The seeming frosty relationship between President Bola Tinubu and the chairman of the All Progressives Congress Abdullahi Adamu is deteriorating over the choice of ministers.
The President is expected to announce his cabinet soon but sources within the ruling party revealed the chairman is unhappy that he is not being carried along in selecting the ministers.
Iwitnesslive had reported that the President is considering populating his cabinet with technocrats with party faithful getting fewer slots in the Federal Executive Council.
Adamu is said to be instigating party members against the government for sidelining them in the scheme of things. The chairman is said to be unhappy that Tinubu prefers to work with the state governors to nominate ministers that will fill the slots allotted to politicians.
“The National Working Committee of the APC is divided over the issue; while some of them believe the President should be allowed to freely exercise his right to select those that will work with him, others led by Adamu are insisting that the party should have been carried along instead of being totally neglected by the President.
“The President is working with the Governors and those ones didn’t carry out the assignment alongside the party and this has set the APC against the government. The selection process is already completed and what we are waiting for is the transmission of the list to the National Assembly after which those cleared would be sworn in by the president and they will commence work,” the source said.
Another source, a former APC Secretary in one of the South-West states added that the party will be given substantial slots when it is time to appoint heads of parastatals and boards.
“What we heard is that many party members would be considered for heads and members of boards and parastatals; we are hopeful that those people who truly worked for the success of our party at the polls will be well compensated,” he said.
Meanwhile, Adamu cautioned party chieftains against nursing high expectations of being appointed as ministers by President Bola Tinubu, saying everybody can’t be a cabinet member.
The former Nasarawa State governor stated these at the meeting of the National Working Committee and APC state chairmen at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja on Monday.
The meeting, which started at about 1.55pm, was attended by a delegation of 32 members of the Forum of APC Chairmen, including their leader, Ali Dalori, and acting Secretary, Alphonsus Ogah.
Addressing the party chieftains, Adamu said, “Every APC member has an inherent right to hope to get some patronage. We cannot all be ministers of the government. We cannot all end up as board members, directors of parastatals and MDAs across the country.
“The President has just started. He is doing his extensive consultations before coming up with his nominees for ministers. The nomination of the ministers will come first. They will go through their screening until they are pronounced after they have been submitted before Mr President. He will formally appoint his ministers and swear them in. Only then will he disclose each of them to the country to know which minister is going to which ministry and how many ministries we are going to have.
“After that is done, the ministers will assume office, make a comprehensive report, starting from all the ministries and MDAs under them, before we know what vacancies exist for chief executives, directors and part-time directors.
“These are some of the exercises that will take place in the next two months. It cannot happen by next week. But certainly, that is what we should be expecting.”
The APC chair, nevertheless, expressed optimism that Tinubu would consider party loyalists at both state and national levels for appointments.
“But we do expect some patronage from the government that we are forming. It is our hope and prayer that Mr President will come along with us in that regard and strengthen the relationship of the party in the states and at the national level will enjoy some level of patronage in the new government.
“Those are the key issues that we do hope to share with you in the course of this meeting,” Adamu said.
