FIFTY-FIVE days after President Muhammadu Buhari was inaugurated for the second term in office, the president has finally sent a list of his cabinet members to the Senate for confirmation.
Top in the list are Babatunde Fashola, former Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Festus Keyamo, former Director of Communications and Strategy to President Buhari during the 2019 election, Sen. Godswin Akpabio, a former Governor of Akwa Ibom State and 40 others.
In all, 43 nominees were sent to the Senate for confirmation.
Nigerians had severally called on the president to expedite action and nominate his ministers to set the new administration on the sail.
But his aides insisted the president has the prerogative to decide when it’s right to inaugurate his cabinet.
Though the National Assembly is set to go on a two-month break from Thursday, yet there is a high expectation that the nominees would be screened before the recess.
When The ICIR called earlier in the morning to confirm names of the nominees, Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, said the Centre should “check with the Senate.”
He declined further comment before he terminated the call.
Checks at the Presidency’s official twitter handle @NGRPresident had no such information at the time of this report.
Garba Shehu, the Official Spokesperson to the President and the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity also has not yet tweeted about the ministerial list.
However, the presidential aide retweeted Abubakar Sidiq Usman, an All Progressives Congress Chieftain who announced the nomination, “Breaking: President of the Senate, Distinguished Senator Ahmad Lawan has announced receiving the list of ministerial nominees for confirmation from President Muhammadu Buhari”.
Also Bashir Ahmed, Personal Assistance to the President Buhari on New Media has also released the nominee list shared below.
“In all, 43 ministerial nominees were sent to the Senate for confirmation”.
Reports claimed that unlike his first tenure when he had 36 ministers, the President purportedly resolved to also appoint extra 7 ministers, to make 43 cabinet members when eventually confirmed by the National Assembly.
“The list was sent to the Senate on Monday evening via executive communication and is expected to be read on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday,” the report says.
Other prominent Nigerians included in the lists are Hadi Sirika, Lai Mohammed, Geoffrey Onyeama, Mustapha Baba Shehuri, Chris Ngige, Ogbonaya Onu, Rauf Aregbesola, Gbemisola Saraki among others.
Unlike his first term in office, where it took Buhari six months to appoint Ministers, this new appointment came four months earlier.
Olugbenga heads the Investigations Desk at The ICIR. Do you have a scoop? Shoot him an email at [email protected]. Twitter Handle: @OluAdanikin