Governor Nasiru Ahmed El-Rufai of Kaduna state has alleged that a private memo he wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari in September last year was leaked to the media by someone in the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said that it was not the first time he would be writing and submitting such memo to the President with honest intention to guide him and his government for the greater achievements for both the President and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The governor spoke to news men today, Friday, shortly after the Friday (Jum’at) prayer alongside President Buhari at State House Mosque, Abuja.
In the 30-page document, which he wrote to the President on September 22, 2016, Governor El-Rufai alerted the President that he was losing the vision and the momentum with which All Progressives Congress (APC) started its Change Agenda.
The governor advised the President to effect changes in the leadership of some federal agencies and establishments, and to communicate constantly with Nigerians, so they will know the plans of his government.
El-Rufai expressed disappointment that a private communication to the highest office in the land can be leaked and it was leaked from the villa, adding: “this is a fact. I was told by those who published it…
“We live in an age where anything you write or say can be leaked. I have no ill motive but I wanted to communicate with the president what many Nigerians are talking about and what steps can be taken to improve governance of the country and move the country forward.
“That was my motive and if tomorrow, like I said, I see anything that the president needs to know I will discuss with him and I will articulate and put it into writing and on the record for him to have a reminder document to work on.”
The governor, who also reacted to insinuations that he had been banned from entering the State House on the strength of the memo, said that such insinuations are unfounded and that nobody can stop him from visiting the Villa.
The governor explained that he stopped frequenting the villa because the President needs quality time to rest and also attends to challenges of governance.
“No one ever stopped me from coming to the villa and no one can stop me from coming to 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 strain a leader, it is the stream of visitors.
“I do not want to contribute to the President’s problem by coming here every day. I am in touch with him,’’ he added.
The governor, therefore, appealed to Nigerians to show more understanding and love to the president by allowing him to rest and also concentrate more on his private and official engagements, saying that “visitors stress leaders’’.
“Let me appeal to all of us that love the President to please allow him some space so that he will recover.
“We need him and the country needs him, it is in our interest for the stability of the country, we should just let him be.
“It is absolutely necessary lets us leave him to do his work in the privacy of his room or his office without strings of visitors. Visitors stress leaders.’’
El-Rufa’i also described his relationship with Buhari as cordial, saying that the relationship had never been strained in anyway.
He, however, acknowledged that there were people within the presidency “that like me and there are those who don’t and it is normal.
“My relationship with the President has never been strained in anyway. I met with him last
night,
“I did not talk about things like that but our relationship with him is like that of father and son and it is privilege for me.”
Meanwhile, Chief Imam of the State House Mosque, Sheik Abdulwaheed Sulaiman, has called on Muslims and Christians to unite as brothers and sisters, given the common Abrahamic origin of their religions. [myad]
