5 ex-governors, 14 others make Tinubu’s second ministerial list

President Bola Tinubu has forwarded the names of five former governors alongside 14 others in his second ministerial nominee’s list to the Senate for confirmation. Former governors whose names were read as nominees by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, yesterday, were Adegboyega Oyetola (Osun), Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi), Bello Matawalle (Zamfara), Ibrahim Geidam (Yobe), and Simon Lalong (Plateau).

They join Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Dave Umahi (Ebonyi), Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna), and Atiku Abubakar Badaru (Jigawa), who were in the first batch of 28 sent to the Senate, last week. The two former deputy governors nominated are Senator Uba Maigari Ahmadu (Taraba) and Abdullahi Tijjani Gwarzo (Kano).

Among the 19 nominees read yesterday by Senate President Akpabio, which also included former senators and House of Representatives members were Bosun Tijani (Ogun), Maryam Shetty (Kano), Isiak Salako (Lagos), Tunji Alausa (Lagos), Yusuf Tanko Sununu (Kebbi) Lola Ade-John, Prince Shuaibu Abubakar Audu (Kogi), Prof Tahir Mamman (Adamawa, VC Baze University), Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (Niger), Senator Alkali Ahmed Saidu (Gombe), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri (Bayelsa), Senator Uba Maigari Ahmadu (Taraba), and Zephaniah Jisalo (FCT, Abuja).

The listing of a former member, House of Representatives, Zephaniah Bitrus Jisalo from the Federal Capital Territory, makes it the first time an indigene of the FCT would be named a minister. With the second list, President Tinubu has nominated 47 nominees, four more than the expected 43 consisting of one nominee from each of the 36 states and Abuja and one from each of the six geo-political zones.

And now, all the states of the country have been accommodated. No fewer than 11 states namely Adamawa, Bayelsa, Gombe, Kano, Kebbi, Kogi, Plateau, Lagos, Osun, Yobe, and Zamfara were omitted in the first list. However, states like Bauchi, Kano, Katsina, Cross River, Taraba, Niger, and Ogun have two nominees each while Lagos has three.