President Muhammadu Buhari forwarded a list of 25 ministerial nominees to Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki on Wednesday evening through his Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari.
Kyari was accompanied by Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on National Assembly Matters, Senator Ita Enang, to submit the list in a sealed brown envelope.
Initial reports indicated that a list of 41 ministerial nominees were drafted, a list that was later pruned to 25. This was the first batch that was presented to the Senate President on Wednesday evening.
Daily Sun, however, has gathered that a fresh batch of ministerial nominees will hit the Senate by Tuesday, October 6, same day the chamber is expected to resume in plenary after the October 1 independence anniversary recess.
A National Assembly source disclosed on Thursday that the president does not intend to have 42 ministers.
Unresolved, however, is the status and fate of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
In the event that the president sticks to appointing only 36 ministers, the FCT may have no representation in the cabinet.
At exactly, 4:59 pm on Wednesday, Kyari presented Buhari’s ministerial list to Saraki, hours after plenary was adjourned for the week.
Saraki’s spokesman, Yusuph Olaniyonu, disclosed thereafter that, “following the tradition of the Senate, the Senate President decided that the envelope will remain sealed till Tuesday October 6, when, during the plenary sitting of the Upper legislative chamber, it will be opened and the list read to Senators.”
Regardless, these are likely members of the FEC from our sources:
Former Minister Mr. Audu Ogbeh; Southeast APC leader Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu and Director General of the Buhari campaign organisation and former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi; former governors Babatunde Fashola (Lagos), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti); former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazzau and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Mr. Abubakar Malami.
So far, only three women have scaled through. They are former Ogun State Commissioner for Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun; Senator Aisha Jummai Alhassan and Mrs Amina J. Mohammed, Special Assistant to UN Secretary General on Post-2015 Development Planning, are also ministerial nominees.
(Adetutu Folasade-Koyi, DAILY SUN
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