Nasir El Rufai, the governor of Kaduna State, has accused some aides of President Muhammadu Buhari of allegedly leaking his last private memo to the president.
El-Rufai made the accusation on Friday, April 14, 2017 while speaking to State House Correspondents after joining Buhari and other Muslim faithful for the Juma’at prayers in the Presidential Villa.
The governor, who declared that no one, including some of the “powerful” aides of the President, can stop him from visiting the Villa, said: “Within the Villa, there are people that like me and there are those who don’t and it is normal. My relationship with the President has never been strained in any way.
“I met with him last night, I did not talk about things like that, but my relationship with him is like that of father and son and it is a privilege for me. I told him I will come today for the Juma’at and I did.”
It was El Rufai’s first visit to Aso Rock since his blunt private memo to the President was leaked in the media. The governor, who said there was no strain in his relationship with the President up till date, added that he had written several similar memoranda to the President in the past to draw his attention on the need to strengthen governance issues in the interest of Nigerians and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) led federal government.
“No one ever stopped me from coming to the Villa and no one can stop me from coming to the Villa. As a governor, I come here, I have blank cheques; no one checks me at the gate.
“But I believe what the president needs is for those that love him to keep away from him and allow him to rest. “The President needs quality time to rest, because it is meeting too many people that strains leadership.
“I am a governor and I know that when I meet 10 people in a day, I get really tired. It is not the paperwork, it is not really the memos, approving them or asking questions that strains a leader; it is the stream of visitors. I do not want to contribute to the President’s problem by coming here everyday,” El Rufai noted.
He expressed happiness that part of his recommendations in the memo were being implemented, adding: “I believe that since September last year when I wrote the letter, there has been significant improvement in the delivery of services at the federal level. Some of our federal programmes have started in earnest.
“If anyone reads that memo, he will see that there is nothing in the memo that has anything to do other than with the success of Mr. President and progress of the country.
“That is my goal, my motive and I am driven by that. I stand behind the president to the very end,” he added.
The Kaduna State governor also denied any friction between him and members of the National Assembly, noting that his call for the lawmakers to make public their earnings and annual budgets was done out of patriotism.
You may read the full interview at The Guardian.
