APC bigwigs start jostling for positions in Tinubu's cabinet as Ganduje eyes FCT minister

JOSTLING has said to have begin in earnest for positions in president-elect Bola Tinubu's government with high profile members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) stepping up lobbying to get appointed to key cabinet positions.

On March 1, Asiwaju Tinubu was declared the winner of the February 25 presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) after securing a majority of votes cast and at least 25% of votes cast in 29 states. He defeated former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, Peter Obi of the Labour Party and 15 other candidates.

However, Asiwaju Tinubu has not been seen in public since his recent trip abroad with no known date as to when he would return to Nigeria. He travelled to Europe to seek medical care after falling ill after the polls, first travelling to Paris and then revealing that he will later be going to the UK and then on to Saudi Arabia where he will perform the lesser hajj pilgrimage.

In the meantime, however, lading APC members like Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State and Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State are said to be lobbying hard for ministerial appointments. It is also believed that the outgoing speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila is lobbying to become chief of staff to president-elect Tinubu, as is minister of works and housing, Babatunde Fashola.

Asiwaju Tinubu is expected to send the list of his ministers to the National Assembly within 60 days of his inauguration on May 29. President Muhammadu Buhari recently signed a bill that requires the president and governors to submit the names of persons nominated as ministers or commissioners within 60 days of taking the oath of office for confirmation by the Senate or state houses of assembly.

Apparently,  Governor Ganduje wants to be the Federal Capital Territory minister, while Governor El-Rufai wants the national security adviser position. According to one party source, Wale Edun wants to be the minister of finance while Governor Abubakar Bagudu of Kebbi State wants to be the Central Bank of Nigeria governor.

When Asiwaju Tinubu was the Lagos governor between 1999 and 2007, Mr Edun held the position of commissioner for finance. Governor Bagudu for his party has been in the news for the wrong reasons, one of which was connected to moves by the US to help Nigeria repatriate millions of dollars from the British Island of Jersey.

These funds were part of the billions of dollars traced to Sani Abacha, the late military dictator who ruled Nigeria from November 1993 till his death in June 1998. Shortly after the agreement was signed in the US, Bloomberg wire service reported that officials of the US Department of Justice kicked against plans by the Nigerian government to return $100m to Governor Bagudu from the Abacha loot.

In a February 3, 2020 statement, the US Department of Justice said that the Kebbi governor was part of a network controlled by Abacha that embezzled, misappropriated and extorted billions from the government of Nigeria. Governor Bagudu was said to have created anonymous companies in the British Virgin Islands and other financial havens.

His offshore network system relied on a sprawling global industry of bankers, investment portfolio managers and go-betweens who worked together to protect his stolen wealth. Governor Bagudu also reportedly used anonymous companies, investment trusts and other paper entities to create complex structures to disguise the origins of Abacha’s dirty money.