President Tinubu at crossroads as ‘dollar-stuffing saga’ trailing choice of Ganduje as Minister, APC National Chairman

As President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is struggling to forward list of nominees for his cabinet to the National Assembly for screening and confirmation, one major challenge confronting him is the choice of the former governor of Kano State, Alhaji Abdullahi Umar Ganduje to be included in his cabinet.

This is even as the list is being expected by the 10th Senate that has statutory powers to screen nominees submitted to it by a sitting president. President Tinubu as at Wednesday 26th July, 2023 was still replacing some names earlier penciled down based on the mood of the nation and security reports obtained from the Department of Security Service, DSS.

CAPITAL POST gathered that the immediate past governor of Kano State, Umar Ganduje’s name featured among the first list and after it leaked, the development elicited stiff criticisms even within and outside the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. Critics of the choice of Ganduje recalled the “dollar-stuffing saga”, which became a national embarrassment, while the President was advised to drop Ganduje’s name.

They insisted that dollar for contract bribe against Umar Ganduje was a high level scandal that if he is appointed a Minister, Tinubu’s government may have credibility crisis.

However, President Tinubu’s choice of ministerial appointment from the northwest states of Kano and Kaduna has been narrowed down to Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and Malam Nasir El-Rufai. His reasons might not be unconnected with their roles before and during the February 25, presidential election, where they advised Tinubu to go for muslim-muslim ticket in order to win election in the muslim dominated Northern Nigeria.

Sources hinted that the list was adjusted for Ganduje to replace the erstwhile chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, who resigned from office under controversial circumstances, yet the proposal was trailed with stiff opposition citing the dollar-stuffing scandal as reasons the President and the APC national organ should keep the former governor at arm’s length.

Ganduje has earlier approached the Court to restrain Kano State government from arresting him on account of the alleged ‘dollar bribe’ which was exposed in 2018 by a Kano based online platform.

Similarly, the immediate past governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai’s sins being pushed to President Tinubu’s table not to consider him for ministerial appointment was his alleged embezzlement of N32 billion proceeds of Federal Housing sales when he was Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.

El-Rufai is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, hence, some Civil Society organisations and the APC groups from his homestate in Kaduna have openly advised President Tinubu to drop El-Rufai’s name for another person who is loyal to the party.

Some stakeholders from Kaduna State have also maintained that El-Rufai never supported President Tinubu during the APC presidential primary, but he rather supported the former Minister of Transportation, Chief Rotimi Amaechi and that was responsible for Tinubu losing Kaduna delegates votes.

They further added that Kaduna State APC lost the presidential election to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, due to El-Rufai’s anti-people policies.

In the forefront of pressuring Tinubu not to appoint El-Rufai into his cabinet is a transparency group operating under the aegis of Forum for Transparency and Accountability in Governance.

In a statement on Saturday, they urged President Tinubu, not to succumb to pressures by any politician with pending allegation of fraud related cases in Court or at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC to be appointed into his cabinet in guise of party loyal member.

The transparency group in a statement which was signed by its Convener, Dr Bala Musa Mustapha, Secretary General, Mr Nouel Malama and Director of Publicity, Nafisa Hamid Jika respectively maintained that President Tinubu should gauge the mood of the nation which was obvious that Nigerians detests appointment of people with baggage, stressing that the government of ‘Renewed Hope’ must not be seen to be patronizing those that should be prosecuted for defrauding the nation.

The group emphasized that the immediate past governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai should be kept at arms length and be isolated from the corridor of power, if the present administration should be taken seriously, given that he is standing trial for allegedly embezzling N32 billion revenue from sales of Federal Government Houses between 2005 and 2007 when he was the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.

FOTAG recalled the Justice Binta Nyako-led Federal High Court ruling dated 19th November, 2019, where she ruled that Malam Nasir El-Rufai lacked powers to stop the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC from investigating and prosecuting him over fraud allegation.

Justice Nyako in her judgement in a Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/60/09 which was filed by El-Rufai where he listed 13 respondents including the EFCC, FG and others, seeking to stop his prosecution, the Court in the celebrated judgement insisted that El-Rufai must account for the whereabout of N32 billion.