Former presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Adewole Adebayo, has described Nasir El-Rufai as a transparent public servant.
Naija News reports that Adebayo said though the former Kaduna State Governor has complained to him that people do not like him, he remains one of the effective politicians in the country.
Speaking with Arise News on Friday, the SDP stalwart explained that he welcomed El-Rufai to his party because of his patriotism and hardworking nature.
He admitted that El-Rufai has weaknesses like all humans, but said he has much to contribute to the party and Nigeria.
His words: “Let me address the issue of Erufai. I was interviewed by the media that I welcomed Nasir El-Rufai into the SDP. And someone said, why was I praising El-Rufai and all of that? And I said, look, I’m not praising him. I recognize El-Rufai as someone who’s a technocrat and an achiever when you give him executive job to do. He has his own weaknesses. He was mentioning to me some problems. People don’t like him in some places. I said, everybody has their own weaknesses. He has his own weaknesses. And it’s his job to deal with that. It’s not my job. I’m not his therapist. I’m not his mentor. But you cannot deny the fact that he was a very effective FCT minister. He developed Kaduna with infrastructure. And he was very good and transparent when he was at the BPE.
“El-Rufai, like any other person, has his own weaknesses. And he is the one who will work on those. It’s not me. I have my own weaknesses. But it’s not for me to be the therapist for El-Rufai on that one. The reason why I welcome to my party is that I see him as a patriotic Nigerian, hardworking, very effective in an era where we don’t have effective people in government.”
