Buhari’s Cabinet Change: Why Akpabio And … Should Fear

President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent vow not to leave office a failure may have translated into the unprecedented sack of two of his ministers last Wednesday and suggestions of a more extensive cabinet change.

As has been reported everywhere, it is the first time that the president has sacked a minister since his advent six years ago.

That is despite the avalanche of evidence of the misdeeds of several of his ministers.

However, with the reality that the legacy he leaves behind would be in his name, and not that of his ministers, Buhari it seems, may have started to unbend.

It is telling that in the political environment that there are indeed no permanent friends or enemies. That is why fellows like Godswill Akpabio, Femi Fani-Kayode, Stella Oduah, Andy Ubah, and several sorts who prior to 2015 labeled Buhari with all sorts of names and actively campaigned against him are now praising him as their Messiah.

It seems it may have finally dawned on Buhari that once he leaves office in 2023 that these political wanderers would also move along to the new Sheriff in town leaving him and his inner family to face the reality of the legacy, he may have left behind.

So far, that legacy is uninspiring and needs more than the sack of the two ministers to give it a dose of vitality.

Buhari’s Cabinet Change Started From Surprising Quarters

However, it is interesting that Buhari started his revolution from home with the sack of two Fulani ministers.

Sabo Nanono who was sacked as the minister of agriculture was famously reputed as the president’s personal friend. 

It was as such a shock to many that the president commenced the sweep of his cabinet by pulling away his friend of many years.

However, the 75-year-old Kano-born Nanono had until now gone away with what some considered as grievous ‘sins’ in terms of his management of the ministry of agriculture. That is besides the alleged ‘trespass’ of marrying an 18-year-old girl that was allegedly hawking Fura da nono earlier this year.

Nigerians were shocked when a memo came out from the ministry in which the minister authorised the release of N30 million to build a mosque in an IDP camp where people were reportedly languishing in hunger and bereft of basic essentials of life.

Even more, was his fight to take custody of one of the success stories of the Buhari administration, that is, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN’s anchor borrowers programme. The sacked minister, according to sources wanted the programme and the funds managed by him in the ministry of agriculture.

Why Mamman Became A Casulty In Buhari’s Cabinet Change

The other sacked minister was Saleh Mamman from Taraba State. If Nanono was sacked on the basis of incompetence, Mamman’s sack was a double dose of incompetence and politics. Of course, Mamman was not as close to Buhari as Nanono was despite being Fulani.

According to sources, he was brought into the power portfolio reportedly based on the need to get an indigene to drive the Mambila power project. That desire was to give ownership of the project to the indigenes who had seen the project as one aimed at taking away their land.

However, Mamman’s efforts brought little to cheer in that regard. Rather, he fought many turf battles that led some of the most experienced hands in the sector to leave the space for him. Few would forget how he chased away the resourceful Mrs. Damilola Ogunbiyi as Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) in December 2019.

Mamman had suspended her from office despite the fact that the United Nations had several job opportunities for her. She is presently, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All and also co-chair of United Nations Energy.

Faced with the international embarrassment of her suspension, Buhari countermanded Mamman by converting it to resignation to enable her to resume at the United Nations at the beginning of 2020.

Another top official who gave way for Mamman was the managing director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Mr Usman Gur Mohammed in May 2020. His exit was reportedly frowned upon by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Boss Mustapha.

Also firmly criticized was his proposal to force the TCN to supply power to Chad at a time Nigerians were bemoaning record collapse of the grid under his watch.

More Reasons Mamman Was Ousted In Buhari’s Cabinet Change

In fact, the way Mamman carried about he perhaps may have assumed that people would mistake him for the de facto head of the cabal in the Buhari presidency, that is Mamman Daura. He perhaps didn’t know that as his name, Saleh, that he was saleable!

Sources say that his exit also had a little dose of politics being that he was at loggerhead with the political head of the APC in Taraba, Senator Yusuf Yusuf.

Mamman came into the power circles in Taraba APC after he emerged as minister of power, a leverage he used to force himself into reckoning leading to internal party crises.

However, in the end, his records in office spoke for him and he had to go.

That is the lesson for the likes of Akpabio and others who moved over from the PDP to HELP Buhari build a better Nigeria. If Buhari would sacrifice his two Fulani brothers to erect a legacy, they had better walk circumspectly.

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