Ex-govs Bagudu, Lalong, Matawalle, others make Tinubu’s fresh ministerial list

Former governors Simon Lalong (Plateau); Gboyega Oyetola (Osun); Bello Matawalle (Zamfara), Ibrahim Geidam (Yobe) and Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi) have been nominated as ministers. Their names were part of the additional 19-man ministerial list sent to the Senate by President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday for approval. President Tinubu had last Thursday forwarded to the Red Chamber […]

Former governors Simon Lalong (Plateau); Gboyega Oyetola (Osun); Bello Matawalle (Zamfara), Ibrahim Geidam (Yobe) and Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi) have been nominated as ministers.

Their names were part of the additional 19-man ministerial list sent to the Senate by President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday for approval.

President Tinubu had last Thursday forwarded to the Red Chamber a list of 28 nominees, whose screening was concluded yesterday.

The Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, submitted the second list of the nominees to Senate President Godswill Akpabio after being admitted into the Red Chamber.

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The majority of the nominees are from the states missing from the first batch.

The list, which has five governors, and former and serving federal lawmakers, also included: Abdullahi Tijjani Gwarzo (Kano), Tunji Alausa (Lagos), Uba Maigari Ahmadu (Taraba), Lola Ade John (Lagos), Dr. Isiak Salako (Ogun), Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri (Bayelsa), and Dr. Yusuf Tanko Sununu (Kebbi). 

Others are Prof. Tahir Mamman (Adamawa), Zephaniah Bitrus Jisalo (FCT), Dr. Bosun Tijjani (Ogun), Dr. Maryam Shetty (Kano), Prince Shuaibu Abubakar Audu (Kogi), Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (Niger), Senator Alkali Ahmed Said (Gombe).

 Daily Trust reports that some bigwigs in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) who were expected to form the cabinet were conspicuously missing from the fresh ministerial list.

They include the immediate past governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade; a former spokesperson for the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign Organisation, Bayo Onanuga; Femi Fani Kayode who defected from the opposition PDP to the ruling party and Festus Keyamo, former Minister of State for Labour.

Bagudu is the immediate past Kebbi governor and a former Kebbi Central senator. He contested the Senate seat in the 2023 general elections but lost to PDP’s Adamu Aliero.

He served as the chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum. He was also among the then APC northern governors who insisted that the southern region should produce the party’s presidential flagbearer.

Matawalle is the immediate former Zamfara governor. He became the 2019 PDP gubernatorial nominee and won the office after a Supreme Court ruling disqualified the original winner.

In 2021, he defected from the PDP to the APC, contested again but lost re-election in 2023 general election to Dauda Lawal Dare of the PDP.

Oyetola served as governor of Osun State from 2018 to 2022. He lost re-election to the PDP’s Ademola Adeleke.

Oyetola was the Chief of Staff to Rauf Aregbesola, his predecessor.

Geidam is a former governor of Yobe State and is currently a senator for Yobe East senatorial district.

The accountant-turned-politician was elected deputy governor of Yobe State and was sworn in as governor in 2009, following the death of Governor Mamman Bello Ali.

He was succeeded by the Former APC National Secretary, Mai Mala Buni.

Lalong is the immediate past governor of Plateau State. Before that, he had served as Speaker of Plateau State House of Assembly and Chairman of the Conference of Speakers of the 36 states.

In 2023, Lalong contested for a Senate seat to represent Plateau South senatorial zone in the National Assembly but lost the election to Napoleon Bali of the PDP.

He was the Director General of the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council.

Mamman is a professor of law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). He served as the Director-general of the Nigeria Law School from 2005 to 2013.

He is a recognised member of the Body of Benchers. In 2010 he became a board member of the International Association of Law Schools based in Washington DC.

Sabi Abdullahi represented Niger North in the 9th Senate, during which he served as the deputy chief whip.

He contested for the APC ticket to seek re-election but lost to the then-governor, Sani Bello, who currently occupies the Niger North seat in the Red Chamber.

Alkali was a senator for Gombe North in the 9th Senate. He lost the seat to former governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo of PDP in the 2023 general elections.

Alkali was formerly the commissioner of information in the administration of Governor Danjuma Goje.

Heineken Lokpobiri was the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development in the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari,

Lokpobiri was elected senator in April 2007 for the Bayelsa West senatorial district. Before then, he was a member of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly from 1999 to 2003, and speaker of the house from June 1999 – May 2001.

Shetty, a social activist and certified physiotherapist, worked briefly with Dala Orthopedic and Malam Aminu Kano Teaching Hospitals in Kano.

She obtained her Master’s Degree from the University of East London, Stratford where she majored in sports physiotherapy.

She was on the medical team of the London Olympics where she worked with top-tier athletes including world record holder, Jamaica’s Usain Bolt.