The President is probably under intense pressure, following the constitutional provision, to forward the list of ministerial nominees to the Senate within 60 days of his inauguration for screening and confirmation which will be locking up on Friday July 28, barely 2 days from today.
Meanwhile, Tinubu is facing barrage of criticisms for this delay.
With the delay, many including the All Progressive Congress (APC) faithful and adherents including Stakeholders are becoming apprehensive this imminent failure to deliver this onerous obligation before the constitutional deadline of Friday.
President Bola Tinubu has up till 28 July to send his ministerial nominees to the Senate for screening and confirmation in accordance with the Nigerian constitution.
The constitution, following amendments by the immediate National Assembly, stipulates that the president and governors have, from the date they are sworn in, a 60-day window within which to appoint ministers and commissioners respectively.
Section 42 of the constitution states that “(a) the nomination of any person to the office of a Minister for confirmation by the Senate shall be done within sixty days after the date the President has taken the oath of office;
(b) Not less than ten per cent of persons appointed as Ministers shall be women:
Provided that the President may appoint a Minister at any other time during his tenure and such appointment shall be subject to confirmation by the Senate.”
The document also provides that the president shall appoint at least a minister from each of the 36 states of the federation.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was inaugurated on 29 May, has yet to appoint the cabinet ministers fifty-seven (57) days after.
According to highly credible sources, the delicate crisis rocking the party at the national level which resulted in the sudden resignation of the former national Chairman, Adamu and the national Secretary, Omisore within 24-hours is said to have affected the development of the list as Tinubu’s attention was reportedly diverted to internal party affairs against national issues.
For instance, it was gathered, that Ganduje, was initially considered for a ministerial slot but for the resignation of Senator Adamu, which was said to have propelled Tinubu to nominate him as possible replacement for the former chairman, being from the North-West where Adamu hails from.
This is said to have beeen generating crisis as some stalwarts of the APC have argued that the former governor of Nasarawa State, Senator Tanko Al-Makura, who is from the North-Central as the former chairman, was more “cool-headed than Ganduje.”
The internal party crises in most of the APC States were also said to have added more salt to the already septic injury as the nominee interest of some State governors were said to have conflicted with that of President Tinubu and his wife Oluremi, haven existed in the public domain as top public officers over time.
However, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has reportedly postponed his plans for Wednesday in an effort to evaluate and finalize his cabinet list.
Recall that Tinubu has promised Nigerians upon inauguration into office ass President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that he rule in accordance with the constitution and the Rule of Law which has long abused.
Barely, two weeks after his declaration as President-elect, Tinubu, in a statement on 16 March 16, said he would form a “government of national competence,” an indication that the cabinet would comprise mainly people who are competent that would help deliver his election promises. It also indicated that he would not base the appointment of cabinet ministers on only political considerations.
“There has been talk of a government of national unity. My aim is higher than that. I seek a government of national competence. In selecting my government, I shall not be weighed down by considerations extraneous to ability and performance,” Mr Tinubu said at the time.
The delay in announcing the cabinet ministers has led to the emergence of several lists of ministers, which the government itself disowned.
In the last few weeks, several lists of nominees have surfaced in the media. In some of the lists, names of political allies of the president and former governors featured prominently.
Apparently disturbed by the speculations, the president’s spokesperson, Dele Alake, in a press briefing urged Nigerians to disregard the lists.
“There is no iota of truth in all those things. When the president is good and ready, you will be the first to know about his intentions,” Alake said earlier this month.
Although he has yet to appoint ministers, Tinubu has made some other appointments since his inauguration with the latest being that of 20 aides earlier this month.
Before then, he had made other appointments including that of the secretary to the government of the federation, chief of staff and deputy chief of staff made on 2 June.
On 15 June, he appointed eight advisers, including Dele Alake as special adviser on special duties, communications and strategy and Wale Edun as special adviser on monetary policies.
He thereafter, on 19 June, appointed another set of people comprising the national security adviser, service chiefs, the inspector general of police and others.