that former governors who had cases around them were cleared for ministerial positions.
He said,“What was the security issue? I have been the governor for 8 years in one of the most difficult states in the country. Where is the report? What about other ministers who are far less qualified and have huge controversies around them that scale through because the president makes a call”
Speaking further during the interview, the former governor said that those implementing some of the policies of the Tinubu administration are te wrong sets of people who could have made better the economy.
He said, “I support some of (Tinubu) policies; most of the economic policies are the right orthodox policies, but the sequencing is wrong and the quality of the people implementing the reforms leaves much to be desired.”