El-Rufai Exposes Plot Against Buhari: Why Audu Ogbeh Was Blocked From Becoming SGF

Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has revealed how the late ex-President Muhammadu Buhari was misled, causing him to abandon his initial plan to appoint Chief Audu Ogbeh as Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).

El-Rufai shared this during Ogbeh’s Night of Tribute on Monday at the Bola Tinubu International Conference Centre (ICC) in Abuja.

He explained that shortly after the All Progressives Congress (APC) won the 2015 presidential election, a close ally who had contributed to the party’s victory requested his assistance to secure the SGF role.

According to El-Rufai, he approached Buhari, then president-elect, about the position. Buhari had already decided to appoint a Christian from the Middle Belt, and he had personally settled on Audu Ogbeh as his preferred candidate.

However, the plan was derailed when some individuals around Buhari allegedly claimed that Ogbeh owed banks up to ₦2 billion from his agricultural ventures, suggesting that his personal debts would distract him from the SGF duties.

El-Rufai added that Buhari later admitted he had been misled and sought to make amends by appointing Ogbeh as Minister of Agriculture instead.

He recounted, “The next time the president called me, he said some things had come up, and he was appointing someone else as SGF. After the announcement, I learned that he had been told Chief Ogbeh owed a huge loan and would focus on repaying it instead of the job. Borrowing is not a crime; he runs a thriving farm and was servicing the loan.”

El-Rufai noted that this account had remained private until the tribute event, adding, “I’m saying this for the first time.”

Audu Ogbeh, a former PDP national chairman and prominent farmer, later served as Minister of Agriculture from 2015 to 2019.