• Wike’s ally refuses to quit agency despite appointment of new head
President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of 26 persons to the boards and management of 10 Federal Government agencies and commissions.

The appointments, announced in a statement yesterday by Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to the President on information and strategy, take immediate effect.

Among the appointees is Ayo Fayose, former Governor of Ekiti, who was named chairman of the board of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) and Major General Junaid Bindawa as chairman of the National Salary and Wages Commission.

Fayose heads the board of REA, with Alhaji Ahmadu Abubakar and Ilyasu Ibrahim Makinta appointed as members and non-executive directors. The incumbent DG of the agency, Abba Abubakar Aliyu, and three previously appointed executive directors make up the remaining board members.

President Tinubu made eight other appointments to the Wages Commission, along with Maj.-General Bindawa. Former member of the House of Representatives from Lagos, Olajumoke Okoya-Thomas, is the new secretary of the commission. Dr Ogbole Ene Lilian, Oladele Olatubosun, and Yakubu Umar Barde, representing Benue State, Oyo and Kaduna, were appointed as commissioners.

Dr Mai Adamu Yau, from Borno, Ginika Florence Tor (Enugu), Lawrence Okoh (Edo) and Bello MorenikeIyabode (Kogi) were appointed as members of the commission.
Tosin Johnson Adeyanju, who was previously appointed Executive Secretary of the National Lottery Trust Fund (NLTF), has now been appointed Secretary of the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission.

President Tinubu also appointed Dr Abuh Mohammed as Director General of the National Population Commission, Dr Akinola Odeyemi as Managing Director of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET), and Dr Anthony Inalegwu Godwin as chairman/CEO of the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission. Julius Oloro, a former council chairman, is the new CEO of the Kwara-based National Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation (NCAM), replacing Dr A.R. Kamal, who died last January.

President Tinubu constituted the board of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, with Dr Abdullahi Maikano Saidu as chairman. The board members include Mohammed Asmau, Mohammed Aliyu Makama, Dr Suleiman Gidado, Louis Ndukwe, Amaechi Ugwele and Olaniyi Idowu Onikola.
Shuni Muhammad Dahiru is the new executive secretary of the National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-Formal Education, replacing Prof. Shu’aibu Shehu Aliyu, who was reassigned to the Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF) in April.

To replace Mathias Byuan, the former executive director, finance of the Federal Housing Authority, who resigned to contest the governorship election in Benue, President Tinubu named Gisaor Vincent Iorja. Iorja is an economist, legal scholar, and academic currently serving as the secretary of the Benue State Independent Electoral Commission (BSIEC).

All the appointments take immediate effect.

MEANWHILE, a fresh power tussle has erupted at the Border Communities Development Agency (BCDA) as the agency’s embattled Executive Secretary, Dr DakorinamaAlabo George, reportedly refuses to vacate office despite President Bola Tinubu appointing a replacement.

George, a known ally of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has remained in office nearly a month after the presidency announced the appointment of former House of Representatives spokesman, Abdulrazak Namdas, as the new Executive Secretary of the agency.

The standoff has sparked concerns over a possible constitutional crisis and raised questions about the authority of presidential appointments.

George, a former Rivers State Commissioner for Works, had reportedly resigned from his position to contest the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary in Rivers State but later withdrew from the race at the last minute on May 21.

Despite the presidency announcing Namdas’ appointment on June 26, George has continued to function as the agency’s chief executive, including holding official engagements such as meetings with the minister of finance.

Defending his decision to remain in office, George said on a WhatsApp call that his resignation never created a vacancy because he eventually withdrew from the governorship race.

However, presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga dismissed suggestions that George remained the substantive Executive Secretary, insisting that President Tinubu’s appointee, Abdulrazak Namdas, remains the legitimate head of the agency.

“Not true. Namdas stays,” Onanuga said.