El-Rufai meets Buhari, says no one can stop him from visiting Aso Rock

*Says FG performance improving as President implements his memo

“The president needs quality time to rest because it’s meeting too many people that strains leadership. I’m a governor and I know that when I meet 10 people in a day, I get really tired, it’s not the paperwork, it’s not really the memos, approving them or asking questions that strains a leader, it’s the stream of visitors. I do not want to contribute to the president’s problem by coming here every day. I’m in touch with him, I know everything going on and I do not think I should add to his burden,” said el-Rufai.

The Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir  El-Rufai, said on Friday that nobody can stop him from visiting the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The governor, who denied any rift with Buhari, said some of the president’s men do not like him.

He was addressing State House reporters after observing the Juma’at prayer with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Villa mosque and both met briefly at the president’s residence after the prayer.

It was the first time El-Rufai was sighted at the Presidential Villa since Buhari returned from his medical vacation in London on March 10. He asserted that he had unfettered access to the Aso Rock Villa, saying he believes that those who love Buhari should keep away from the Villa and allow the president to rest.

El-Rufai had, in a memo to Buhari last September, suggested a surgical operation on the entire gamut of government so that the All Progressives Congress would not leave Nigeria worse than it met her. In the memo, he accused Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, of constituting a clog in the wheel of  progress of Buhari’s government.

The governor had also in the memo, explained that his warning was necessary as his political future was “uncannily” tied to President Buhari’s.

On Friday, while responding to a question on whether some ‘powerful’ forces stopped him from visiting the Villa, El-Rufai exclaimed: “No! No-one ever stopped me from coming to the Villa, and no-one can stop me from coming to the Villa. As a governor, I come here, I’ve 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’s meeting too many people that strains leadership. I’m a governor and I know that when I meet 10 people in a day, I get really tired, it’s not the paperwork, it’s not really the memos, approving them or asking questions that strains a leader, it’s the stream of visitors. I do not want to contribute to the president’s problem by coming here every day. I’m in touch with him, I know everything going on and I do not think I should add to his burden.

“Most of the time I come to visit the president, I do not come to the office, I go to see him at home. I appeal to all of us that love the president to please allow him some space so that he’ll recover. We need him and the country needs him. It’s in our interest for the stability of the country, we should just let him be. It’s absolutely necessary. Let’s leave him to do his work in the privacy of his room or his office without strings of visitors.

El-Rufai debunked of strains in his ties with the president. “My relationship with the president has never been strained in anyway. I met with him last (Thursday) night. I did not talk about things like that, but my relationship with him is like that of father and son, and it’s a privilege for me. I told him I would come today (yesterday) for the Jumaat and I did.”

He said Buhari was implementing the content of his memo.

“Yes, I believe that since September last year when I wrote the letter, there have been significant improvements in the delivery of services at the federal level. Some of our federal programmes have started in earnest. The social protection, for instance, the N-Power, budget releases, have been accelerated. This is an unprecedented move. The minister of finance has released up to about N1trn. In September last year, little or nothing had been released and that was part of my concern. Since then, the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan has been done and published. At the time I wrote the memo, there was no five-year plan for the country.

“Since then, the government has moved ahead to change some of the appointees of President Jonathan in parastatals. This is something we were worried about. Many of us in the APC felt we were in office but not in power because the people that Jonathan appointed were still running most of our key agencies. From September till date, even up until yesterday (Thursday), there had been significant improvements. I believe that part of what I recommended to the president is being implemented, whether because of my memo or not, the country is moving forward, and I’m grateful to God for it.”

El-rufai said he was disappointed that his private communication to the president could be leaked from the Presidency. “He (Buhari) knows he can count on me to give him my views of what’s out there that he may not hear and to give him sound advice without any interest on my part. Anyone who reads that memo will see that there is nothing in it that has anything to do other than the success of Mr President and the progress of the country. That’s my goal and I am driven by that. I stand behind the president to the very end.”

El-Rufai noted that he had not rowed with the National Assembly, saying, “They don’t legislate for me specifically…The National Assembly is the legislature of the federation. What I did last Friday was to ask the leadership of the National Assembly to fulfill the promise they made to publish the details of their budget. Asking for that is my duty as a citizen. Every Nigerian is entitled to ask that question. It’s in the National Assembly’s interest to actually publish it because there are rumours of bogus amounts of money they’re getting which I do not believe is true. The best way to kill that rumour is to publish the details of their budget.

“But some people took exception to that call for transparency and I’ve no apologies because as citizens, we’ve the right to demand transparency on how resources are being spent. This N100bn or so budget of the National Assembly is money belonging to Nigerians and every Nigerian has the right to ask and I’m exercising that right as a citizen, not even as a governor.”