Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai Biography (Early Life, Career, Politics)

El-Rufai was a Nigerian politician and a member of the APC party. He describes himself as an accidental public servant. He once said that his vision is to work for a truly united Nigeria where tribe and religion don’t matter, continue reading Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai Biography and know more about his personality and career

Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai Biography

Mallam Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai was born on February 16, 1960, to a Fulani family in Daudawa, Faskari Local government in Katsina state. He was a Nigerian politician and a member of APC party. He describes himself as an accidental public servant. He once said that his vision is to work for a truly united Nigeria where tribe and religion don’t matter.

Early life

His father died while he was 8 years old, he was then sponsored by one of his uncles living in Kaduna. As a result of this, El-Rufai sites his state of origin as Kaduna State.
El-Rufai went into self-imposed exile and became a vocal critic of the Umaru Yar’Adua administration in 2008.

Education

El-Rufai was educated in Barewa College. As a junior at the college, President Umaru Yar’Adua was the house captain of his dormitory. In 1976, he graduated at the top of his class, winning the “Barewa Old Boys’ Association Academic Achievement” Trophy. El-Rufai attended Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, where he received a bachelor’s degree in quantity surveying with first-class honors.
In 1984, he received a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. He attended several professional and post-graduate programs, including the Georgetown School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C and programs on privatization and leadership.
In August 2008 he received a law degree from the University of London; and a master’s degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government of 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.

Personal Life

El-Rufai is married to three wives; Hadiza, Assia, and Ummi, and blessed with five beautiful children. He runs the Yasmin El-Rufai Foundation (YELF) with his first wife Hadiza Isma El-Rufai; a novelist set up in honor of their daughter who died in 2011. He is the incumbent governor of Kaduna state.

Career

In 1982, he founded El-Rufai & Partners, a quantity surveying consulting firm with three partners which he managed until 1998, During the military juntas of 1983–1998, the firm received building and civil engineering contracts including the construction of Abuja, making the partners “young millionaires”
Also, El-Rufai held management positions with two international telecommunications companies, AT&T Network Systems International BV and Motorola Inc.

Politics

El-Rufai was appointed as an economic advisor in 1998 by General Abdulsalami following the death of military head of state General Sani Abacha. In this role he worked with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
After President Olusegun Obasanjo got in to power as been transferred from the military, El –Rufai was appointed the director of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, and Secretary of the National council of Privatizartion in November 1999.

He was subsequently arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2010, when he returned to Nigeria. He explained his return was in order to clear his name of corruption charges.
El-Rufai joined party politics with the Congress for Progressive Change supporting Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign in the 2011 presidential election, El-Rufai was appointed deputy national secretary of the newly formed All Progressives Congress (APC).

In 2014, El-Rufai declared his campaign for Governor of Kaduna State, contesting the APC governorship primaries to emerge as the party’s candidate for Governor of Kaduna State, He went on to win the governorship election, with over one million votes to defeat the incumbent Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, In 2018, he again emerged as the APC’s governorship candidate. He was re-elected on 9 March 2019, defeating his closet rival by over 200,000 votes.