Alake, El-Rufai, Wike, Oyetola, Edun make Tinubu’s ministerial list

Immediate past Governors Nyesom Wike, Nasiru El-Rufai, and Presidential Advisers, Mr Dele Alake and Mr Olawale Edun are among the ministerial nominees forwarded to the Senate by President Bola Tinubu on Thursday morning.

Also on the list, Persecondnews gathered, are Tinubu’s cousin and ex-Osun Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Women Leader, Mrs Betta Edu, ex-Cross River Gov. Sen. Ben Ayade, eminent medical scholar, Prof. Ali Pate and legal luminary, Mr Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) as well as a banker, Mr Adebayo Adelabu.

It was learnt that President Tinubu forwarded the list to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, this morning, in line with the constitutional provision.

It is imperative that the list should get to the National Assembly within 60 days after the president’s inauguration.

However, the deadline expires on Saturday, July 29.

Sources at the Presidency said the list is a mix of politicians and technocrats, who are to drive the “Renewed Hope” agenda of Tinubu.

Persecondnews recalls that the President at inauguration had hinted that he would set up a government of inclusion, competence and national unity.

A peek into the list shows that Pate, a Harvard Professor of Medicine, and was a former Minister of State for Health in the Jonathan administration.

River’s Wike, lawyer and former Minister of State for Education, was the leader of the aggrieved PDP’s G-5 which opposed the presidential ambition of ex-Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.

El-Rufai, a former Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), headed the APC Panel on Restructuring. According to the source, he may be assigned to the Power Ministry.

Fagbemi, who hails from Ijagbo, Kwara State, is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

Edun, one-time Lagos Finance Commissioner, is currently Special Adviser to the President on Monetary Policy.

Oyetola, a financial expert, was governor of Osun State between 2018 and 2022.

The APC Women Leader, Dr. Edu, is a former Health Commissioner in Cross Rivers State.

Ayade, a professor of microbiology, has served as Senator before he became governor.

The nominee from Oyo State, Adelabu, retired as Central Bank Deputy Governor. In the last general election, he contested for governor on the platform of the Accord Party.