*Alake pencilled to head new Information & Communications ministry
A clearer picture of who would hold which cabinet positions in the new Federal Executive Council led by President Bola Tinubu is now emerging, QUEST TIMES can report exclusively.
Besides, the role of the Vice President, Sen. Kashim Shettima, is also now in significant focus as the President has approved the plan of his VP, Shettima, to play key roles in economic and security issues.
For instance, Shettima would get a good number of senior advisers, including a Special Adviser on Security, just like the President also has the National Security Adviser. Although some top Tinubu aides in the Villa questioned why there should be a Special Adviser in the office of the VP, the President overruled them, explaining that his approach to the problem of insecurity is an “all-out approach,” and having the VP also minding security is not a bad idea at all.
It was not clear as of press time what the attitude of the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, would be to the arrangement, especially as political observers of North-East politics say both Shettima and Ribadu were seen as heading different power blocs in that geo-political zone. Shettima and Ribadu hail from the North-East: Borno and Adamawa respectively.
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Also, the VP is planning on retaining the leadership of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Commission, PEBEC, in his office. But there is no clarity yet on how the recently announced Special Adviser on Investments to the President, Mr. John Ugochukwu Uwajumogu, would interface with the VP’s office.
As for the new ministers, Aso Villa sources say former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has been penciled down to be Minister of Energy & Power, as the name of the ministry would now be known. Rufai has been very active, even in the past Buhari Administration, in the area of reforming the country’s power sector and actually authored memos to the then President on how to transform the sector. It is for this reason President Tinubu is believed to have asked Rufai to come back as a Minister to lead the reform of the power sector.
In the Health sector, the President, according to sources, asked Dr. Ali Pate, who was already named the CEO of the GAVI, a $27B international agency, to lead the Health Ministry. Pate’s decision to accept the offer after resigning as Minister of State for Health under the Jonathan administration because the needed reforms were ignored then, is now also raising high expectations of a possible transformation of healthcare in the country.
Not a few people were surprised on Thursday when Mr. Yemi Edun’s name came up in the list of ministers because Edun had been tipped to become the next Central Bank Governor.
Although Tinubu had proposed Edun to be Finance Minister under the Buhari Administration, Aso Villa sources say the President had intended to send him to the CBN, and for that reason had appointed him Special Adviser on Monetary Issues—a new position in the Presidency since monetary issues are strictly under the exclusive preserve of the CBN based on Nigeria’s existing laws and regulations.
But it was clear, according to informed sources, that the President had made up his mind to now send Edun to head a new Ministry of Finance and Budget.
Another important cabinet post, QUESTTIMES has learned , is a new Information & Communications Ministry, which merges the erstwhile Information Ministry with the Communications and Digital Economy Ministry. Mr. Dele Alake is said to have his name penciled down as Minister of that new ministry.