Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai

Malam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai (born 16 February 1960) is a Nigerian politician who is the incumbent Governor of Kaduna State and the former Director General of The Bureau of Public Enterprises, the head privatisation agency in Nigeria. Minister of the He was the minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja from 16 July 2003 to 29 May 2007. He is a member of All Progressives Congress (APC) and was elected as the Executive Governor of Kaduna State during the 2015 general elections in Nigeria

Early life and Education

EL-Rufai was born in Daudawa of Faskari Local Government Area in Katsina State.His father died while he was 8 years old.He was sponsored throughout his schooling days by an uncle in Kaduna, and as a result he grew up in the Northern state. He went to secondary school in the Barewa College, where he graduated at the top of the class, winning the "Barewa Old Boys' Association Academic Achievement" Trophy in 1976. Incidentally, in Barewa College Zaria, the former President Umaru Yar'Adua was the House Captain of Mallam Smith House which was Nasir's dormitory as a junior. He went off to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, earning a Bachelor in Quantity Surveying degree with First Class Honors. He also attended post-graduate programs at Harvard Business School and Georgetown University. Since leaving public service, Nasir has completed an LL.B degree from the University of London, graduating in August 2008 with Second Class Honors, Upper Division, and a master's degree in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University in June 2009. He also received the Kennedy School Certificate in Public Policy and Management having spent 11 months as an Edward A. Mason Fellow in Public Policy and Management from July 2008 to June 2009

Early career

Nasir established a Quantity Surveying and Project Management Consulting firm in 1982 with three other partners. The firm handled building and civil engineering projects in Nigeria. From November 1999 to July 2003, he was the Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises and the Secretary of the National Council of Privatization where he spearheaded the privatisation of many government owned companies alongside the former Vice-President.He presided over a real estate boom backed by the radical transformation of infrastructure and land use practices of the federal capital earlier riddled with corruption and vast deviation from the original masterplan. With the establishment of the Abuja Geographic Information System within 12 months of being Minister of the FCT, Abuja became the first municipality in Nigeria with a computerised land register and information system. Along with the President and members of the Economic Management Team, he led the reform of the Nigerian public service which had become dysfunctional during years of military dictatorship. At various times during his tenure as Minister, he oversaw the Federal Ministries of Commerce (twice) and Interior. He also chaired several high-profile cabinet committees that led to the establishment of a mortgage system in Nigeria, National ID card system for Nigeria, Electric Power Supply Improvement and the sale of Federal Government real estate in Abuja.

Political career

During the last days of the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, the former EFCC Chairman described El-Rufai as the "de facto No. 2 official", tagging him with the role of a Vice-President, especially after the fall-out between the former President and his Vice-President. It is believed that Obasanjo's trust and confidence in El-Rufai angered a vast number of the political elite within the country.Indeed, it was widely believed that the former President was considering blessing EL-Rufai as his successor. However, it was believed the vast political powers against him were too much, probably as a result of the fear of what may happen to them once he was in power.

Many view El-Rufai as a public servant who gets difficult jobs done, especially after he ordered the demolition of the house of the Chairman of the ruling party in Nigeria. However, since the end of the Obasanjo administration, El-Rufai has kept a very low profile, but still remains an Obasanjo loyalist having frequently defended the former President's policies.The administration of the President, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua appointed El-Rufai to the National Energy Council in September 2007, due to the belief that he could contribute positively to the under-achieving power sector of the country. Nasir resigned the appointment in June 2008, and on 30 April and 7 May 2008, El-Rufai appeared before the Nigerian's Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory to explain some exposed and corrupt actions of his administration. He attempted to justify his actions and stoutly rejected cynics views on the allegation that he allocated plots of land to his friends, brother and cronies, and it was clear that many of the Senators had lost properties during the restoration of Abuja by El-Rufai and were therefore just out to get their pound of flesh. To a vast amount of Nigerians, El-Rufai is simply being witched-hunted for stepping on the toes of the corrupt political elite within the country

Governor of Kaduna State

In 2014, El-Rufai won the gubernatorial primaries of the All Progressives Congress for Kaduna State and was declared the party's candidate for the April 2015 governorship election.In the April 11 governorship election in Kaduna State, El-Rufai secured 1,117,635 million votes to defeat the incumbent governor and candidate of the People's Democratic Party, Mukhtar Ramalan Yero. The election was upheld by the election petition tribunal in October 2015.

El-Rufai was sworn in as the 22nd governor of Kaduna State on 29 May 2015. In his inaugural address, he announced that he and his deputy were taking a pay cut and donating 50 percent of their salaries and allowances pending an improvement in the state's fiscal situation. On 6 August 2015, El-Rufai in one of his first acts as governor announced that Kaduna State will adopt the Treasury Single Account policy by 1 September of the same year. At the end of the exercise, 470 accounts belonging to different ministries, departments and agencies were closed and a sum of N24.7 billion was recovered and remitted to the Kaduna State Government TSA with the Central Bank of Nigeria.

El-Rufai also reformed the civil service in Kaduna State and reduced the number of ministries from 19 to 13 and the number of permanent secretaries from 35 to 18. In a bid to reduce the cost of governance, El-Rufai appointed only 13 commissioners, 10 special advisers and 12 special assistants as against the 24 commissioners, 41 special advisers and about 400 special assistants appointed by the previous administration. By blocking leakages and cutting the cost of running government, it is estimated that the El-Rufai administration was able to save N1.2 billion in just two months.

In January 2016, El-Rufai's administration launched the School Feeding Programme, aimed at providing one free meal per day to 1.5 million pupils in public primary schools within the state His administration also abolished the collection of fees and levies in public primary and junior secondary schools in Kaduna, thereby removing a financial burden of N3 billion from the parents.

Family life

El-Rufai is married to writer and novelist Hadiza Isma El-Rufai. Together, they run the Yasmin El-Rufai Foundation (YELF), set up to honour their daughter who died in 2011