Members of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC struggle for greater inclusion in government as the nation waits for the unveiling of President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term cabinet, writes Akanni Alaka
With the emergence of their preferred candidates as the presiding officers of the National Assembly, members of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC have shifted their battle to ensure that party members enjoy the ‘fruits of their labour’ to the impending composition of President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet.
The rage of a section of the party, which forced Senate President, Ahmed Lawan to drop an appointee they accused of being anti Buhari government has already shown how far some APC members are ready to go this time around to ensure they fully benefitted from the victory of their party in terms of appointments.
It’s APC members’ time
Protesters who claimed to be members of the ruling party, under the aegis of APC Concerned National Stakeholders Forum took to the streets of Abuja early last week to drive this message home. Armed with placards with various inscriptions which indicated their concerns, the protesters, who gathered near Defence Headquarters, Abuja, urged the President to ensure that people who worked for him in various capacities during the 2019 general elections are compensated with appointments.
Led by one Dr. Symeon Chilagorom, the protesters complained about the delay by the President in making the list of his second term cabinet public, a situation they claimed could give room for ‘influencers’ to position their allies for appointment to the detriment of those “who risked their necks to ensure President Buhari’s victory at the 2019 elections.
“This is the time for compensation but now it has gone back to the old ways where a few people take the compensation to themselves and their cronies,” Chilagorom said.
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The group said its members expected that the President would have by now announced members of his second term cabinet and other primary appointments.
Aside this, the protesters also asked the President not to appoint people who have stayed in government for over 40 years as the nation is in dire need of fresh ideas. With some of the placards bearing inscriptions such as ‘Abba Kyari must go’, ‘PMB must take charge’, ‘No more cabal, no more intimidation’, ‘We need ideas, not recycling men and women who have spent 40 years in government,’ the protesters were also very categorical on the kind of people they will not want to see around the President or indeed, in the presidency in the next four years.
However, the Presidency wasted no time in dismissing the protest as sponsored. Mallam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, said many of such sponsored protests should be expected from those who want to force the President to do their biddings in terms of appointment in the days ahead.
“One thing to note is that this President is not the kind that can be swayedby this chicanery. He has a mind of his own and he alone will decide who he will work with and who he will send away. In effect, this demonstration will change nothing,” he said.
Growing intrigues
Some party members who spoke to The Nigerian Xpress, however, contended that while the protests may indeed be sponsored, the protesters were not totally off the mark in terms of expression of the desires of APC members and other stakeholders on the President’s second term cabinet.
They pointed out for instance that Aisha, the wife of the President had also repeatedly complained about the stranglehold of the ‘cabal’ believed to be made up of the trio of Mamman Daura, the former Director General of the Directorate of State Services, DSS, Malam Abba Kyari, Chief of Staff to the President and Ismaila Funtua, a former newspaper publisher and a contractor on the President.
Though, Daura has since been booted out as the DG of DSS and Funtua does not hold any official appointment in government, speculations have persisted on the influence of the duo alongside the Chief of Staff on appointments made by the President. “Definitely, many party members believe Aisha that most of the appointments being made by the President is being influenced by these men. Remember the complaints on those appointments in terms of spread across the country,” said the source.
Also, an APC former member of the House of Representatives told The Nigerian Xpress that party members are determined this time around to avoid the situation in which the President appointed people not known to the state chapters as ministers during his first term.
He noted that some of such appointees were responsible for the crisis that afflicted some of the state chapters in the run up to the 2019 general elections.
But while it was not known if the President will allow the state chapters to make nominations for appointment as ministers this time around, there is no doubt that the issue of who emerges as members of Buhari’s cabinet is already generating controversies in some state chapters of the party.
Some of the former ministers in the President’s first cabinet are also angling for a return. In Lagos for instance, supporters of former governors Babatunde Raji Fashola and Akinwumi Ambode are engaged in subtle battle of wits over which of the former state chief executives should be appointed minister.
Fashola combined the power, housing and works portfolio in the first term of President Buhari and his supporters believed he did enough then to be returned as minister.
On the other hand, supporters of Ambode are also claiming that apart from his ‘sterling’ performance in Lagos, the former governor is also deserving of the ministerial appointment as a compensation for the second term ticket which was denied him.
In the same vein, a group which described itself as Ibom Integrity & Servant Leadership Culture Initiative had in the past few weeks embarked on ceaseless campaign on why former Senator Godswill Akpabio should not be appointed as the representative of Akwa Ibom State in Buhari’s second cabinet.
The group, which claimed to be made up of members of Akwa Ibom chapter of APC, had suggested other party members for appointment as minister by Buhari.
In the same vein, a group in Kwara State had also been campaigning against the return of Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the former Minister of Information to the President’s cabinet. The former minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi raised alarm of a smear campaign plot believed to be targeted at dimming his chances of returning as minister early last week.
Waiting for Buhari’s cabinet list
Similar intrigues are playing out in other states just as speculations continue to mount on those in or out of considerations for appointment as ministers and other positions by the President. The Presidency was recently forced to deny that Dr. Ogbonaya Onu, a former Minister of Science and Technology has been appointed as the Secretary to the Federal Government following viral speculations on the social media. Also, lists of supposed ministerial nominees by President Buhari have also been circulating, especially on the social media.
Such speculations, Jide Ojo, a columnist wrote last week have continued because the President has failed to live up to his promise not to allow six months to elapse before appointing his cabinet like he did when he was first elected in 2015.
“The rumour mill is thriving on this matter because of the president’s vacillation. How can a sitting president not have made any official announcement of any aides or cabinet one month after inauguration?” the columnist queried.
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But while defending Buhari, sources at the presidency said the names of the ministerial nominees cannot be announced until the Senate resumed sitting.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Boss Mustapha echoed this recently when he told journalists that the President will unveil his cabinet as soon as the National Assembly begin sitting.
“Our system is unique. We have an executive system where your membership of a parliament denies you the opportunity of being a minister, unless you resign from parliament. Mr. President is working on his list or must have concluded. He mentioned in his Democracy Day broadcast that he is going to assemble competent Nigerians to help him implement his programmes,” the SGF said.
“So far, we have part of the leadership that has emerged. The other part will emerge after they return from their recess. They are reconvening on July 2 and it is when they reconvene that we expect they will finish other complements of their leadership. There are other key officers needed in the introduction of an executive bill.
“You don’t go directly to the Senate President; you only write to him. It is the Majority Leader, who represents the party in the Senate that has the responsibility of introducing the bill, and he has received the list too. I believe that within the month of July, he will submit the list. It is then up to the Senate to do the needful and conclude the exercise,” he added.
Wanted: An inclusive cabinet
Even as the waiting continues, analysts said when eventually released, the composition of the ministerial nominees must reflect Section 14 (3) of the Constitution which says: “The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few State or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies.”
Apart from the inclusiveness advocated by this section of the constitution, some had also urged the President to look beyond his party in drawing up his cabinet list.
President Buhari had himself promised to give Nigerian women and youths more appointments in the next four years of his administration while speaking at the APC Women and Youths Presidential Campaign team dinner held to celebrate his re-election.
He also promised that only those with integrity and interest of Nigeria would be considered for appointments in his new cabinet at the dinner.
This is a promise that Nigerians will be waiting for the President to fulfil when he eventually unveil the list of appointees to his second term cabinet
