Jonathan’s Cabinet – the Nominees

28 June 2011

EDO

Arch.Mike Onolemenmen

Arch. Mike Onolemenmen was the former Minister of State for Defence and first cousin to the former Chairman,Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Tony Anenih. He is also from Uromi, in Edo Central Senatorial District with Chief Anenih.

His nomination has torn the party apart in the state which is an indication that the party could soon be engulfed in another round of crisis that may see several of the leaders either dumping PDP for the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) or they will remain in the party and ensure further destruction of PDP.

Some of the leaders who have kept calm so far on the issue have done so because they do not want to offend Chief Anenih.

Their grouse is that in the heart of the crisis that engulfed the party during the Prof.Oseriemen Osunbor-led administration in the state, when the party was split between ex-military governor of defenct Bendel State, Dr Samuel Ogbemudia and Chief Anenih, Onolemenmen was never in the picture.

Besides, the leaders of the party in Edo North and South, are querying why Uromi should produce the chairman of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) Anenih, and also a minister when there are other qualified people in that senatorial district.

Again, Edo Central had produced four ministers in the past while the North has not produced any and that was why many thought that the position favoured either Prof. Julius Ihonvbere or Chief Dan Orbih.

However, going for him is the fact that no scandal was traced to him during his earlier ministerial stint. However, the hurdle is still not over yet for Onolemenmen because two senators from the state, Senators Ehigie Uzamere and Domingo Obende, are ACN senators. It may not be surprising if the duo team up with Governor Adams Oshiomhole to stop Onolemenmen knowing full well that he is Anenih’s prodigy.

OGUN

Mr. Akinwunmi Adesina and Gbenga Ashiru

Mr. Akinwunmi Adesina is an agricultural economist and presently an Associate Director at the Rockefeller Foundation’s where he is one of the leading experts in the agriculture division of the foundation. He could be the first southerner to be Minister of Agriculture in recent Nigerian history.

Ashiru is a diplomat and former Nigerian High Commissioner to South Africa. He could end up picking up the Foreign Affairs portfolio in the absence of the former Minister, Odein Ajumogobia.

For members of the PDP in Ogun State, the two Ministerial nominees are not “known party members” giving the impression that they are being imposed on members.

Most leaders of the party, however, are wary of speaking on record on the issue apparently in order not to be on the wrong side of former President Olusegun Obasanjo who is believed to have nominated the duo.

Shocking to most is the exclusion of the party’s governorship candidate; Gen. Adetunji Olurin whose nomination has been seen as a forgone conclusion.

But perhaps most disturbing in the choices is the fact that the duo are from Ogun Central and East Senatorial Districts with Ogun West which had been crying against marginalization at the gubernatorial and ministerial levels being left out again.

ONDO

Dr Omobola Johnson

THE nomination of Dr Omobola Johnson has jolted all the quarrelling factions of the PDP in Ondo State. President Jonathan has sidelined the quarrelling factions by going for a technocrat who was a former Country Manager of Accenture. She was believed to have during her stewardship at Accenture led the team that conceived the government’s Vision 20:2020 programme.

Sources in the state PDP, however, admitted that former governor Olusegun Agagu and former President Olusegun Obasanjo may have had a hand in the nomination of the technocrat.

Mrs. Johnson is the daughter of a prominent High Chief, the Lisa of Ondo Town, High Chief Bayo Akinnola and she is married to the son of a former Military Administrator of Lagos State, General Mobolaji Johnson.

KADUNA

Yusuf Hamisu Abubakar

Yusuf Hamisu Abubakar came to public reckoning as the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund, PTDF. He was, however, to run into troubled waters over his management of the organization following the face-off between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his then deputy, Atiku Abubakar.

In 1992, at the age of 27, Yusuf was appointed the Kaduna State Commissioner for Health and Social Development. He held this post from February 1992 to November 1993. In 1994, Yusuf was appointed Director-General, Bureau for Lands and Survey, Kaduna State, where he stayed till 1997.

In 2000, he was appointed the Executive Secretary of an obscure Federal Parastatal, the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF)

BAYELSA

Mrs. Diezani Allison-madueke

Mrs. Allison-Madueke was the immediate past Minister of Petroleum Resources and allegedly the personal nominee of President Goodluck Jonathan. It is as such not surprising that given Governor Timipire Sylva’s new thinking since Dr. Jonathan emerged as President last year, that there was little disputation over her nomination.

Diezani, an architect who came from the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), she was initially seen by many including the youths who are today singing her praises as an outsider not in tune with the politics of the state having spent all her time abroad and in the oil industry while they (Ijaw youths) were up in arms against the oil industry’s alleged environmental despoliation of their region.

Counting to her credit today are her achievements in stabilizing fuel product prices across the country and continued availability of products. She is, however, faced with questions over certain actions she took in the sensitive oil industry during her stewardship as Minister of Petroleum.

ENUGU

Prof. Barth Nnaji

The nomination of Professor Barth Nnaji to occupy the Enugu State ministerial slot by President Goodluck Jonathan may have foreclosed the reappointment of the former Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Fidelia Njeze who reportedly had the sympathy of the Deputy Senate President for the position.

Also, Governor Sullivan Chime’s desire to install one of his loyalists, Engr. Vita Abba, the State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP who was on the list of 10 nominees forwarded to the Presidency by the party, may have also hit the rocks as the president was said to have nominated Nnaji,former Chairman, Presidential Task Force on Power without consulting the two power brokers.

Vanguard learnt from reliable sources yesterday that the alleged disagreement between Chime and Ekweremadu gave the president the leeway to appoint Nnaji, who is being tipped as the Minister to oversee the power ministry for the Jonathan administration.

Although both Chime and Ekweremadu have neither admitted nor denied media reports regarding their disagreement over the choice of ministerial nominee from the state, there had been insinuations among their supporters that the political alliance between them became unstable recently on account of their discordant tones over who should represent the state in the new federal cabinet.

ADAMAWA

Hajiya Zainab Maina

Hajiya Zainab Maina was a commissioner in the defunct Gongola State under the military regime of late Colonel A.G Hussein.

A woman activist, she was once the National Chairperson of the National Council of Women Society, NCWS.

Zainab, an indigene of Nassarawa State by birth is married to an indigene of Adamawa State from Mubi. Her political base in Adamawa State is presently of no significance and she is known to operate more at the federal level.

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