Babatunde Raji Fashola
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday administered oaths of office on his ministers and assigned portfolios to them. The event, held at the Council Chambers of the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja, also marked the inauguration of the new Federal Executive Council (FEC).
Buhari assigned the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing to former Lagos State Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola. The portfolio, a merger of three key ministries, is the biggest in the Buhari administration.
Before assigning the portfolios, President Buhari had announced a reduction of federal ministries to 24. They were 29 under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
President Buhari also confirmed himself as substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources, after naming the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu as Minister of State for Petroleum Resources. Of the 36 nominees confirmed by the Senate, 23 are substantive ministers while the remaining 13 are ministers of state.
The president also expunged budget from the Ministry of Finance and put it under National Planning to become Ministry of Budget and National Planning. He scrapped the Ministries of Police Affairs and Special Duties; while the Ministry of Aviation is subsumed under the Ministry of Transportation.
The Ministries of Sports and Youths Development were merged to become the Ministry of Youths and Sports; Land, Housing and Urban Development now under Power and Works to become Ministry of Power, Works and Housing as well as Ministries of Information and Tourism, Culture and National Orientation to become Ministry of Information and Culture. President Buhari also renamed the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development as Ministry of Solid Minerals.
The ministers according to zones
Our correspondent reports that five of the six ministers from the South-West geo-political zone are substantive ministers. Below are the new ministers and their portfolios based on their geopolitical zones.
South West: Babatunde Fashola (Lagos) – Power, Works and Housing; Kemi Adeosun (Ogun) – Finance; Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti) – Solid Minerals; Isaac Adewole Folorunsho (Osun) – Health; Adebayo Shittu (Oyo) – Communications; and Claudius Daramola (Ondo) – State for Niger Delta Affairs.
North West: Abdulrahman Dambazau (Kano) – Interior; Abubakar Malami (Kebbi) – Justice; Mansur Dan-Ali (Zamfara) – Defence; Suleiman Adamu (Jigawa) – Water Resources;Hadi Sirika (Katsina) – State for (Aviation)Transportation; Zaynab Ahmed (Kaduna) – State for Budget and National Planning and Aisha Abubakar (Sokoto) – State for Trade, Industry and Investment.
South East:Chris Ngige (Anambra) –Labour and Employment; Ogbonnaya Onu (Ebonyi) – Science and Technology; Geoffrey Onyeama (Enugu) – Foreign Affairs; Anthony Onwuka (Imo) – State for Education; and Okechukwu Enelamah (Abia) – Trade, Industry and Investment
North Central: Audu Ogbeh (Benue) – Agriculture and Rural Development; Lai Mohammed (Kwara) –Information; Solomon Dalong (Plateau) – Youths and Sports; Abubakar Bwari Bawa (Niger) – State for Solid Minerals; James Ocholi (Kogi) – State for Labour and Employment; and Ibrahim Usman Jibril (Nasarawa) – State, Environment.
South South: Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers) – Transportation; Udoma Udo Udoma (Akwa Ibom) – Budget and National Planning; Usani Usani Uguru (Cross River) – Niger Delta; Ibe Kachikwu (Delta) – State for Petroleum; Osagie Ehanire (Edo) – State for Health; and Heineken Lokpobiri (Bayelsa) – State for Agriculture and Rural Development.
North East: Muhammadu Bello (Adamawa) – Federal Capital Territory; Adamu Adamu (Bauchi) –Education; Amina Mohammed (Gombe) – Environment; Aisha Alhassan (Taraba) – Women Affairs; Khadija Bukar Abba (Yobe) – State for Foreign Affairs; and Mustapha Shehuri (Borno) – State for Power.
Briefing State House journalists after the inaugural FEC meeting, Information Minister Lai Mohammed said Buhari urged his cabinet members to see their appointment as a call to duty, understand the current “precarious situation” and justify the confidence reposed in them.
dailytrust
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