• Maku, Wogu, Wike, others set to resign
Ahead of the forthcoming electioneering campaigns and the general elections in February 2015, there are strong indications that President Goodluck Jonathan has concluded plans to reconstitute his cabinet to bring on board men and women with political clout to push his campaign nationwide. This was confirmed at the weekend by a reliable inside State House, Abuja.
According to the source which pleaded anonymity “this time around, the expected cabinet reshuffle will be more than what you reported early this year. This time, the President will release the ministers and he will then reconstitute what we usually call an Election Cabinet which every serious political leader needs in an election year.”
Already, no fewer than six ministers and aides are expected to resign from the cabinet before the end of next month October. At the same time, some presidential aides will be moved to new posts.
“From the information I have, all of them are resigning to go and run for governorship or other tickets in their respective states on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party. They will tender their letters of resignation to Mr. President mid-October and they will be released to go and pursue their political ambition for the good of democracy and development of the country,” the source said.
Ministers who would be resigning to pursue governorship ambitions include the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Senator Bala Muhammed, Information minister, Labaran Maku, his labour counterpart, Chief Emeka Wogu, Minister of State,
Education, Nyesom Wike, his Trade, Industry and Investment colleague, Samuel Ortom and the minister of state, Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro.
Expectedly, the FCT minister aims to succeed incumbent Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State, just as Maku plots to oust current APC Governor of Nasarawa state, Tanko Al-Makura.
As for Wogu, he intends to succeed incumbent Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State, while Wike seeks to take over from Governor Rotimi Amaechi in Rivers State; and Ortom to succeed Benue state Governor, Gabriel Suswam. The current minister of state, Defence is taking up what many watchers consider a tall task of tackling the APC in Lagos to enable him take over from incumbent Governor Raji Fashola Fashola.
In the same vein, Presidential Adviser on Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, Prof. Sylvester Monye hopes to resign to contest for the governorship of his native Delta State where Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan is the incumbent.
Top PDP leaders sounded out last night confirmed the development. But they would want the development made manifest early enough to allow time for clearance of ministerial nominees by security agencies and screening by the National Assembly and reconstitution of the Election Cabinet.
Source: Nigerian Pilot
