Former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has offered a rare commendation of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s early leadership style, citing his inclusive governance during his tenure as Lagos State governor. Speaking in an interview with Arise Television, El-Rufai highlighted how Tinubu, after securing electoral victory through mass mobilisation—including street-level support—chose to surround himself with technocrats and professionals rather than political loyalists alone.
El-Rufai described Tinubu’s post-election decisions in 1999 as “almost unique”, especially for the time. He noted that Tinubu reached across Nigeria’s ethnic and regional divides, appointing an Igbo commissioner and a Hausa adviser from Daura. More notably, Tinubu brought in high-profile private sector professionals like Yemi Osinbajo, Wale Edun, and Cardoso to help steer his administration—individuals who would later rise to national prominence.
According to him, “For me, the question was, he was governor of Lagos—yes. How did he govern Lagos? He governed Lagos in a very inclusive manner; he had an Igbo guy as a commissioner, and he had another Hausa man from Daura as one of his special advisers in Lagos in 1999. That was almost unique. He ran an inclusive government after winning the elections with the agberos and all that; he went and got Cardoso, Wale Edun, and Yemi Osinbajo from the private sector to come and help him run the government.”
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