The Bola Tinubu presidency has reacted to former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai over his public claim that the president, and not the National Assembly, blocked his ministerial appointment.
The presidency in a statement by spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, advised el-Rufai to “stop crying like a baby whose bread was stolen” and move on.
Onanuga made the remark on Tuesday while appearing on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily.
Read Onanuga: “As a person, I think I will pity the former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai. He feels hurt that he was not made a minister… I think it is time for him to move on,” Onanuga said.
“You cannot continue to behave like a child as if somebody stole your bread and you are crying over spilt milk. It is natural for you to feel hurt. It is natural for you to feel bad for being excluded.
“As the President acknowledged in the birthday wish to him, Nasir actually helped a lot in installing President Tinubu. If he is not there, it does not mean that he must bring down the roof.”
On Monday night, el-Rufai had granted an explosive interview to Arise News, where he accused President Tinubu — not the National Assembly — of being directly responsible for his ministerial rejection.
“Please don’t believe the story that the National Assembly rejected me. The National Assembly has nothing to do with it. The President did not want me in his cabinet,” el-Rufai said.
He claimed that despite his pivotal role in Tinubu’s election, he was deliberately sidelined, adding that the president had initially begged him publicly to serve in his government.
According to him, “After two months of negotiations, we finally agreed that he would nominate me as a minister, and then there were certain conditions I attached. I think, along the line, either the President changed his mind or something else.”
el-Rufai insisted that he had no personal grudges against the Tinubu administration but criticized how the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was being run, warning that unresolved issues within the party could lead to deeper internal cracks.
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