Ex-Governors Buhari Must Not Appoint Into Cabinet

As Nigerians await the names that would make President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministerial list, there are immediate past governors who are being tipped to make the list but who are considered not fit for the President’s second cabinet.

The Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, was quoted to have said that President Buhari is expected to submit the ministerial list by July 2, when the Senate must have resumed from its current recess.

Among past governors being rumoured to make the ministerial list are former governors Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State, Mohammed Bindow of Adamawa state and Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi state.

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is said to have resolved to compensate some past governors in the party with ministerial nomination for losing their bids to be re-elected into office in the last election.

Both Ambode, Bindow and Abubakar all fall in this category as they were ousted either during the primary election of the APC or during the March 9 governorship conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) across the country.

Two of these supposed ministerial candidates – Bindow and Abubakar – are especially considered not deserving of Buhari’s appointment because of the way they allegedly governed their states.

-Mohammed Bindow

A lot of natural and self-inflicted factors are believed to have worked against Bindow during the last Adamawa governorship election.

Bindow had lost his re-election bid to the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Umaru Fintiri, who in the election polled 375, 552 votes against the former’s 336,386 votes.

Chief among the factors that worked against Bindow, critics allege, was his detachment from the masses.

The former Adamawa governor was accused of abandoning empowerment programmes that endeared his predecessor, Murtala Nyako, to the people. This reportedly led to him losing the good will of the people.

Bindow’s administration, it was gathered, allegedly chose to award most contracts in the state to expatriates at the peril of local contractors.

His critics also accuse him of empowering only himself during his tenure in office rather than allowing the state’s wealth to spread across the board.

Besides these allegations, many chieftains of the ruling APC consider the former governor a failure based on his general performance in the state. This is why his defeat at the governorship election was not surprising. 

– Mohammed Abubakar

Abubakar was the first incumbent governor to be voted out of office in the history of Bauchi state politics.

He contested the March 9 election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), but lost to a former FCT minister and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by 515,113 to 500, 625 votes.

Abubakar lost his bid to return as Bauchi governor due to what critics describe as his low performance in terms of governance which was said to be largely obvious in the Bauchi metropolis.

Some critics believe that President Buhari would be doing himself and his administration a great disservice by giving Abubakar a ministerial portfolio as the former governor wouldn’t do anything different from what he did in Bauchi while he was in office.

Part of the factors critics said worked against Abubakar’s re-election in the last election was his alleged inability to pay pensions and gratuities to retirees in the state.

Also, Abubakar’s inability to complete capital projects such as the Wuntin Dada-Miri federal low-cost roads in the state and poor press relations were some of the weaknesses that allegedly led to the former governor’s defeat.

The former governor, according to his critics, failed to complete projects such as the Maiduguri-Awalah bye-pass and the Guni Housing Estate, even after inviting President Muhammadu Buhari to commission them.

Critics believe President Buhari would be appointing a man who has a penchant for birthing uncompleted projects if he decides to appoint Abubakar into his second cabinet.

Abubakar’s alleged knack for procrastination may be evidenced in his failure to conduct local government elections for four years that he was in office even though he used such campaign before emerging governor.

Meanwhile, THE WHISTLER had earlier published a two-part report on ministers in President Buhari’s first cabinet who must not return due to their performance in office.

In the reports, we offered President Buhari an advisory by highlighting members of his first cabinet who are not deserving of reappointment owing largely to how they turned to be huge disappointments.