By Ayo Yusuf
Three days to the constitutionally mandated deadline for nomination of ministers, President Bola Tinubu is under pressure from serving and ex governors and other political heavyweights desperate to be included in the final list of nominees to be sent to the senate before the week runs out.
Top on the list of those who continue to mount pressure on the president are former governors who stuck their neck out for Mr Tinubu, especially members of the opposition parties who hoped their anti-party antics would pay off with an appointment into the president’s cabinet.
Serving governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, are also anxious to get their candidates into the final list. Although they are traditionally expected to send three names for the president to choose from in their states, it is clear the president is not bound by their lists.
The President had reportedly urged the state governors in APC controlled states to make sure their recommendations included technocrats who are capable of operating in an administration that is determined to make progress as quick as possible.
Mr. Tinubu is constitutionally required to choose a minister from each of the 36 states of the federation, but he may decide to chose someone outside the list sent to him by the APC governors. As for the rest of the states not governed by his party, the president is at full liberty to choose anyone he wants.
However, with a state like Oyo for instance whose governor, Seyi Makinde patently contributed to the president’s victory, Mr. Tinubu has reportedly allowed Mr. Makinde to send the name of his preferred candidate for ministerial appointment.
Governor Makinde was among the G-5 PDP governors that worked against the presidential candidate of their party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
Our reporter gathered that part of the renewed pressure on the president stemmed from reports that the president was making last minute changes to the list in the light of unflattering reports by the security agencies on some candidates close to Mr Tinubu.
The President had promised to rely on the list by APC governors as agreed upon but he made it clear that he has personal interest in Rivers, Kano and Lagos states and would like to personally choose ministerial nominees from these three states, while the Vice President, Kashim Shettima is said to have been given the leeway to nominate ministers from the North-East.
It was, however, gathered that in the case of Rivers State, the party leaders are divided as the majority of them reportedly oppose the purported nomination of former governor, Nyesom Wike.
Those opposed to Wike, it was gathered, have officially written to President Tinubu, while some loyal party members who worked hard for APC victory, have threatened to dump the party should the President abandon those that laboured to ensure that the party existed in the state despite what they described as the hostile environment created by the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP.
The New Diplomat gathered that the President has persuaded party members to remain calm and has assured that those that did not make the ministerial list will be accommodated through other appointments.
Sources said the president is more particular about having technocrats in his cabinet and may go so far as to admit persons in the Labour Party, LP, and the PDP, who worked indirectly for his emergence as president.
