[8] El-Rufai studied at the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, where he received a bachelor's degree in quantity surveying with first class honours.
[11] In 2017, he enrolled in for a Doctorate Degree in Governance and Policy Analysis at the United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology in Netherlands.
[13] During the military juntas of 1983–1998, the firm received building and civil engineering contracts including during the construction of Abuja, making the partners "young millionaires".
[14] In addition to his practice, El-Rufai held management positions with two international telecommunications companies, AT&T Network Systems International BV and Motorola Inc.[10] 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.
During his tenure, he presided over a radical transformation of the federal capital earlier riddled with corruption and vast deviation from the original masterplan.
[20] 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.
"[21] Along with the President and members of the Economic Management Team, Rufai led the reform of the Nigerian public service which had become dysfunctional during years of military dictatorship.
[30] 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.
[31] In 2011, el-Rufai joined party politics with the Congress for Progressive Change supporting Muhammadu Buhari's campaign in the 2011 presidential election.
[33] 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.
[38] 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.
[39] 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.
[46][47] He 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.
[50] On 20 August 2020, Controversy arose on social media when the Nigerian Bar Association invited Governor El-rufai to speak at its annual conference.
[52] Some of the reasons include his refusal to obey court orders in his case with Audu Maikori, threatening Gloria Ballason who was Maikori's lawyer and a report by Quartz (publication) Africa which named Governor El-rufai as the head of a "powerful" group of Nigerian governors who "now regularly use security agents to arrest and intimidate journalists who dare to question their actions or attempt to hold them accountable".
However, after the overall screening exercise, it was revealed that El-Rufai's confirmation had been withheld due to a negative security report from the country's secret police, the SSS.
[57] In December 2023, El-Rufai co-founded a venture capital firm based in Abuja, FCT with a US$100 million investment commitment to promote the economy of northern Nigeria.
[61] This revelation came on the backdrop of a private conversation held in Washington, D.C. at the Council of Foreign Relations on the subject of Nigeria's Political Future with Ebenezer Obadare.
[70] This state body has the authority to approve or deny religious leaders the right to lead and can disapprove the content of their sermons and messages.
"[72] The watchdog group then cites how El-Rufai claimed, in a tweet posted on 8 September 2014, that Christians were behind Boko Haram, funding and controlling it to tarnish the name of Islam.