Prior to Eid el-Kabir celebrations, President Bola Tinubu is scheduled to fly in from London.
The presidency announced on Saturday that the president was travelling to the UK from France, where he had been attending a summit organised by French President Emmanuel Macron on “A New Global Financing Pact.”
“Tinubu, who was initially scheduled to be back in Abuja on Saturday, will now proceed to London, United Kingdom, for a short private visit,” read a statement signed by the President’s Special Adviser on Special Duties, Communication and Strategy, Dele Alake, on Saturday.
Tinubu’s return date was not specified in the statement, which only stated that he would be back in time for the upcoming Eid-el-Kabir festival.
Presidency sources informed our correspondent on Monday that the Nigerian leader would return to his personal Ikoyi home in Lagos later on Tuesday to take part in his first Sallah celebration as President, confirming the day of his arrival.
He will return to Lagos on Tuesday, not Abuja, I am positive of that. He will observe Sallah there, the source said.
The reported in April that there were conflicting feelings surrounding the President-elect’s absence from the Eid el-Fitr celebrations.
Although the then-President-elect released a statement informing Nigerians of his Sallah message, he was nowhere to be found in Lagos or Abuja.
This time, according to sources, he is scheduled to pray at the Obalende Muslim Prayer Ground at Dodan Barracks, the former location of the Nigerian government, along with other dignitaries.
It will be recalled that former president Muhammadu Buhari ordered that control of the Obalende Eid Prayer Ground be returned to the Lagos Jama’atul Muslimeen Council of the Lagos Central Mosque just hours before his term came to an end.
Although the holiday doesn’t end until Thursday, a source in the presidency said Tinubu “may extend his stay until Sunday or Monday next week before he returns to Abuja.”
His ministerial list, which is about to be submitted to the National Assembly, is uncertain when he returns.
Another source said, “I discovered that Tinubu’s ministerial list is nearly complete. He kept a core group of ministers close to himself, heavily relying on the SAs’ kitchen cabinet.
“The political class rules ‘Bolekaja’ over the rest. It’s now a brawl.
Alake, the President-elect’s Special Adviser at the time, stated in March that Tinubu would assemble his cabinet within a month of taking office.
According to Alake, this is in accordance with the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, which requires that within 60 days of taking the oath of office, president-elects and governors-elect submit the names of the ministerial and commissioner-nominees they have chosen for Senate or state House of Assembly confirmation.
He continued, “I told you in an earlier interview that Asiwaju formed his cabinet as governor in no more than three weeks.
“At the time, that was. Even 60 days seems excessive to me.
“Any serious government can form its cabinet and establish a functioning government after the oath of office in no more than a month.”
Bayo Onanuga, the APC Presidential Campaign Council’s then director of media and publicity, echoed the story when he said, “What I can assure you is that even if the list is not ready on the first day, it will not take Asiwaju more than one month to put his cabinet together. He most certainly won’t wait 60 days to put together a capable cabinet.
Nigerians bemoaned the Buhari administration’s delay in appointing ministers in 2015, which caused the formation of its cabinet to take about six months.
