Exclusive: Top Public Official Reveals Ministerial Portfolio Tinubu Will Give El-Rufai After Confirmation

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has pencilled down the immediate past governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai, as the minister of environment, Legit.ng understands.

The slot has been reserved for El Rufai, a government source told Legit.ng, but it is subject to the Godswill Akpabio-led Senate rethinking its decision not to clear the 63-year-old.

El-Rufai, Stella Okotete (Delta state), and Abubakar Danladi (Taraba state) are still undergoing security clearance and could still fill in the void for some ministries if security agents clear them. The trio are staunch members of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

At present, Kaduna state has no representative among the new ministers. The public official who doesn’t want to be named told Legit.ng: “El-Rufai is the unnamed slot for the minister of environment.”

Recall that President Tinubu on Wednesday, August 16, assigned portfolios to 45 minister-designates ahead of their swearing-in on Monday, August 21.

It also formulates policies and supervises activities for curbing desertification and deforestation; the management of flood, erosion, and pollution, as well as climate change and clean energy.

Recent flooding in Nigeria has become an “overwhelming” disaster. In 2022, the country battled its worst floods in a decade with more than 300 people killed. Although El Rufai was tipped in some quarters to occupy the minister of power seat, Adebayo Adelabu from Oyo state has been assigned to that role.

Earlier, Legit.ng reported that a group, Like Minds Forum of Nigeria, criticised the controversy surrounding the ministerial appointment of El-Rufai.

The northern group berated the Nigerian Senate for withholding the confirmation of El-Rufai, as a minister, describing it as procedurally wrong and politically defective.

They called on the Senate to immediately clear and confirm El-Rufai as it did to other ministerial nominees.