Nasir El-Rufai is the executive governor of Kaduna State, a state in the North-West Geopolitical zone of Nigeria. He is a founding member of the All Progressive Congress (APC).
Governor El-Rufai who was born on February 16, 1960, has been in office since 2015. He is currently 61 years old. He succeeded Mukhtar Ramalan Yero as the governor of Kaduna State.
Just like his fellow colleagues in the North, El-Rufai is a subject of criticism by many. Perhaps, it might be as a result of the current security crisis the region is passing through at the moment.
Over the last couple of months, talks of El-Rufai merging together with the former Nigerian president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to run under the platform of the All Progressive Congress in the next presidential election, have been the talk of the Town. A claim that several PDP members like Reno Omokri have kicked against.
However, today, I will talk about three major reasons why I believe Nasir El-Rufai will be a good choice for the position of presidency by 2023.
1. He is a great Industrialist.
In 1982, El-Rufai founded “El-Rufai & partners” with three other partners. Within the period of 1983 and 1998 during the military juntas, the establishment was able to win building contracts during the construction of the Nation’s capital, Abuja. That achievement within that period made them young millionaires.
The military juntas that existed between the period of 1983 and 1998 was a period of military dictatorship in Nigeria that was led by Military Forces.
El-Rufai’s ability to achieve that feat in a period when things were tough for everyone shows how diplomatic he is and what he has to offer to the table in the Industrial sector if he eventually becomes the president.
2. His administration saved N1.2 billion within two months.
On August 6, 2015, during one of his acts as the executive governor of Kaduna State, El-Rufai announced that Kaduna State will adopt a Treasury Single Account and at the end of the exercise, 470 accounts belonging to several ministries and departments were closed and the sum of N24.7 billion was recovered and remitted to the Kaduna State Government TSA with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
As a result of his ability to reduce the running cost of the state government, it was reported that his administration saved N1.2 billion within the time frame of 2 months.
This alone should make you understand the intellectual capacity of El-Rufai and what he has to bring to the table in terms of the Nation’s finances.
3. El-Rufai is committed to quality and good education.
In a bid to ensure quality education in Kaduna state, El-Rufai sacked over 22,000 unqualified teachers and Kick-started the school feeding program in his state. The school feeding program is aimed at feeding 1.5 million public primary school pupils at least one time daily.
He also got rid of the collection of fees and education levies in primary and junior secondary schools in Kaduna. By that action alone, he removed a financial burden of about N3 billion from parents.
Nasir El-Rufai has all it takes to become a president that will have a great impact on the lives of Nigerians. He has the intellectual capacity and financial sense to make things work in the right direction for this country.
