Newswatch Times, Saturday, September 19, 2015
Politics PMB’s ministerial list for Change Continued from Page 15
Peacekeeping exercises in Chad and Somalia. He is a Àrm believer in preserving his culture and made sure the Osun-Osogbo festival became a tourist destination. He also established Osun State University during his tenure and put facilities in place that made the school into the top-notch educational institution it is now. Wale Edun was a former Ànance commissioner in Lagos State and served for an unprecedented two terms. Edun served as the Head of Treasury and Deputy Head of Corporate Finance at Chase Merchant Bank. He has gained international experience in merchant banking, corporate Ànance, economics and international Ànance through aliations with various multinational companies and some Wall Street Àrms. He has worked at the World Bank and is Chairman of the Chapel Hill Denham Group. He was also the co-founder and Executive Director of Stanbic IBTC. He also sits on the Board of a number of other companies and NGOs. Mr. Edun holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the
Buhari University of London and a Masters Degree in Economics from the University of Sussex, England. He has been touted as being instrumental in increasing Lagos State’s IGR when former President Obasanjo withheld revenue from the government. His nomination is said to be based on the quality of work he has done for the government so far. Femi Falana, a lawyer who has become a household name in Nigeria for his strong opinions on government activities and human rights advocacy. He studied law at the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University and was called to the Nigerian bar. After his youth service, he
Tinubu joined the Chambers of Alao Aka-Bashorun, a renowned legal activist. In 1991, Falana started his own Chambers, Femi Falana, which later became Falana and Falana Chambers. Falana was the former president of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers and he is also a former chairman of the West African Bar Association, WABA. He contested and lost the governorship election of Ekiti State in 2007 on the ticket of the National Conscience Party (NCP). Also on the list are Dele Momodu, the publisher of Ovation; a former Chief of Army, Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazu (retd.); an ex-chief
Obasanjo executive of the Federal Inland Revenue, Mrs. Ifueko Omoigui-Okaru; and a former National Legal Adviser to the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, Abubakar Malami (SAN). Others are Rotimi Akeredolu, a former gubernatorial candidate in Ondo state; Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers state; Engineer Funsho Kupolokun, a former group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation; Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwanso of Kano state; and Bisola Adegbenro, a senator-elect from Ogun state; Isaiah Danjuma, the son of General TY Danjuma from Taraba state; Kehinde
53 Lawanson, a former Executive Director of First Bank; and Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN), former Minister of Justice. While these nominees appear to be more than capable for the job, they are not without faults. Odimegwu’s appointment with the NPC was terminated because he made “statements which brought credibility problems to the commission”. Prince Oyinlola was accused in 2009 of being “the chief conspirator” in the alleged murder of Chief Mrs Kudirat Abiola, wife of Nigerian politician MKO Abiola. Also in 2009, Next Magazine reported that Prince Oyinlola had been caught on tape telling local PDP politicians he would supply army uniforms, arms and ammunition so they could rig the runoͿ elections in Ekiti State. President Buhari contested and won the elections on the basis of his mantra for change. However, a lot of the people he could be bringing into his cabinet are from an era he vowed to eradicate. Can President Buhari really guarantee change in Nigeria with a new system if he is still working with the old staͿ? Upon completion of the screening exercise, the Ànal list will be made available to the public. Hopefully, the list reÁects the President’s desire to wipe out corruption in all its forms.
Attacks on Presidency: Like Tinubu, like Fayose Continued from Page 50
However, in June this year, Fayose, in a complete demonstration of total love for his state and submission to powers that be, wrote to the Presidency, seeking opportunity to nominate a competent candidate to Àll the Ekiti slot in the Federal Executive Council. “Should the request be favourably disposed to, I shall be happy to nominate a worthy and competent professional who can always oblige your Excellency and your cabinet the beneÀt of a second opinion in the serious business of governance,” Fayose pleaded in the letter. He noted that he wrote the letter based on the declaration made by the President that he would put overall interest of the country above every others, particularly political partisanship and biases. The Governor also hinted that his letter was on the strength of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria section 147 sub (2) and (3) which therefore state that, “Any appointment to the oce of the Minister of the government of the Federation shall, if the nomination of any such person to such oce is conÀrmed by the Senate , be made by the President. “Any appointment under subsection (2) of this section by the President shall be in conformity with the provision of section 15 (3) of this constitution
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provided that in giving eͿect to the provision aforesaid, the President shall appoint at least one Minister from each state who shall be indigene of such state,” he noted. He argued that though the state may be a PDP state, “this is not new to the country’s democracy, as late Chief Bola Ige who was the leader of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the party’s National Chairman, Alhaji Ahmed Abdukadri were made Minister and Special Adviser respectively by the PDP Government of Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007.” Having stated much of Fayose’s seeming attack on Buhari, it would also be pertinent to mention few of Tinubu’s attack on Obasanjo while in government as governor and president
respectively. It has become common thing in the country to note that the recent relationship between the two ought to be considered by Nigerians of matured age the eighth wonder of the world. This is not being exaggerated as most people will recall how the duo did not see eye-to-eye even though unconÀrmed reports had it that Tinubu often visited Obasanjo at his Ota farm at night after several salvos hurled at the president at the daytime. Lagosians in particular and Nigerians in general would recall the song: “Egbe oniro legbe won; egbe oniro legbe won o olori elewon loko won jo,” (their party (PDP is fraudulent; their party is fraudulent; and their leader is a chief prisoner) thus referring to Obasanjo who was once a political prisoner under late
Sani Abacha and of course the party. As punchy as this was, Tinubu receives little or no attack which they blindly considered as political salvo that should be tolerated as a mere campaign song. It was at various political gatherings in the state that Tinubu pointedly urged Lagosians to disregard Obasanjo’s shortcomings in governance or retaliations to him because the farmer turned president was not relating to humans, but birds and animals. He queried, “What do you expect from someone who wakes up to behold on fowls, pigs and of course trees and not human beings?” Nigerians again never saw this as serious aͿront on the president of the most populous country in Africa. Only for the same myopic Nigerians to now want to condemn Fayose whose whatever attacks on Buhari was always backed with facts and Àgures; and was never too carried away by his poise as the opposition by constantly taking good care of his state. No wonder the legal consultant to the former president, Chief Afe Babalola recently applauded Fayose’s educational drive in the state, saying that his move was in the direction of repositioning the state to fountain of knowledge. Whichever way one wants to see the Buhari-FayoseAPC diͿerences, it must be
appreciated as a watcher of the watched for the progress of the nation. One would remember that if not for Fayose, Nigerians wouldn’t have known that Buhari did not go to Chatham House to address the English lawmakers and interviewed by the English ace presenter there in the United Kingdom (UK) while photographs of the same events had been circulated three days before his takeoͿ from Nigeria. Speaking after meeting with former President Obasanjo, Tinubu told newsmen that he was at the Hilltop Mansion to discuss because “we cannot know it all. We need to consult. Equally, we took an observation of his former boys who are running for presidency in our party and sought his opinion about them. “But I would not tell you what the discussion was about, but you are privileged to have heard why I am here, I will not tell you,” he was however smart to have referred to Buhari as Obasanjo’s boy, apparently in the nation’s Army. Alas! If Tinubu could mend fences with Obasanjo he once referred to as dullard to the extent that he succeeded wooing the former president into supporting the APC and its candidate – Buhari, then it won’t surprise Nigerians to see Fayose in the company of Buhari either now or at a later date.