PANIC has gripped many aides of President Goodluck Jonathan, following the level of secrecy woven around the bid by the president to appoint a new set of ministers after his inauguration on May 29.
The panic, according to sources, grew as a result of the diverse ambitions of many of the aides.
While some of them want to remain on their current assignments, some others want to emerge on the ministerial list.
The ambivalence of President Jonathan is said to be causing jitters among the presidential aides as well as politicians.
“Nobody is sure of what the president wants to do with the final list. Names have been flying, but I can tell you that what is being done is the initial check, where names are just forwarded to several agencies for general clearance. It is after this is done that a semblance of the ministerial list will be compiled by the president,” a source said.
The fears among the president’s staff were said to have been orchestrated by some of the state chapters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which included the names of those staff on the list of possible ministers. Those who are seeking to retain their jobs were said to be unhappy with this development, whereas the state PDP chapters thought that pushing forward the names of the aides could easily guarantee them ministerial slots.
But in another instance, some of the aides who want their names on the ministerial list were denied. Attempts by some of them to secure direct word from the president on this were said to have been rebuffed as well, thus heightening the state of anxiety.
A source said that some of the president’s aides who were considered not useful for the state chapters of the PDP were left out of the list of possible nominees compiled by the party, even though they indicated interest in ministerial seats.
Some others were left out of the list because of what a source said was a clever way of allowing those on the list to sail through.
“We want our list to sail through easily so we prefer that the man remains on his current job,” said a chieftain of the PDP while explaining why one of the top aides of the president was left out of the list of nominees.
President Jonathan is however said to have prepared the stage for the dissolution of the current cabinet at the sitting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday.
Most of the president’s aides will also be thrown out on that day, pending their possible reappointment from May 29.
Meanwhile, former governor of Ekiti State, Chief Segun Oni, has asked to be excused from the ministerial list.
His name was said to have been included on the list by the PDP in Ekiti State but Oni was said to have called that his name be removed.
Continued here:
Panic grips president’s aides over ministerial list