EXCLUSIVE: Fashola, Amaechi, Ngige, Onu, Lai, Kachikwu make Buhari’s ministerial list
President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministerial list contains a number of familiar All Progressives Congress (APC) names such as Babatunde Fashola, former governor of Lagos state, and Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of Rivers state, TheCable can report.
Also nominated to be minister is Lai Mohammed, national publicity secretary of the ruling party, and Kayode Fayemi, who lost his Ekiti governorship re-election bid in 2014 to Ayodele Fayose of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
From the south-east are the likes of Chris Ngige, former governor of Anambra state and former senator of the federal republic; and Ogbonnaya Onu, first executive governor of Abia state and former national chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), on whose ticket Buhari contested and lost the 2003 and 2007 presidential elections.
Udoma Udo Udoma, a former senator who represented Akwa Ibom south senatorial constituency at the national assembly, made it as well.
Buhari also nominated for ministerial appointment, Aisha Alhassan, who was on the brink of becoming the first elected female governor before eventually losing the Taraba state governorship election to Darius Ishiaku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
From his days at the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Buhari picked Malami Abubakar, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and former legal adviser of the defunct party; Hadi Sirika, a former pilot and former CPC senator who represented Katsina north senatorial district; as well as Adebayo Shittu, former governorship candidate of the legacy party in Oyo state.
Ibe Kachikwu, group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), is a surprise appearance on the list. But with Buhari already declaring himself minister of petroleum resources, it is likely that Kachikwu will combine his current portfolio with that of the minister of state for petroleum resources.
Amina Mohammed, former special adviser to the Nigerian president on millennium development goals (MDGs) and current special adviser to United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon on post-2015 development planning, is also a nominee.
Kemi Adeosun, former commissioner for finance in Ogun state, was nominated as well.
Former chief of army staff, Abdulrahman Dambazau, a retired lieutenant general, is also on the list. He was initially widely speculated to be appointed national security adviser before Buhari picked Babagana Monguno.
The first batch contains the names of 21 nominees only.
So, after months of waiting for the ministerial list, this is the best that Bihari could come up with? Former governors, politicians and very few technocrats. Not impressed at all.
Who is working to impress you. We are looking at those that can work and not names that will impress.
I’m looking out for names, that were mentioned before, like Pat Utomi, Doyin Salami and Femi Falana for the promised change. Fayemi, Ngige, Onu, Kachikwu and Amina Muhammed are decent picks. But we need to have portfolios to the names for sound screening. Kemi Adeosun, an accountant, can be the junior minister for finance but we require an accomplished economist to be the senior minister. And six lawyers already on this list are too many!
iam afraid of the change, and anti corruption crusade. AME HI HMMMMMMMMM