Current ministers who excelled during President Muhammadu Buhari’s first term will be considered for automatic appointment into his cabinet during his second term in order to ensure continuity, Daily Independent reports.
Aside performance as ministers, a presidency source told the National Tabloid that cabinet members who contributed immensely to the victory of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), especially President Buhari’s reelection, will be considered.
He particularly singled out Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing; Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, and Udoma Udo Udoma, Minister of Budget and National Planning, as ministers who are being considered to be retained in the next administration.
He said aside his role as a super minister who supervised three key portfolios, Fashola also served as Director of Election Planning and Monitoring for the APC Presidential Campaign Council, a task he performed creditably well to the admiration of the president.
On his part, Lai Mohammed received a lot of accolades from the party leadership and President Buhari for his role in his home state of Kwara for leading the assault against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which not only recorded hundred percent victory for the APC but also ended Senate President Bukola Saraki’s dominance of the state.
Speaking further, he said as Minister of Budget, Udoma played a key role in stabilising the administration throughout the period of recession and also when the price of crude oil, Nigeria’s major source of income, was drastically reduced.
“The APC national leadership is very much involved in the selection process. The National Working Committee of the party led by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the national chairman, is working hand-in-hand with Mr. President and other key leaders such as Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to have a fantastic cabinet that will help the president in his Next Level agenda.
“The president and the party are trying to avoid some mistakes of 2015. If you can recall, even the First Lady said President Buhari doesn’t know many of the cabinet members while others who sacrificed a lot for his victory were not rewarded.
“Yes, some ministers will be retained while some fresh bloods will also be injected. Those who performed below expectations and those whose utterances and actions are inimical to the progress of the party will have no place in the new administration”, the source said.
He, however, added that unlike in 2015, governors elected on the party’s platform will not be allowed to hijack the process where they will send names of their loyalists to the president, who will eventually not make any impact after their appointments.
Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), told Daily Independent that he strongly believes that ministers who performed creditably well will be retained by President Buhari.
According to him, once you have appointees who performed very well, there will be no need to replace them in order to sustain the tempo and ensure continuity in governance.
He added that it is only incompetent ones that can be replaced.
“I strongly believe that the outstanding ministers who performed very well are likely to be retained. There will be no reason not to retain them at all. You don’t just change for the sake of changing but for the sake of improvement or replacing incompetent ones.
“If there are ministers who really performed excellently in the president’s cabinet in his first term, then there will be no need to replace them”.
