By David Olalekan.
President Muhammadu Buhari is reportedly keen on retaining a great number of his former cabinet members, as the pressure for the formation of a new cabinet intensifies.
According to presidency sources, the president opted to retain his trusted allies regardless of public opinion, as manifested in the ministerial list he reportedly submitted to the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan yesterday.
According to the source, “Nigerians should expect to see most of the old faces. There are no two ways about it.
“President Buhari is retaining at least 70 percent of his cabinet members. He works on trust. These are people who served with him in the last tenure and have not been found guilty of any offence.
“Most of his Ministers and aides are returning and most of them will still continue from where they stopped. The President does not believe in changing people just for the sake of doing so.
“You should have known this with the re-appointment of the Chief of Staff and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.”
Some names speculated to be on the ministerial list that was reportedly submitted to the Senate President last night are: ex-Ministers of Justice and AGF Abubakar Malami ( SAN); Adamu Adamu (Education); Hadi Sirika (Aviation); Zainab Ahmed (Finance); Aisha Abubakar (Women Affairs); Lai Mohammed (Information); Babatunde Fashola (Works, Power and Housing); Rotimi Amaechi (Transportation); Mohammed Musa Bello ( FCT); Suleiman Adamu Kazaure (Water Resources); Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu (Science & Technology); Solomon Dalung (Sports & Youths Development) and others.
Other ex-ministers, such as Adebayo Shittu (Communications) and Okechukwu Enelamah (Trade and Industry) reportedly didn’t make the cut.