“No Northerner Helped Tinubu’s Election More Than El-Rufai Did, The President  Owes Him” –  Fmr. Minister  Shittu

By Adesina Soyooye

A former Minister of Communications under the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration, Adebayo Shittu, has said that President Bola Tinubu  should have treated the immediate past Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai  better than he has been treated. His advice: The President should reach out to El-Rufai, and draw him close.

According to Shittu, no Northerner contributed to the reality of Tinubu’s Presidency more than El- Rufai. He recalled how El-Rufai stood by Tinubu through thick and thin to see that the Presidency went to the South, and even went to Court during the Central Bank’s deliberate cash crunch in the country. When no Northerner was bold enough to publicly support Tinubu, Shittu said, El-Rufai did, mobilising.

Shittu who spoke in an interview with The Punch insisted that El-Rufai deserved fair treatment than he has been given.

Said Shittu: “With regards to El-Rufai, I keep remembering the pivotal role he played  in getting the North to support a Tinubu Presidency. I mean, there is no running away from that fact.

“We know, also, that Tinubu really courted his support with promises that he would be brought into governance. So, when we see what has happened, naturally, as a human being, El-Rufai will be disappointed. For me as an individual, and I am speaking the truth in accordance with my conscience, I don’t see any Northern politician who did much more  for Tinubu’s emergence as El-Rufai. I don’t see it and I am being fair because being a very courageous person, when other people were not sure of supporting Tinubu, he came out boldly, agitating and mobilising.

“You also recall that at a stage, he took the Buhari  government to Court when they were playing pranks about money redesign and all of that.

So, I think that President  Tinubu should try and forge  a new alliance with him. It is very important and it is only fair. To whom much is given, much is expected. I think he should be rehabilitated and brought in. It is better to make more friends than allow your friends to become enemies.”

Tinubu had nominated El-Rufai as a Cabinet member, but the Senate shockingly did not clear him. El-Rufai was later to disclose that they did that on Tinubu’s instruction after Tinubu had promised him he would be the Minister for Power.

El-Rufai, also, a former FCT Minister, has recently dumped the APC which founding member he is, for the Social Democratic Party, SDP. He is now mobilising against Tinubu’s re-election in 2027. A few days ago, he described Tinubu’s Government as the worst ever in the history of Nigeria as well as the most corrupt.