{"id":83087,"date":"2021-07-03T20:08:21","date_gmt":"2021-07-03T19:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=83087"},"modified":"2021-07-03T20:08:21","modified_gmt":"2021-07-03T19:08:21","slug":"im-too-old-to-be-nigerias-president-at-62-says-el-rufai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/im-too-old-to-be-nigerias-president-at-62-says-el-rufai\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m too old to be Nigeria\u2019s President at 62, says El-Rufa\u2019i"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"m#msg-f:1704289733688298955\" class=\"mail-message expanded\">\n<div class=\"mail-message-header spacer\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">Governor Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai of Kaduna State has dismissed speculations of eyeing the presidency come 2023, saying he would be too old for a president at 62.<\/div>\n<div class=\"mail-message-content collapsible zoom-normal mail-show-images \" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<div class=\"clear\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">He spoke in an interview with the Pidgin service of the BBC, monitored in Kaduna.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\nAccording to him, governing Kaduna state alone was telling on his age, not to talk of the entire country.<\/p>\n<p>He explained that he had suffered presidential ambition suspicion for 15 years now, a situation that made some people saw him in a bad light.<\/p><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\nHe said some had called him Jihadist so as to keep him out of the presidential race.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGoverning Nigeria is a serious job, which is obviously too much for a 62-year-old man.<\/p>\n<p>Look at me, look at my grey hair. If you see my picture when I was sworn in, my hair was very black but look at how it has become. This is a very difficult job and that is just state governor, one state out of 36, a big one, yes; a difficult one, yes, but it is not the same as Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPresidency of Nigeria is a very serious job, it is too much for a 62-year-old,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>On vying to be the Vice-President, he said: \u201cI have not thought about it at all. I have said it that in the political system we have, after eight years of President Buhari, the presidency should go to the south.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have been suffering this presidential ambition suspicion since 2006, I have suffered it for 15 years today, and I am sick and tired of it. There are people that are out to paint me in a particular picture so that, I will be out of the presidential race, but they don\u2019t\u00a0 know that I am not in any race anywhere.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey have called me all sort of names; they said I am a Hausa-Fulani irredentist, I am Jihadist and all that, Jihadist when? Where? I am not even an active member of any Islamic organization.<\/p>\n<p>\u201d I am Muslim yes, a devote one but, I believe religion is private. Even here in this office, when it is time for prayer, I just excuse myself as if I am going to the restroom, I don\u2019t ask anyone to come and pray with me, because we will all go to our graves separately.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook around me and see, I am not surrounded only by Muslims, this government is the only state government in this country that has\u00a0 at least people from 13 other states of the Federation as cabinet members.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the most influential persons in my life, one of my closest political associates is Pastor Tunde Bakare. It was Pastor Tunde Bakare that actually introduced me to Buhari and CPC. I didn\u2019t join the CPC because Buhari lives in Kaduna or he is a northerner. So, if I am an Islamic Jihadist, why will Pastor Tunde Bakare be speaking to me?\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mail-message-footer spacer collapsible\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Governor Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai of Kaduna State has dismissed speculations of eyeing the presidency come 2023, saying he would be too old for a president at 62. He spoke in&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":83027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>I\u2019m too old to be Nigeria\u2019s President at 62, says El-Rufa\u2019i - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/im-too-old-to-be-nigerias-president-at-62-says-el-rufai\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I\u2019m too old to be Nigeria\u2019s President at 62, says El-Rufa\u2019i - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Governor Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai of Kaduna State has dismissed speculations of eyeing the presidency come 2023, saying he would be too old for a president at 62. 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