- Factors behind delay uncovered
- Why President is yet to relocate to official house working days
Except for any last-minute changes, the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, will today unveil President Bola Tinubu’s list of cabinet ministers submitted to the National Assembly for consideration.
Competent sources at the Presidential Villa told The Point on Monday that the list was ready for submission as all successful nominees had completed initial security checks.
It was gathered that the ongoing scheming within the ruling All Progressive Congress was responsible for the delays as sources at the presidency confirmed that a few adjustments were being made by the President.
It was gathered that four names initially penciled down by the President in four states, had been withdrawn and replaced with new names.
The Point learnt that the opposition against the immediate past governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, who is said to be President Tinubu’s preferred candidate to replace Abdullahi Adamu as the national chairman of the APC, was one of the reasons behind the postponements.
Ganduje, it was gathered, was initially considered for a ministerial slot but for the resignation of Adamu, which was said to have propelled the President to nominate him as possible replacement for the former chairman. This was said to be generating a crisis as some stalwarts of the APC have argued that the former governor of Nasarawa State, Tanko Al-Makura, who is from the North Central as the former chairman, was more “cool-headed than Ganduje who is from the North West.”
Al-Makura was one of the leading aspirants for the position during the last APC convention but was prevailed upon by the former President, Muhammadu Buhari, to step down for Adamu.
The former Nasarawa State governor at the time was accused of being Tinubu’s ally, who was then one of APC’s presidential aspirants.
But sources familiar with the intrigues playing out in the choice of the APC chairman, hinted that the opposition to Ganduje’s choice is responsible for the inability of the President to submit the ministerial list to the Senate last week.
Sources also revealed that the president will surprise Nigerians, as he has meticulously nominated people he feels can deliver on all fronts.
A prominent figure within the APC in Rivers State, Tony Okocha, has reportedly confirmed that the name of the former Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, was indeed present in President Tinubu’s ministerial list.
Okocha, who is the coordinator of Bola Ahmed Tinubu Vanguard (BAT-V), debunked rumours that Wike’s name had been removed from the much-awaited ministerial list.
Okocha said the rumour was the “handiwork of mischief makers” and that there was no truth to it.
He said the author of the “fake news” is neither a staff of the Presidential Villa nor an official of the Department of State Services.
Okocha also questioned who was nominated to replace Wike to fill the Rivers State ministerial slot if the fake news was real.
He said: “Wike’s name is still very much in the list. Remember, these people never believed that former governor Wike would be considered for a ministerial appointment. So, the best they can do is to resort to fake news.”
Okocha said Wike has not committed any offence to warrant his name being removed from the list.
“What offence did Wike commit to warrant his name being removed from the list? Which court of law in Nigeria found him guilty of any form of corruption? Lies from the pit of hell,” he fumed.
While speaking in Port Harcourt on Monday, the politician drew attention to the newspaper that first published the story of Wike’s removal, pointing out that it was the same media outlet responsible for spreading the false information about the death of former President Muhammadu Buhari years ago.
He urged Nigerians to dismiss such misleading reports, stressing that there was no truth to them.
Okocha urged supporters of Wike to disregard the rumour and to be patient as the list of ministers was still being compiled.
It was also gathered that the president is yet to relocate to his official residence at the Presidential Villa, because “he wants to fully settle his political allies.
“You know that the president is a politician and he has lived amongst his people all along, many of his friends will be cut off from him the moment he moves into the villa, by the security operatives.
“We are sure that as soon as the issue of his ministers is settled and the case at the tribunal done with, he will move into the Villa, by then, he would have taken care of a lot of things,” a source added.
By July 28 it would be two months, which is the deadline given by the Constitution (60 days) for the president and state governors to get their cabinets in place for the serious business of governance.
Already, some state governors have sent the list of commissioners to their respective legislatures and are awaiting clearance, but the list of federal ministers is still travelling the long road of speculation.
Last week, rumours were rife that the list, which had gone through several rounds of tinkering, was eventually with the Senate, but no such information was forthcoming from the upper legislative chamber as at the close of legislative business last weekend.
The office of a minister is a serious one in the overall governance process.
Going by the provisions of Chapter 6, Part 1, Section 148 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), ministers are critical advisers to the president.
Ministers advise the president generally and help in coordinating his executive functions. They meet regularly with the president and the vice president at the Federal Executive Council for the purpose of determining the general direction of both domestic and foreign policies of the government.
