President Bola Tinubu has yet to comply with this constitutional requirement, which gives the President 60 days to submit the names of ministerial nominees to the Senate for consideration and confirmation.
Recall that on May 29, former President Muhammadu Buhari gave President Tinubu the reins of power, and on same day, he took the oath of office.
The Senate has not yet received the complete list of ministerial nominations, according to numerous sources in the upper house of Congress.
Last week, sources close to the presidency suggested that the list was ready, but the President was still making a few changes.
According to one of the sources, the President had originally penciled down four names in four states, but they have since been removed and replaced with fresh ones.
Against Ganduje opposition
Another source revealed that the final list would have been submitted to the Senate last week if not for the opposition against Abdullahi Ganduje, the former governor of Kano State and the rumored choice of the President to succeed Senator Abdullahi Adamu as the party’s national chairman.
According to reports, Senator Adamu’s resignation prompted the President to name Ganduje as a potential replacement for the former chairman because Ganduje is from the same region of the North-West as Adamu. Initially, Ganduje was reportedly under consideration for a ministerial position.
APC leaders claim that Senator Tanko Al-Makura, the former chairman and former governor of Nasarawa State, was more “cool-headed than Ganduje,” and this is what is allegedly causing the crisis.
At the previous APC convention, Senator Al-Makura was a front-runner for the job. However, Senator Adamu won the nomination after Senator Al-Makura resigned under pressure from former President Muhammadu Buhari.
When Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, one of the APC’s presidential candidates, was at the time, the former governor of Nasarawa State was accused of being his ally.
However, insiders aware with the intrigues surrounding the selection of the APC chairman claimed that the President’s failure to provide the cabinet list to the Senate last week was due to opposition to Ganduje’s selection.
Despite rumors that the ministerial list was sent to the Red Chamber last week, a highly placed source told Vanguard in response to questions: “We have not yet received the official list of the ministerial nominees.
“If we had received it, the Clerk of the National Assembly would have read it out; there would be no reason to maintain the list.”
The President was still rewriting the list as of Friday, according to a different source who spoke with Vanguard, and he will submit the final list this week.
“As of Friday, the list is with Baba, but I’m not sure about yesterday (Saturday),” the insider stated. Up until Friday, when he traveled, he continued to alter some names. He is updating several names every minute. He’ll call the PLO for the Senate by this week and give him the list, though.
This week, he will transmit the list, and the Senate will confirm the nominations.
Al-Makura and Ganduje are on the president’s shortlist, however
The president revealed that he had not yet sent the list of his ministers for screening, according to a lawmaker from the South-West who commented on the subject.
The senator added that it was due to the politics surrounding the selection of the APC chairman.
The member remarked: “I understand the Senate President has the list, and what is holding it up is the addition and subtraction of the list. The unexpected is always a possibility.
The politics and scheming around the potential selection of Dr. Umaru Ganduje as the national chairman of the APC are another factor contributing to the delay.
The bulk of party leaders support the former governor of Nasarawa State, Tanko Al-Makura, to succeed Senator Abdullahi Adamu, even though most of them oppose Ganduje.
‘’They also support Senator Ajibola Basiru, a former spokesman for the Senate, for party secretary. While the evicted Adamu, Almakura, is from Nasarawa, Basiru, the ousted Omisore, is from Osun State.
‘’Given the purported corruption allegations against him, the majority of APC leaders oppose Ganduje serving as national chairman. They claim it harms the party’s reputation.
“As you are aware, the administration of Kano State raised the issue, which is why the majority of leaders are claiming that it is bad for the party’s reputation.
“They went to meet with Asiwaju and told him they didn’t want Ganduje, but the decision-making is at his table,”
