Tinubu Cabinet: Muslims Lobby President-elect For More Ministers Than Christians

According to VanguardNews, there were signs last week that the fight for a seat in the cabinet of the next federal administration had intensified when some Muslims asked President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu to give more ministerial posts to members of their faith than to their Christian one’s counterparts.  Continue Full Reading>>>

They implored Tinubu to give at least four ministerial posts per geopolitical zone to Muslims in Muslim-majority states after his inauguration.

There are six states in each of the six geopolitical zones, namely South-South, Southwest, North-Central, Northeast, and Northwest.

Only the Southeast has five states.

The 1999 Constitution (as amended) requires each of the 36 states of the federation to have one native in the federal cabinet.  Continue Full Reading>>>

Specifically, Section 6, Part 1, Section 147 of the Constitution, entitled Ministers of the Federal Government, states, and any appointment by the President under Subsection 2 shall be made by the provisions of Section 14(3) of the Constitution, provided that, in implementing the above provisions, the President appoints at least one minister from each state, who must be an aboriginal of that state.

The Muslim lobby concludes that in any geopolitical zone where people of their faith are in the majority Muslims should have four ministers in the Tinubu cabinet, while Christians should be content with two.

They listed the affected states, including Taraba, Adamawa, Nasarawa, Bauchi, Kogi, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Niger, Kaduna, Kebbi, and Lagos.

The lobby follows the controversy sparked by the Muslim-Muslim presidential candidacy of the All Progressive Congress (APC), which won the February 25, 2023 election.

Proponents of the ticket had said it would depend on the competence of the presidential nominee and his running mate, while opponents said the development would embolden Muslim hardliners to try to Islamize the country.

Separately, the lobbyists advocated a top post for the outgoing Kaduna state governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, in the Tinubu government.