As President Muhammadu Buhari concludes plans to select technocrat that will drive the next level agenda, reports have it that some immediate past governors are scheming to be part of President's next cabinet. Most of the ministers who worked with the president in his first term are also lobbying to come back.
Among the former governors seeking to be ministers are some of those who are soon to be inaugurated as senators having won elections to the National Assembly, the sources added. Also included are some first-time governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who lost their second term bids.
A source disclosed that ten APC governors who left office recently are currently nursing the ambitions. “As you can see, all of them had contested for offices during the general elections; all the governors who finished their second term wanted to go to the Senate but not all of them got it. Similarly, all the first term governors had contested for the second term but not all of them won.
“But the irony is that while all the second term governors worked hard to see that they become senators, some of the governors that won the Senate seats are already angling to become ministers. So, the competition is fierce because all the ministers that left recently also want to come back,” he said.
Despite promptings by journalists, President Buhari had refused to give an idea as to how his next cabinet will look like, or who and who will make the list; but sources said he will most likely expand the cabinet from 36 to 42, while more ministries will be created to accommodate more people.
A northern lawmaker, who does not want to be named, said the former governors who are now senators-elect have gone far in their bids to make the president’s ministerial list. Another source opined that “Yes, it’s true that former governors that have been elected as senators now want to be ministers. I know of a few of them, at least from their body language.
“You know they’re used to a lot of things as governors. For example, they’re used to signing contracts, a retinue of aides, convoy and a lot of other things. “But in the National Assembly, there won’t be all that. As a senator, they will even be moving unnoticed. Nobody will give them any attention, that’s why they want to be ministers. “At least as ministers, they can sign contracts, have a convoy, maintain modest retinue of aides as well as have other pegs of office. That’s what they’re after. They want their lifestyles as governors to continue in a way.
“The truth is that they didn’t want to gamble from the beginning to say that they wanted to be ministers, that’s why they contested for the Senate to ensure that they have the security of office first. “Now, even if they don’t get the ministerial appointments, they’re sure of their Senate seats,” he said. Another source also said Sen. Mohammed Adamu Aliero, who is a former governor of Kebbi State, is also interested in becoming a minister in the next cabinet of President Buhari. “Yes, I heard that Aliero too is interested.
You know he was a minister of FCT, so he knows what it means to be a minister. But I doubt if he’ll get it.” It was gathered that while some of the immediate past ministers believed that they would be considered because of their “outstanding performance,” others were relying on the circumstances that led to their selection in 2015.
“Many of the ministers knew they didn’t perform in the last three and half years but they have their ways, they have people who speak on their behalf and those people have the listening ears of the president as such they would come back,” a source said.
