Nasarawa State governor, Abdullahi Sule, has made it clear that the Progressives Governors’ Forum had nothing to do with the ministerial nomination ordeal of former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai.
Media Talk Africa reports that El-Rufai was vocal in his choice of Bola Tinubu as the flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the last general elections.
El-Rufai, along with other northern governors, supported Tinubu against two other northern juggernauts who were also aspirants.
The former Lagos State governor won the APC ticket and was elected Nigeria’s president during the February 2023 presidential poll.
As a reward for his hard work, Tinubu nominated El-Rufai as one of his ministers three months after his inauguration.
However, El-Rufai was rejected by the Senate during the ministerial screening process.
Sule, a member of the Progressive Governors Forum, also stated that El-Rufai has not left the ruling party.
“El-Rufai has not left our party; he is still part of our party,” Sule said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday.
“What led to his (El-Rufai’s) nomination, what led to his rejection by the Senate or by the security agencies, to be honest with you, are not issues we discussed either at the Progressives Governors Forum or even the Nigeria Governors Forum. They are not issues because what doesn’t concern us, we can do nothing about it.
“It is the prerogative of Mr President to nominate whoever should be his minister and he nominated. Also, there are agencies, including the National Assembly, that either confirm or reject, and they rejected (him),” said the Nasarawa governor.
