Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai (; born 16 February 1960) is a Nigerian politician who served as the governor of Kaduna State from 2015 to 2023. A member of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) since November 2025 after his defection from the All Progressives Congress (APC) which he was one of the founding member, and served as the minister of the Federal Capital Territory from 2003 to 2007 under the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo.
Early life El-Rufai was born on 16 February 1960 to a Fulani family in Daudawa, Katsina State, Nigeria. He was trained in school by his uncle following his father's death when he was eight years.
El-Rufai was educated at Barewa College in Zaria and was a junior to future Nigerian president Umaru Musa Yar'adua, who served as his dormitory captain. He graduated in 1976. He further studied at Ahmadu Bello University where he got a bachelor's degree in quantity surveying. In 1984 and 1985, he received a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a post graduate diploma in computer science, respectively. He has attended several professional and post-graduate programs, including the Owner-President Management Program (OPM-22) between 1993 and 1995, and the Advanced Management Programme (AMP-162) of the Harvard Business School in 2002. He attended the Georgetown School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. for the Georgetown Leadership Seminar in 2000 and programs on privatization at Arthur D. Little School Management and several leadership development programs of Aspen Institute.
In August 2008, El-Rufai 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. In 2017, he enrolled for a doctorate degree in governance and policy analysis at UNU-MERIT in the Netherlands.
Business career In 1982, El-Rufai 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 consultancy contracts including during the construction of Abuja. He also had management positions with telecommunications companies of AT&T and Motorola.
Political career After the death of military dictator Sani Abacha, his successor Abdulsalami Abubakar began planning the peaceful transition of power, he set up an advisory policy committee which was referred to then as "the presidents think tank" of technocrats to aid in demilitarising the entrenched public administration following years of military dictatorship in Nigeria. Abubakar appointed El-Rufai as an economic advisor on his team in 1998, he resigned from his private sector positions and spent the next year of the transition working primarily on issues with the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and other financial institutions overseeing the national privatisation program and electoral finance for the 1999 presidential election. On 29 May 1999, Abubakar transferred power to President Olusegun Obasanjo. In November 1999, Obasanjo appointed El-Rufai as the director-general of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, and secretary of the National Council of Privatisation where he spear-headed the privatisation of several government owned corporations under the supervision of Vice President Atiku Abubakar.http://en.newspeg.com/Nigeria-El-Rufai-Has-Zero-Tolerance-for-Corruption---Obj-3926799.html
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (2003–2007) In July 2003, he was sworn in as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. During his tenure, he presided over a radical transformation of the federal capital earlier riddled with corruption and vast deviation from the original Abuja masterplan. With the establishment of the Abuja Geographic Information System, the capital became the first municipality in Nigeria with a computerised land register and information system.
After el-Rufai's appointment was approved by the Nigerian Senate, he accused two senators, Jonathan Zwingina and Ibrahim Mantu (deputy senate president), of asking him for a bribe of $414,000 before his nomination as a minister was approved. Both senators denied the accusation, with Mantu calling him a 'pathological liar'. However, a public hearing convened by the Senate on the matter indicated that El-Rufai may have been telling the truth when both Mantu and Zwingina failed to swear or affirm using the Quran or Bible to say the truth and nothing but the truth, when El-Rufai willingly did so.
A year into el-Rufai's tenure, members of the Senate Public Accounts Committee accused him of paying exorbitant salaries to staff without proper approval and demanded that he reimburse the state. In response, el-Rufai retorted: "Silence is the best answer to a fool". This remark angered the Senate, which went on a two-day strike, demanding that the President sack him for his comments. President Obasanjo issued an apology on his behalf, but it was swiftly rejected by the Senate. As a result, el-Rufai appeared before the Senate to formally apologise, stating "I did not mean what I said. I certainly did not mean to refer to the senators [as fools]. The statement is inappropriate. I made a mistake and I am sorry."
Along with the President and members of the Economic Management Team, El-Rufai led the reform of the Nigerian public service which had become dysfunctional during years of military dictatorship. At various times during his tenure as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, he was tasked to oversee other agencies like the Federal Ministries of Commerce (twice) and Interior. He also chaired several high-profile cabinet committees that led to the establishment of a mortgage system in Nigeria, National ID card system for Nigeria, Electric Power Supply Improvement and the sale of Federal Government real estate in Abuja.
During the last days of the Obasanjo administration, Nuhu Ribadu, a one-time El-Rufai ally described him as the "de facto No. 2 official", tagging him with the role of Vice President, especially after the fall-out between Obasanjo and his vice president Atiku Abubakar. It is believed that Obasanjo's trust and confidence in El-Rufai angered a vast majority of the political class, which would later persecute him.
Demolitions As FCT Minister, el-Rufai came to be known as "Mr Demolition" for his policy of forced evictions and demolitions of illegal buildings and squatter settlements in the capital territory. A report by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, titled 'Forced Evictions: Violations of Human Rights 2003-2006', claimed that 800,000 people living in informal and unauthorised settlements were displaced in an effort to restore Abuja to its original master plan. The report also stated that at least 49 settlements were targeted for demolition by the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) under el-Rufai's leadership. It is noteworthy that the Centre published its report without ever interfacing with the Federal Capital Territory Administration which El-Rufai headed.
By the end of El-Rufai's term, the government had demolished 945 buildings in the FCT, around 300 in Kubwa, and 12,000 shanties in squatter settlements across Idu Karmo, Jiwa, Gwarimpa, Jabi, and Anguwan Mada. Notably, one of the demolished buildings was the residence of the PDP National Chairman, Ahmadu Ali, in Asokoro, which was removed for being built over a water trunk line. El-Rufai also revoked 1.2 hectares of land in the Central Area owned by late businessman and ruling party financier, Joseph Igwe, as the land was designated as a green park, railway corridor and church in the Abuja master plan.
Exile and return In 2008, El-Rufai went into self-imposed exile and became a vocal critic of the Umaru Yar'Adua administration.
On 1 May 2010, he returned to Nigeria and was subsequently invited for questioning by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He appeared at the Commission on 6 May and released on administrative bail on the same day. He explained his return was in order to clear his name of allegations of abuse of office and corruption. In 2011, el-Rufai joined party politics with the Congress for Progressive Change supporting Muhammadu Buhari's campaign in the 2011 presidential election. In 2013, Justice Sadiq of the Federal Capital Territory High Court discharged and acquitted El-Rufai of all the allegations levelled by the EFCC against him.
All Progressives Congress In 2013, el-Rufai was appointed deputy national secretary of the newly formed All Progressives Congress (APC).
In September 2014, El-Rufai declared his intention to 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 with a margin of more than 400,000 votes. In 2018, he again emerged as the APC's governorship candidate. He was re-elected on 9 March 2019, defeating his closest rival by over 200,000 votes.
Governorship On 29 May 2015, El-Rufai was sworn in as the 22nd Governor of Kaduna State. In his inaugural address, he declared that he and his deputy were cutting their allowances by half pending an improvement in the state's fiscal situation. On 6 August 2015, El-Rufai in one of his first acts as governor announced that Kaduna State will adopt the Treasury Single Account policy by 1 September of the same year. At the end of the exercise, 470 accounts belonging to different ministries, departments and agencies were closed and a sum of N24.7 billion was recovered and remitted to the Kaduna State Government TSA with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
By blocking leakages and cutting the cost of running government, it is estimated that the El-Rufai administration was able to save N1.2 billion in just two months. El-Rufai also reformed the civil service in Kaduna State and reduced the number of ministries from 19 to 13 and the number of permanent secretaries from 35 to 18. In a bid to reduce the cost of governance, El-Rufai appointed only 13 commissioners, 10 special advisers and 12 special assistants as against the 24 commissioners, 41 special advisers and about 400 special assistants appointed by the previous PDP administration.
As governor, El-Rufai has embarked on a comprehensive education reform with the goal of revamping the moribund state of public education in Kaduna State. El-Rufai sacked over 22,000 unqualified primary teachers, that failed to score above 75% in a Primary 4 test, and went on to hire 25,000 qualified teachers as replacements. El-Rufai's administration launched the School Feeding Programme, aimed at providing one free meal per day to 1.5 million pupils in public primary schools within the state. This policy amongst others contributed to raising primary school enrolment to over 2.1 million by the time El-Rufai completed his first term of office. He also abolished the collection of any fees and levies in public primary and junior secondary schools in Kaduna, thereby removing an annual financial burden of N3 billion from the parents. As a sign of his faith in public education, El-Rufai enrolled his son Abubakar Sadiq El-Rufai as a Primary One pupil in Kaduna Capital School, a government primary school in Kaduna.