Buhari’s Cabinet: Nine Ministers Bow Out
• Meet And Learn About Their Political Goals
Buhari and the outgoing cabinet members.
Nine members of President Muhammadu Buhari’s (retd.) cabinet have quit their positions as ministers due to their political ambitions, leaving the President looking for other eligible Nigerians to fill the void left by their departure.
Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami, Minister of Niger Delta Affairs Godswill Akpabio, Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi, and Minister of State for Niger Delta Affairs Tayo Alasoadura are among the cabinet members who have resigned.
Ogbonnaya Onu, Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation; Pauline Tallen, Minister of Women’s Affairs; Timipre Sylva, Minister of Petroleum Resources; Uche Ogar, Minister of Mines and Steel Development; and Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, Minister of Education
The PUNCH previously reported that the President has asked all cabinet officials with political ambitions to quit on or before Monday at the end of Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council meeting.
Buhari’s decision was in keeping with Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act, which states that “no political appointee at any level shall be a voting delegate or be voted for at any political party’s convention or congress for the purpose of nominating candidates for any election.”
Meet The Nine Ministers And Learn About Their Political Goals:
Amaechi Rotimi
Rotimi Amaechi, the former minister of transportation, entered the presidential run for 2023 on April 9, 2022. The former governor of Rivers State from 2007 to 2015 was the sixth APC candidate to launch his candidacy.
From 1999 to 2007, he served as Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
Amaechi was one of seven serving governors that formed the G-7 faction inside the PDP before joining the APC. Amaechi joined the APC in November 2013, along with five other G-7 members, and eventually became the Director-General of Muhammadu Buhari’s presidential campaign.
Minister Amaechi was appointed in 2015. He was re-appointed as Minister of Transportation in July 2019.
Nwajiuba, Chukwuemeka
In his ambition to succeed Buhari in 2023, the former Minister of State for Education became the first of several hopefuls to get copies of the APC’s nomination and expression of interest forms on April 27.
Nwajiuba was born in Umuezeala Nsu, Ehime Mbano Local Government Area, Imo State, on August 20, 1967. In 2019, he was nominated and ordained as a minister. He was previously a member of the House of Representatives, where he served as Chairman of the House Committee on Land, Housing, and Works from 1999 to 2003.
From 2017 to 2019, the former minister also served as Chairman of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund.
Malami, Abubakar
The former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice has filed candidacy and expression of interest forms for the governorship election in Kebbi State, where he hopes to be the state’s APC flag-bearer.
Malami was born in Birnin Kebbi, the state capital of Kebbi, on April 17, 1967. In 2014, the former minister ran for governor of Kebbi State on the APC ticket, but dropped out during the party primary to support Atiku Bugudu.
Buhari nominated the 55-year-old Malami as a minister on November 11, 2015. Corruption and professional misconduct claims dogged the former minister’s term.
Omotayo Alasoadura
Omotayo Alasoadura was born August 12, 1949, is a Nigerian politician. On August 21, 2019, he was among over 40 ministerial nominees sworn in by President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja.
He was first appointed as the Minister of State for Labour and Employment but later moved to the ministry of Niger Delta where he served as the Minister of State for Niger Delta Affairs.
From 2003 to 2009 Alasoadura was the Commissioner for Finance and Planning of Ondo State. He won the position of the Ondo State Central Senatorial District Representative in 2015.
Tayo Alasoadura, the minister of state for the Niger Delta Affairs has declared his intention to run for Senate in Ondo State.
Ogbonnaya Onu
On May 6, 2022, the former minister of Science, Technology, and Innovations announced his desire to run for the APC’s presidential ticket among 30 other candidates.
In January 1992, the 70-year-old presidential contender was inaugurated in as Abia State’s first Executive Governor. In 1999, the All People’s Party’s presidential candidate was the former minister. After APP merged with Falae’s Alliance for Democracy, he stood down to make way for Olu Falae. Falae was defeated by PDP presidential candidate Olusegun Obasanjo.
In November 2015, Buhari appointed Onu as a minister. On August 21, 2019, he was re-ordained as minister.
Sylva Timipre
On May 9, 2022, the former Minister of State for Petroleum collected his APC nomination and expression of interest forms in Abuja. He acquired the forms before the sale’s deadline.
Former governor of Bayelsa State, he is 57 years old. In 1992, the former minister was elected to the House of Representatives as the youngest member ever, representing the Brass constituency in old Rivers State.
On August 21, 2019, Buhari named Sylva as the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources.
God’swill Akpabio
Senator Godswill Akpabio, the former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, declared his candidacy for the 2023 presidential election on the APC platform on May 4, 2022, at the Ikot Ekpene Township Stadium in Akwa Ibom.
Akpabio was elected governor of Akwa Ibom in 2007. In 2011, he was re-elected to a second term in office. He ran for and won the Senate seat of Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District in 2015.
After defecting from the PDP to the APC, Akpabio resigned as Senate Minority Leader in August 2018. He was sworn in as Minister of Niger Delta Affairs on August 21, 2019.
Tallen Paulen
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, a coalition of women and youth organisations from Southern Jos, Plateau State, acquired the APC senatorial nomination form for the former minister ahead of the 2023 general election. Tallen’s antecedents in service to humanity, particularly women and children, were honoured, according to the group.
Tallen, 63, was appointed as a minister by Buhari in 2019 after she declined an ambassadorial nomination in 2015. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo nominated her Minister of State for Science and Technology in 1999. She was appointed deputy governor of Plateau State in 2007, making her the first woman deputy governor in northern Nigeria.
With their choice to leave Buhari’s cabinet, the former ministers would be putting their best political cards on the table in order to secure the APC’s nomination for their own political ambitions.
Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment, who had already declared for the presidency and attended the meeting with Buhari today (Friday), has withdrawn from the campaign, retaining his ministerial position.
As a result of this event, additional candidates may drop out of the race in the days ahead of the APC presidential primary.
