Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai

El-Rufai tested positive for COVID-19 on March 28 2020, following contact with an index case. He has placed a curfew in Kaduna State and restricted movement, to prevent the spread of the virus.

On the March 9, 2019, El-Rufai was re-elected defeating the PDP opposition by over 200,000 votes.

In January 2016, 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. His administration also abolished the collection of fees and levies in public primary and junior secondary schools in Kaduna, thereby removing a financial burden of N3 billion from the parents.

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.

In 2014, following the APC governorship primaries El-Rufai emerged as the party's candidate for Governor of Kaduna State. He went on to win the governorship election, securing over 1.1 million votes to defeat the incumbent Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero the candidate of the People's Democratic Party. The election was upheld by the election petition tribunal in October 2015.

El-Rufai is married to three wives, including writer and novelist Hadiza Isma El-Rufai. Together, they run the Yasmin El-Rufai Foundation (YELF), set up in honour of his daughter who died in 2011.

In 2010, he returned to Nigeria and was subsequently arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. He explained his return was in order to clear his name of corruption charges. El-Rufai later joined party politics with the Congres for Progressive Change supporting Muhammadu Buhari's campaign in the 2011 presidential election. In 2013, El-Rufai was appointed deputy national secretary of the newly formed All Progressives Congress (APC).

In 2008, following Umaru Yar'Adua rise to power, El-Rufai went into self-imposed exile and became a vocal critic of the administration. In exile, he received a law degree from the University of London in August 2008, 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 July 2003, he was appointed 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 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.

In November 1999, he was appointed the director of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, and secretary of the National Council of Privatisation where he spearheaded the privatisation of several government owned corporations alongside Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

In 1998, following the death of military dictator Sani Abacha, his successor Abdulsalami Abubakar appointed El-Rufai as an economic advisor. In this role he worked with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Following the 1999 presidential election, the military transferred power to President Olusegun Obasanjo giving rise to the Fourth Nigerian Republic.

He then proceeded to Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, where he received a bachelor's degree in quantity surveying with first class honours. In 1984, he received a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. El Rufai has attended several professional and post-graduate programs, including the Georgetown School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

In 1982, he founded El-Rufai & Partners, a quantity surveying consulting firm with three partners which he managed until 1998. During the military junta's of 1983–1998, the firm received building and civil engineering contracts including during the construction of Abuja, making the partners "young millionaires".

Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai (born 16 February 1960) is a Nigerian politician who was elected Governor of Kaduna State since 2015. He was previously the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory from 2003 to 2007; and the director of the Bureau of Public Enterprises. He is a founding member of the ruling All Progressives Congress.

Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai was born on February 16, 1960 to a Fulani family in Daudawa. His father died while he was 8 years old, and he was sponsored through his early schooling by an uncle in Kaduna. El-Rufai was educated in Barewa College. As a junior at the college, President Umaru Yar'Adua was the house captain of his dormitory. In 1976, he graduated at the top of his class, winning the "Barewa Old Boys' Association Academic Achievement" Trophy.