16 days to go, President Tinubu’s Ministerial list not yet ready

44 days after taking office as Head of State, President Bola Tinubu is yet to submit his Cabinet list of Ministerial nominees to the National Assembly. Due to the development, speculations have been rife on the names of the Ministerial nominees, with different lists already circulating on social media.

Recall that the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari had signed into law a constitutional amendment, mandating governors and the President to within 60 days of assuming office submit their appointees for commissioners and Ministers; a deadline which expires on July 28.

According to official reports, the authentic list of Ministerial nominees is currently being scrutinized by the Department of State Services (DSS) and anti-graft agencies, as they conduct background security checks on the appointees.

However, due to the silence of the Presidency on the likely names of the Ministerial nominees, several lists of different names have been popping up on social media. But the ruling All Progressives Congress, through its National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, says President Tinubu was consulting extensively on the ministerial list.

Senator Adamu while addressing state chairmen of the party on Monday, said “The president has just started. And he is doing his extensive consultation before coming up with his nominees for ministers. The nomination of the ministers will come first. They will go through their screening until they are pronounced after they have been submitted by Mr. President. And Mr President will formally appoint his Ministers and swear them in. Only after doing that will he disclose each of them to the country to know which Minister is going to which ministry, and how many ministries we are going to have”.

Before then, Presidential spokesman Dele Alake, had described the lists in circulation as “mere fabrications”.

Dele Alake had then said “we are not unaware of all the speculations, and innuendos and rumours, all kinds of things in the media. Now, I as a media man, I chuckled to myself that people just want to sell, so they just fabricate.I can tell you all of those things you’ve been reading in the media are mere fabrications. There is no iota of truth in all of those things. When the president is good and ready, you will be the first to know about his intentions”.