Tinubu nominates Ibrahim, Olawande as ministers, keeps mum on el-Rufai’s replacement 

• Appoints Nkwocha as media aide to Vice President, others
• Tinubu’s appointments nepotistic unconstitutional, undemocratic, says HURIWA 

A month after inaugurating his cabinet made up of 45 ministers cleared by the Senate and three weeks after he presided over his first and only Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting yet, President Bola Tinubu yesterday nominated Dr. Jamila Bio Ibrahim to serve as the Minister of Youth, pending her confirmation by the Senate, ending intense jostling for the much-craved Youths portfolio.

The President further nominated Mr. Ayodele Olawande to serve as the Minister of State for Youth, pending his confirmation by the Senate. This brings the cabinet tally to 47 with the awaited replacement of three dropped nominees – former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai; former deputy governor of Taraba State, Sani Abubakar Danladi; and Stella Okotete from Delta State – expected to take the cabinet list to 50 ministers.

Ibrahim is a young medical doctor and most recently served as the President of the Progressive Young Women Forum (PYWF). She also served as the Senior Special Assistant to the Kwara State governor on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 37-year-old is the daughter of Ibrahim Bio, a former Minister of Sports during President Goodluck Jonathan administration.

Olawande, from Ondo State, is a community development expert and youth leader in the governing All Progressives Congress (APC). He most recently served in the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Innovation from 2019 to 2023.

President Tinubu charged the two nominees to ensure that they consistently reflect the dynamism, innovative zeal, and unyielding productivity that are synonymous with the young people of Nigeria as they discharge their duties.

Earlier at the weekend, the Presidency had announced the appointment of Stanley Nkwocha as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, Office of the Vice President, along with seven others.

Other appointments include Dr. Muhammad Bulama as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Special Duties; Tope Kolade Fasua as Special Adviser Economy (VP Office); Sadiq S. Jambo as S.A. Economy (VP Office); Mahmud Muhammad, Personal Assistant Domestic North-East (VP Office); Ahmed Ningi, SSA Digital Media and Emergency Management (VP Office); Musa Amshi Muhammad Al-Amin as SSA Special Duties (VP Office); and Emmanuella Eduozor as S.A. Multimedia Content Production.”

Also in the new set of appointments are Lagos Head of Service, Hakeem Muri-Okunola, as principal secretary. His appointment had for long been expected, as far as June. Muri-Okunola is a 51 year-old lawyer, who joined the Lagos Civil service in 2001 as personal assistant to then Governor Tinubu.

By 2005, Tinubu appointed him Executive Secretary of the Land Use and Allocation Committee. Six years after, he was promoted permanent secretary and was appointed the head of service in December 2018.

Among those appointed is Moremi Ojudu, first daughter of Babafemi Ojudu, the former special political adviser to Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo. Moremi, who supported the Tinubu campaign, will serve as Senior Special Assistant to the President (SSAP) on Community Engagement in the Southwest.

Tanko Yakasai, Chioma Nweze, Abiodun Essiet and Abdulhamid Yahaya Abba were similarly appointed to serve the other five geographical zones. Yakasai is for Northwest, Essiet North Central, Nweze Southeast and Yahaya Abba Northeast.

The appointment batch also showed that former deputy governor of Lagos, Adejoke Orelope Adefulire has been reappointed as SSAP Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

MEANWHILE, with President Tinubu’s recent approval of the nomination of Olayemi Cardoso to serve as the substantive governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), some 48 hours after appointing Zachaeus Adedeji as the acting chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the strong perception that the President is pushing an unseemly pro-ethnic agenda became worryingly stronger,  the Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has alleged.

Adedeji is to “serve in an acting capacity for 90 days before his subsequent confirmation as the substantive chairman of FIRS for a term of four years in the first instance.”

According to the group, with a little over 100 days on the saddle, the President’s appointments have shown he appears to have special consideration for people from his Southwest region, especially those with links to Lagos.

National coordinator of HURIWA, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said if President Tinubu’s appointment of new service chiefs sparked new hope and drew deserved plaudits in that it recognised the nation’s diversity, his subsequent appointments curiously departed from that template.

“That the disastrous, previous administration of General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.), towed a visionless, divisive path, in the overwhelming tribalistic appointments it made, should never excuse this course that fundamentally degrades the legitimate dream of a new, progressive, inclusive Nigerian state.

“Today, the stakes are extremely high and Nigerians are mindful that a failure to achieve democratic stability, through a meritorious, transparent, inclusive governance process may imperil the country’s future as a coherent state. Mere political rewards and seeming ethnic nationalism should not drive the national journey. It is a perilous, avoidable option.

“HURIWA strongly believes that this is the wrong path to thread, especially against the background of deep mistrust, misery, political and economic dislocations brazenly birthed by the predecessor administration. We believe that like Caesar’s wife, the Tinubu administration ought to be above suspicion.

“We recall here that the central driving mantra and foundational philosophy on which the ruling APC sold its presidential candidate, now President, to Nigerians, was ‘Renewed Hope.’ Nigerians bought into it and voted the President and APC to power because it deeply resonated with the populace. But what is the reality?”

The group added: “Key appointments traversing the nation’s crucial security, judicial and economic sectors are now unabashedly cornered by the Southwest. A quick, non-exhaustive check-list would include: Petroleum Minister: Tinubu; Chief of Staff: Femi Gbajabiamila; Minister of Justice: Lateef Fagbemi; Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun; acting CBN Governor, Folashodun Shonubi, who now gives way to a substantive CBN boss, Cardoso.

“Others include: Minister of Marine & Blue Economy: Bunmi Tunji-Ojo; Minister of Communication, Innovation & Digital Economy, Bosun Tijan; simultaneously, the Chairman of Senate Committee on ICT, Afolabi Salisu, and that of House of Representatives, Adedeji Olajide Odidiomo are both from the Southwest; Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu; Minister of Transport, Adegboyega Oyetola; Minister of Solid Minerals, Dele Alake; Chief of Army Staff, General Taoreed Lagbaja; Police IG, Kayode Egbetokun; Comptroller-General Customs, Adewale Adeniyi; Comptroller-General Immigration, Adepoju Carol Wura-Ola; FIRS Chairman: Zacchaeus. Adedeji, among others.

“The President ‘selected’ his men and women from across the length and breadth of Nigeria. But there’s no cause for cheer in the Southeast geopolitical zone because, once again, the zone was shortchanged.

“An analysis of the ministerial spread shows that the Southeast is the only zone without a zonal representation in the ministerial appointments. President Tinubu barely accommodated the Southeast in his cabinet to satisfy the Constitution, which made it mandatory that each of the 36 states and Abuja must have a minister each.

“After complying with the constitutional provision, Tinubu has additional 12 ministerial slots to allocate because of the size of his cabinet, which of course, was his own making. That is where the zonal allocation of ministers comes in.

“Yet, in his distribution of the extra ministerial slots, Tinubu gave additional three ministers each to Northwest, Southwest and South-south zones, making it a total of 10 and nine ministers for the zones, respectively. Each of Northeast and North-central were given two extra ministers, making it a total of eight for each of these favoured zones.

“Sadly, the Southeast was stuck with its five constitutionally mandatory numbers of ministers. No addition. No zonal representation. Just a paltry 10.4 per cent of the 48 names in Tinubu’s prospective ministers.”

With yesterday’s announcement, Southwest and North-central got one extra slot each.