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. 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.
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." 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. 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. 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==