Former Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has disclosed how a loan controversy thwarted former President Muhammadu Buhari’s plan to appoint Chief Audu Ogbeh as Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) in 2015.
El-Rufai, who spoke on Monday night during a Night of Tribute at the Bola Tinubu International Conference Centre, Abuja, said the ex-president had initially zeroed in on Ogbeh for the position shortly after the All Progressives Congress (APC) defeated the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the polls.
According to him, Buhari had insisted that the role be occupied by a Christian from the Middle Belt, and his first and only choice was the former PDP chairman.
However, the former governor narrated that some individuals within Buhari’s inner circle raised concerns over a supposed N2bn bank loan linked to Ogbeh’s agricultural investments.
“The next time the president called me, he said some things had come up and he was appointing someone else as SGF,” El-Rufai told the audience.
He added that Buhari later confided in him that Ogbeh was dropped over fears that his alleged indebtedness might distract him from his national assignment.
“Borrowing is not a crime; he runs a thriving farm and was servicing the loan. Unfortunately, he was misrepresented,” El-Rufai said.
The former Kaduna helmsman explained that Buhari, realising he had been misled, sought to atone for the decision by naming Ogbeh as Minister of Agriculture, a portfolio he held from 2015 to 2019.
Chief Ogbeh, who passed on recently, was a respected statesman, seasoned farmer, and former national chairman of the PDP.
El-Rufai noted that he was revealing the behind-the-scenes episode for the first time, describing Ogbeh as “a man of integrity whose contributions to Nigeria’s political and agricultural sectors remain indelible.”
