Reactions have continued to trail surprises in the ministerial list that President Bola Tinubu sent to the National Assembly on Thursday for screening and confirmation.
The major discerning observation in the list was the President’s abandonment of his campaign coordinators who were the bullet proofs and shock absorbers of the renewed hope project at the tick of the campaign period.
The list also manifested the president’s alleged recent disregard for youth’s potential and development, since no youth, even those involved in his electoral victory, made the long awaited list.
The vexed list is such a present worry that it has divided the President’s close allies and made them objects of ridicule before their opponents.
Such surprises are the conspicuous exemption of his spokespersons such as Bayo Ononuga, Femi Fani-Kayode, Josef Onoh, Festus Keyamo, and some others. Among the team of the presidential council spokespersons, all of them lost out in the chessboard except for Hannatu Musawa who was not even conspicuous during the period of the campaign.
Festus Keyamo was perhaps the most insulted spokesman of the Tinubu campaign organization who was drafted from the ministry of Labour and Employment as a Minister of State in the Mohammadu Buhari administration. He stirred many controversies in the line of the job, but was able to weather the storm.
Dr. Josef Onoh worked as campaign spokesman in the most hostile and dangerous area of the Bola Tinubu’s presidential campaign. As the south east spokesman for Tinubu’s he contended with the Peter Obi dominance of the region, waged war against the Biafra agitators and against the Obidents. His loyalty to Tinubu was so strong that he pitched his tent against the entire south east region and Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo. He got insulted and death treats severally for standing out from the crowd in support of Tinubu at a time everybody from the South east including the big wig political elites were scared and terrified to be identified with Tinubu. Onoh was dubbed Tinubu’s spin master as he was quick to counter any attack on Tinubu in the social media and had a classic unique way of explaining away the multiple gaffs by Tinubu during the campaign. Onoh would now be probably worried that his bargain was not worth the trouble of being the only Man Jerusalem at a time the south east was United in the Igbo presidency Mantra.
Femi Fani-Kayode, was the Director, New Media sub-committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council. He was a former Minister of Aviation and was one of the ardent critics of Tinubu before he defected to the ruling party in 2021. He faced difficult times defending Tinubu during the campaign period, particularly because of his yester years opposition to the Asiwaju when he was Governor of Lagos state.
Bayo Ononuga is an ace journalist, a publisher per excellence and one whose integrity was completely intact until his recent foray into politics to defend Tinubu as a campaign spokesman. He met severe criticism when he attacked the Igbo in Lagos for taking sides with the Labour Party. He was battered and is yet to regain his prestige even after the campaigns are over and now his hope of being made a minister is also being dashed.
Other allies of President Tinubu whose names got missing in the ministerial include former Governor of Kano state, Abdulahi Ganduje (though he is being touted as the next National Chairman of the APC), Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, Babatunde Fashola, Akinwumi Ambode, among many others. Apart from Dele Alake, Wale Edun and former Osun state governor, no other person in the list could be clearly identified as a core ally of President Tinubu, earlier than now.
More painful in the ‘list of worry’ is the exclusion of the youths in the ministerial list which was what was promised in the ‘Renewed Hope’ project. The case of south-south zone is more pathetic with diehards such as Festus Keyamo losing out in the superior political chess game.
In the south east, the young and vibrant Onoh also lost out to the entrenched oligarchy. The question has been how come President Tinibu who gathered his clout with harvests of youthful potentials has turned blind eyes to the potentials of the present youths? The allegation was that a certain Governor in the south east took control of ‘charge-de-arms.’ South east is one of the hotbeds of President Tinubu because of the southeast/southwest political suspicions.
In Enugu state, for instance, the choice of Uche Nnaji as the minister from the state will further polarize the state in a fragile structure from what is being assembled for Tinubu in the state. The Uche Nnaji/Ugo Agalla faction of the APC in Enugu had succeeded in keeping the Sullivan Chime-Ken Nnamani and their group at a far distance from Tinubu even before the election. But new entrants such as Onoh have however emerged in the APC. The Enugu example is the same in other states in the southeast such as in Anambra state where Andy Ubah lost and Nkeiru Onyejiocha won in Abia state.
In Ebonyi state, ex-Governor Dave Umhai allegedly emerged in the list because he is expecting to lose at the tribunal to the Labour party in Ebonyi south senatorial election. Enugu as the south east capital is expected to produce a youthful zonal minister in President Tinubu’s subsequent list of ministers.
Tinubu’s delayed ministerial list has no doubt caused more palpitations than during former President Mohammadu Buhari’s longer months’ delay of ministerial list. Another instance of the surprises of the Tinubu list of ministers is the exclusion of persons such as Joe Igbokwe who has suffered more degradation for Tinubu in the south east than any other ally. The disputed European Union report made mention of some of the instances of Asiwaju’s lost grounds in the south east, south-south and even south western parts of Nigeria.
Adamu Garba is another campaigner of President Tinubu in the northern part of Nigeria. He took control of his northern audience and delivered as a young person but without recognition in the ministerial list.
Reacting to the ministerial list, Senator Shehu Sani of Kaduna state said that President Tinubu in compiling the list “embraced some serpents with a known history of trajectory and rewarded some vultures for playing the Judas. Appeasing a snake in a palace doesn’t spare the king.” Television broadcaster, Rufai Oseni lamented that the list was mostly made up of former governors and old politicians.
Angry Nigerians further observed that the ministerial position has become a compensation slot for ex-governors, Senators and House of Representatives rather than being a list of technocrats who could make some difference. “Nothing for those who waited to be leaders of Tomorrow.”
Tinubu’s second list of ministers is expected to address these political dimensions to forestall impulsion in the party and campaign structure. Lagos state is another ticking time bomb for the Asiwaju in his homestead if he fails to contain the ‘boys’ he has produced in the state.
The Tinubu’s ministerial list was no doubt hijacked by the ex-governors and senators at the detriment of the ‘national angels’ that the Asiwaju had dreamt to produce, but only the second list of misters will tell if the Asiwaju dream is still realizable or gone with the winds. The second ministerial list will no doubt make or mar Asiwaju.
The dogged strategic Tinubu will no doubt ensure that he does not give any chance for a coalition of the Labour party and the PDP in 2027, if the unexpected is not pronounced by the PEPT or the Supreme Court of Nigeria. Tinubu is not known to fall prey to such traps and is expected to do the needful and take absolute control with his second batch of ministerial list so that a repeat of the 2014 coalition of political parties that produced the APC to overrun ex-President Jonathan will not be the faith of President Bola Tinubu.
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