President Muhammadu Buhari’s planned cabinet reshuffling, coming up early 2017 is intended to cement the broken relationship between him and the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, Post-Nigeria has gathered.
Report has it that at least 10 serving cabinet members, may be relieved of their portfolios, out of which six slots would be allocated to Tinubu.
Confirming the report on Thursday night a source said; “Buhari has allocated six Ministerial slots to Tinubu for the purpose of mending fences.”
The source added: “Buhari is aware that Tinubu contributed immensely to his ascension to power. In 2017, the President will surely carry Tinubu along.”
Meanwhile, some Northern Leaders, have expressed displeasure of the plan by the President to allocate six Ministerial slots to Tinubu, ahead of his planned cabinet reshuffle.
Tinubu’s men, who are expected to fill the space after the cabinet purge are Segun Abraham, who lost out in the Ondo poll, James Faleke, who lost out in the power play in Kogi State and Wale Edun, the former Commissioner of Finance in Lagos State, among others.
While these men remain subjects of grand speculations, a bigger surprise our source said could be the consideration of another Tinubu crony as Secretary to Government of the Federation, SGF, in place of the incumbent, Babachir Lawal, who is currently enmeshed in a contract scandal.
Recall, that the rift between Tinubu and Buhari, appeared widened after the former asked that the party Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, to resign, for allegedly acting out a sponsored script that saw his preferred candidate, Segun Abraham, lose in the Ondo APC gubernatorial primaries.
Oyegun has not only remained glued to his position, but has so far enjoyed unqualified protection from Buhari, who personally rubbished Tinubu’s claims of any misgivings in the Ondo primaries.
A further dent on the once robust relationship is the unsettled acrimony, over who may have actively influenced the emergence of Professor Yemi Osinbajo, as APC’s Vice Presidential nominee in the 2015 elections.
However, the impending cabinet purge, may douse the mounting level of mistrust that has plagued the prime movers of the APC-led government.
Presidential sources, however, admit that Buhari needs a foothold in the Southwest ahead of the 2019 elections, and would be safer with Tinubu as a friend, rather than an enemy.
0 comments: