With all things being equal, President Muhammadu Buhari will formally swear in the ministers-designate and inaugurate the much-awaited Federal Executive Council on Wednesday at an event scheduled to hold inside the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The inauguration of Buhari’s cabinet is coming over five months after the President was inaugurated.
According to reports emanating from the State House, it was gathered that the dates of the two inaugurations had already been communicated to those concerned by the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President.
The President had said although the constitution stipulates that all the 36 states should have representatives in the cabinet, the law does not say he must have 36 ministries.
He had said that due to the economic situation, the nation cannot have up to 36 ministries, giving an indication that some existing ministries might be scrapped while others merged.
It was however not clear on Saturday the number of ministries the President had settled for.
According to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu, confirmed that the inauguration of ministers was on the President’s schedule for Wednesday.
“Yes, it is on the President’s schedule. He will swear in the ministers on Wednesday. He will swear in the INEC chairman and his national commissioners on Monday,” Shehu said.
When asked about the number of ministries the President has settled for, Shehu said he had no information on it.
“Everything will be clear latest by Wednesday when the ministers will be sworn in,” he added.
The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation had on Thursday and Friday organised a presidential retreat for the ministers-designate during which they were exposed to the focus of the present administration and expectations from them.
They were also shown the current economic and security situation of the country.
Other areas touched during the retreat were the relationship between the ministers and their colleagues as well as their permanent secretaries and aides.
The 36 ministers to be inaugurated on Wednesday are Udoma Udo Udoma (Akwa Ibom); Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti); Audu Ogbeh (Benue); Ogbonnaya Onu (Ebonyi); Osagie Ehanire (Edo); Abdulrahman Dambazau (Kano); Lai Mohammed (Kwara); Amina Mohammed (Gombe); Suleiman Adamu (Jigawa); and Ibrahim Jibril (Nasarawa).
Others are Babatunde Fashola (Lagos); Ibe Kachikwu (Delta); Abubakar Malami (Kebbi); Chris Ngige (Anambra); Aisha Jummai Alhassan (Taraba); Solomon Dalong (Plateau); Kemi Adeosun (Ogun); Hadi Sirika (Katsina); Adebayo Shittu (Oyo); Khadija Bukar Ibrahim (Yobe); Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers); James Ocholi (Kogi); Baba Mustapha (Borno); Claudius Daramola (Ondo); Heineken Lokpobiri (Bayelsa); and Usani Uguru (Cross River).
The remaining ministers-designate are Munsur Dan Ali (Zamfara); Zainab Shamshuna Ahmed (Kaduna); Geoffrey Onyeama (Enugu); Abubakar Buari (Niger); Isaac Adewole (Osun); Aisha Abubakar (Sokoto); Mohammed Bello (Adamawa); Adamu Adamu (Bauchi); Anthony Anwuka (Imo); and Okechukwu Enelamah (Abia).
Meanwhile, there are no reports on the mama Taraba, Aisha Jummai Alhassan who on Saturday was declared winner of the governorship elections in her state. It is expected she will be replaced for her to assume her duties as the first elected female governor in Nigeria.
It will be recalled that during her ministerial screening, she cleared the air that her nomination wasn’t a form of compensation for supposedly losing out to the now sacked Governor of Taraba State, Ishaku Darius. She revealed then that she was very much interested in reclaiming her mandate and she did