President meets Saraki, Dogara, N’Assembly leaders
Rivers senators reject Amaechi, petition Senate
President Muhammadu Buhari has left governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the lurch with his choice of ministerial nominees. Except for Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State, who succeeded in having his candidate, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, an economist and ex-Commissioner for Finance, on the list, all other APC governors failed to have their candidates as ministerial nominees.
The ministerial list, which comprised 21 names, turned what has become a tradition in the past 16 years on its head; a tradition where governors made input in the choice of ministers. “With the list of first batch of ministers released on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday, the president has whittled down the influence of the governors.
As it is, we have no influence as to the state representative in the Federal Executive Council (FEC). “You can hardly find a governor who has his nominee on the ministerial list. The situation is so bad that the president, in some cases, even appointed those opposed to the governors in their states. He has the right to appoint, but he should also know that the governors made so much contribution to his election.
“I can tell you that most of the governors are not happy with the development. As governors, we can’t come out and kick against the list, but you can see the opposition in some states from the party,” a source said. But a ministerial nominee, who craved for anonymity, said the president has assembled a team that will deliver on his vision without any external influence.
“The game has changed. What we have is a departure from the past. The president has exercised his constitutional right to assemble his ministers. Yes, the governors contributed to the president’s victory just like other stakeholders.
There are still other appointments to be made which the governors can make input,” a ministerial nominee told New Telegraph. Buhari has picked nominees from Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Benue, Edo, Kwara, Kano, Plateau, Kebbi, Niger, Nasarawa, Jigawa, Katsina and Kaduna states, controlled by APC governors. The other ministerial nominees so far released are from states controlled by opposition parties, led mainly by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
They include Senator Aisha Al-Hassan (Taraba), Dr. Chris Ngige (Anambra), Mr. Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Dr. Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Dr. Ibe Kachikwu (Delta), Ogbonnaya Onu (Ebonyi), and Senator Udoman Udo-Udoma (Cross Rivers)
In Lagos, Buhari opted for former Governor Babatunde Fashola, who was in charge of fund raising for his presidential campaign. The nominee was neither the choice of his successor, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, nor APC national leader, Senator Bola Tinubu. Tinubu, who the lot fell on to pick a minister from the state preferred Wale Edun, a former Commissioner for Finance under him or Yemi Cardoso. But Fashola emerged. The story is not different in Oyo State, where Barrister Adebayo Shittu emerged to the chagrin of Governor Abiola Ajimobi.
A measure of the displeasure could be seen in the massive opposition that trailed Shittu’s nomination as the state chapter of the APC has rejected his appointment. Shittu was the gubernatorial candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in Oyo in 2011.
He lost to Ajimobi. In Kwara, where Abdulfatah Ahmed is the governor, sources said that the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, who is the godfather of the state politics, had nominated Bolaji Abdullahi, a former Sports Minister in the Goodluck Jonathan administration. But Buhari opted for Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who is the National Publicity Secretary of the APC. In Niger State, Buhari also defied Governor Abubakar Sani Bello and opted for Ahmed Ibeto, a former deputy governor of the state.
In Kebbi, Governor Atiku Bagudu has no input in the choice of Alhaji Abubakar Malami (SAN). Malami made the ministerial list because of his relationship with Buhari since the CPC days.
The ministerial nominee was the National Legal Adviser of the CPC and was the lead counsel for Buhari at the Appeal and Supreme Courts, when Buhari challenged Jonathan’s victory after the 2011 polls. Similarly in Edo, Buhari went for Dr. Osagie Ehanire, a brother of Daisy, wife of former Minister of Defence, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma. Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s nominee, Prof. Julius Iyonvbere, could not make the federal cabinet.
In Kano, Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau made the list because of his relationship with the president. Dambazau was earlier touted as the National Security Adviser (NSA).
Neither Governor Umar Ganduje nor his predecessor, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso had a hand in the nomination. In fact, sources said the governor nominated Kwankwaso for the federal cabinet. In Jigawa, Suleiman Hussain Adamu is the son of the Emir of Kazaure, HRH Alhaji Najib Hussaini Adamu and a brother to the acting Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Amina Zakari, and the Jigawa State Commissioner for Education, Rabi Ishaq. Governor Abubakar Badaru was not involved in the nomination.
The Benue State nominee, Chief Audu Ogbeh, a former PDP National Chairman, made the list without the input of Governor Samuel Ortom. Ogbeh is a confidant of the president and was the head of Buhari Campaign Organisation before the president emerged as the APC presidential flag bearer.
In Plateau, Solomon Dalong was a member of the presidential transition committee of Buhari. Dalong, a member of the Northern Elders’ Forum, was not nominated by Governor Simon Lalong. Similarly, Senator Hadi Sirika from Katsina State is a close ally of Buhari. The president hails from Katsina State and singlehandedly picked Sirika without input from Governor Aminu Masari. Kaduna State is the second home of the president. Mrs. Amina Mohammed made the list on merit.
It was not clear if Governor Nasir El-Rufai had input in the choice. It is the same case with Ibrahim Musa Jubrin from Nasarawa. Governor Tanko Al-Makura had no input in the choice.
The APC governors had made spirited efforts to have their nominees in the Federal Executive Council (FEC). This was one of the requests they tabled before Buhari at a meeting held at the Defence House shortly after he emerged the president- elect after defeating Jonathan, a sitting president and PDP candidate in the March 28poll. According to a party leader from the north, the president asked the governors: “Is there any constitutional provision that says you should nominate ministers for me?
If you nominate ministers for me, will you allow chairmen of the party in your states to nominate commissioners for you? Will you be fair to me to nominate for me people I don’t know to work with me as ministers?”
According to the source, when the governors could not provide answers to the three questions, the president told them that he would nominate his ministers himself based on his own conviction. He also told the governors to use the good men they wanted to give him to work in their states.
Those who visited Buhari were Governors Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Ahmed (Kwara), Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Kashim Shettima (Borno), El-Rufai (Kaduna), Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto), Al- Makura (Nasarawa) and Ganduje (Kano). Contacted for comment, APC spokesman, Mohammed, said he couldn’t comment, as he was an interested party.
An APC official, who refused to be named, told New Telegraph on the telephone yesterday that Buhari is unknown to the party leaders as he is to many Nigerians.
“It is left for the media to deconstruct this man Buhari. We all claim to know him, but nobody actually does. He does his things the way he is convinced about. Yes, he consulted the party, but you know that the consultations are just there. He will still do what he wants.
That is what has happened with the list. Nobody can say he contributed to the list. But if you look at the list so far released, you will see that he based it on reward for loyalty, competence and integrity. It is not a list we can claim to know how he made it.”
Asked about the input of governors to the nominees, the party chief stated: “From the list, you can even see that some of the names there are too strong that their governors will not nominate them as directors or anything in their states. For sure, the governors did not have any input in his list. Buhari chose everybody there based on loyalty, competence and integrity.”
Between 1999 and 2015 when the PDP held sway under former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua and Jonathan, the tradition had been for governors to submit the names of three people from their states for the president to choose one.
A founding member of the PDP, who is now in the APC, said that the tradition started with Obasanjo because “he came from nowhere and needed to establish his own hegemony in the party.” “You know he had no base. He had to take the governors along to build his base.
That tradition was carried on by Yar’Adua and Jonathan. You would also recall that when Obasanjo desired to send away the founding fathers, he became the leader and handed over the machinery in the states to the governors. Those you see complaining today are people who wanted to have control of Abuja and their states. As you know, most of the governors today may not perform.
They want to have an eye in Abuja for their re-election and control their states by appointing their own commissioners. But Buhari has refused,” the source said.
The post Cabinet: Why Buhari snubbed governors appeared first on New Telegraph Newspaper.