Yekini Nabena, a former national spokesperson for the All Progressives Congress (APC), has stated that recent events concerning cabinet nominations may indicate that President Bola Tinubu is not totally in control of his government.
Nabena argued that withdrawing and replacing ministerial nominees after they had been nominated and their names given to the national parliament for screening sends the incorrect message.
According to him, Tinubu may not have had the final say or put the finishing touches on ministerial nominees, especially given allegations of APC National Chairman Abdullahi Ganduje boasting that he removed and replaced the nominee from Kano State.
In an interview with The Sun, the APC chieftain stated that President Tinubu has to wake up because there is already evidence that some of the former governors he picked as ministers may form a cabal against him.
In his words, “I blame the presidency because before nominating them, they would have done due diligence.
“As a new government, we expect that whoever is in charge should have done better than this. Whether they hinged the reason for their dropping on security or whatever report, what it means is a failure on the part of the government, just as we have seen lapses in many other things they have done so far.
“It was a very wrong signal they have sent to show that nobody is in charge, or that there is no think-tank in the present administration.
“They would have done background checks, but the situation has given out them that the president did not put a final touch into many things. He may not be in charge. It is even more worrisome, reading a report where Umar Ganduje was claiming that he removed and replaced the nominees from Kano. How can he wield such powers if we actually have a government working very well?
“Mr. President must wake up, take charge of his government and know the kind of people he will work with.
“He is already dining with devils in the former governors he nominated. I don’t know the kind of long spoon he is going to use to dine with them because they will soon form another cabal against him.
“The most painful thing is that we have all the time for due diligence. When he promised Nigerians to roll out his ministers two weeks after his inauguration, we thought that he was very ready, but they took several weeks and even surprised many Nigerians when we saw lapses and the calibre of persons nominated.”
