Posted by Mr. Osita Okechukwu, a founding member of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has pleaded with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to dismiss Mallam Nasir El-Rufai from his cabinet.
After the Senate purportedly put the former governor of Kaduna on hold due to a security report, his appointment became controversial.
According to reports, El-Rufai has decided to turn down the ministerial position after the mix-up.
While fielding questions from media in Abuja on Sunday, Mr. Okechukwu urged them to take into account El-Rufai’s promised quality contributions to the nation as minister of power.
For reasons of “urgent national importance,” Okechukwu, who is also the Director General of Voice of Nigeria, pleaded with President Tinubu to reverse his decision to remove El-Rufai from the Federal Executive Council. In particular, Mr. President’s prior public invitation for Malam to join his Cabinet drew much attention.
He had previously advocated for El-Rufai to be promoted to the position of Chief of Staff in 2015, but then-President Muhammadu Buhari had other plans for him, naming him governor of Kaduna State instead.
Neither our dear nation nor President Tinubu should miss out on the exceptional El-Rufai tonic that Buhari squandered, in his opinion. The abundance of effective ministers will also help our great party, the APC, in the run-up to the general election in 2027.
Okechukwu lamented that the loss of El-Rufai, who he believed would bring new ideas to the table for improving Nigeria’s electricity sector, will result in more people being cut off from the country’s electrical grid.
The epileptic power supply has already driven away many of the wealthy, while the excessive prices have driven away many of the poor. If anyone can solve it, it’s El-Rufai.
Okechukwu, who was accused of bootlicking, responded as follows: “I am neither a cheerleader of Malam Nasir El-Rufai nor am I saying that he is indispensable; however, as Mr Project, he is equipped more than some of us to not only transform our electricity chain, but sanitize the toxic energy industry.”
Further, Okechukwu stated emphatically, “Nigeria cannot develop until we fix our electricity supply chain, as small, medium, and larger scale industries cannot thrive successfully under less than 4,000 megawatts.”
To paraphrase, “President Tinubu should not eject El-Rufai because of his minuses, for his plus track records in BPE, FCT, and Kaduna State confirmed his exceptional competence and capacity to overhaul our electricity chain.”
It is easy to believe that he put up a crack team to tackle this difficult task after receiving an invitation from Mr. President. Okechukwu pleaded, “Let him be Mr. President.”
Okechukwu was asked if he was aware of the alleged breaches committed by El-Rufai that may have led to the security report being filed against him. He responded, “One wholly condemns injustice of any hue from anyone, let alone the reckless killings which took place in Kaduna under his watch.”
As the saying goes, “injustice anywhere is injustice to all,” yet preventing the thousands of deaths that occur every day in Nigeria due to the erratic power supply could be an atonement for Malam El-Rufai. Otherwise, you can only find a large number of angels in heaven.