Tinubu’s Cabinet: Northern APC Govs to get juicy payback

As the incoming government of the president- elect Bola Tinubu’s administration prepares to take over next month, the shape of the new government is beginning to surface with speculation of names of those that would form the cabinet. Highly placed sources in the All Progressives Congress (APC) told New Telegraph the Northern governors of the party are to be “well compensated” for their insistence in backing a southern candidate to take over from President Muhammadu Buhari, who is from the North would have completed his eight years next month.

According to New Telegraph, some of the governors who had stood resolutely behind this position, which ultimately paved the way for the emergence of Tinubu, were Nasir el- Rufai of Kaduna State and his Kano counterpart, Abdullahi Ganduje. Consequently both are being strongly considered for plum positions in the next government with Ganduje being pencilled down the President-elect for the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and el-Rufai as Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).

The source also told us that a former Commissioner for Finance in Lagos State, Wale Edun, has been pencilled down to take over the Ministry of Finance. New Telegraph recalls that Tinubu nominated Edun in 2015 for President Muhammadu Buhari to be appointed Minister of Finance but the president deferred to the then Ogun State governor, Ibikunle Amosun who nominated the former Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, who was also a Commissioner in his cabinet. The source also revealed that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has been pencilled down for the Chief of Staff to the President-elect.

New Telegraph learnt that a former head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu, former governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi and a former governor of Enugu State, Chimaroke Nnamani are among those in the race for ministerial positions. Nnamani would be rewarded for the role he played in supporting Tinubu despite the outcry and popularity of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi in the region, which led to Nnamani losing his senatorial reelection bid. The former governor was also later expelled from his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for supporting the then APC presidential candidate, some stakeholders in the ruling party are lobbying for the President-elect to compensate Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State for the role he played in the presidential election.

Some of them said that the governor should be given the opportunity to nominate the minister that will represent the state in the cabinet. It is believed that Wike will not defect to the ruling party despite the crisis in the main opposition party, the PDP. Wike worked for the victory of Tinubu in Rivers State during the presidential election but in the governorship, he ensured that his preferred candidate, Siminalayi Fubara, emerged victorious.

As the speculations continue, Tinubu had assured Nigerians that he would constitute a government of national competence. In a statement he personally signed, the president elect said: “In selecting my government, I shall not be weighed down by considerations extraneous to ability and performance. “The day for political gamesmanship is long gone. I shall assemble competent men and women and young people from across Nigeria to build a safer, more prosperous and just Nigeria. Securing our nation and making it prosperous must be our top priorities. We cannot sacrifice these goals for political expediency. The whims of politics must take a backseat to the imperatives of governance.”

Tinubu, who is currently resting abroad, is still said to be holding a series of consultations from a variety of interests as he intends to hit the ground running once he is inaugurated on May 29.

Unlike Buhari’s first term when he operated for months without a cabinet, Tinubu wants to ensure that he has one in place as soon as possible.