Mallam Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai

Former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory

Date of Birth: 16/02/1960
Place of Birth: Katsina

Education: Barewa College, 1976; BSc Quantity Surveying, Ahmadu Bello University; MBA, Harvard University, United States.

Career: Director General, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), 1999-03; Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, 2003-07.

Commentary: El-Rufai was BPE Secretary when it was under the direction of then Vice-President Atiku Abubakar. Abubakar picked him out as a future minister, but his nomination fell through after he accused two senators of extorting a 54 million naira bribe from him. The two senators (Ibrahim Mantu and Jonathan Silas Zwingina) denied the charges.

The House of Representatives banned El-Rufai from ever holding political office in Nigeria but the decision was thrown out, deemed an infringement on his human rights. In mid-2009 he made waves with an open letter detailing the process that saw Umaru Yar'Adua win the 2007 presidential election.    

El-Rufai has been named by Tunde Bakare, a Pentecostl pastor and trenchant political activist and co-founder of the Save Nigeria Group (SNG), as one he would invite to form the core of the government if his alliance is successful in up-ending the PDP in 2011.