Media aide to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Bayo Onanuga, has urged former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, to move on from his failed ministerial nomination, advising him to stop acting like a child.
Onanuga made this statement on Tuesday during an interview on Channels Television’s “Sunrise Daily.” He said El-Rufai still seemed hurt months after being dropped from President Tinubu’s cabinet.
“As a person, I pity the former governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai. He feels hurt that he was not made a minister. It has been a long time since the cabinet was formed in August 2023. I think it is time for him to move on. He cannot continue to behave like a child, as if someone stole his bread,” Onanuga said.
El-Rufai was initially nominated for a ministerial role but was dropped after the Senate declined to confirm his appointment over security concerns.
Speaking during an interview with Arise TV on Monday, El-Rufai claimed that it was President Tinubu, not the National Assembly, who rejected his nomination.
“The President publicly appealed to me to put my plans on hold, and after two months of negotiations, we finally agreed that he would nominate me as a minister, with certain conditions I attached to that,” El-Rufai said.
“I think along the line, either the President changed his mind or something else happened. Please don’t believe the story that the National Assembly rejected me. The National Assembly had nothing to do with this. The President didn’t want me in his cabinet. He changed his mind. Whatever the reason, I don’t care, and I’ve moved on.”
El-Rufai added that he had remained silent about the issue but insisted he had the right to question the functionality of the All Progressives Congress.
“Since I moved on, I have not said a word, granted an interview, or commented on the government, but it is within my right as a founding member of the All Progressives Congress to ask why the party isn’t functioning,” he said.
