Profile: President Buhari’s ministerial nominees

 Meet the 21 ministerial nominees submitted to the Senate by President Muhammadu Buhari.

 

Dr. Chris Nwabueze Ngige 

Dr. Chris Nwabueze Ngige: Born on August 8, 1952, he was governor of Anambra State from May 29, 2003 to March 17, 2006 under the People Democratic Party (PDP). He is currently a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He was elected Senator for Anambra Central Constituency in April 2011.

 Ngige’s tenure as a Senator of the Federal Republic came to an end following his defeat in the 2015 election by Uche Ekwunife, who has been sworn in as the Senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial District in the current 8th National Assembly of Nigeria.

A medical doctor by profession, Ngige graduated from the University of Nigeria in 1979. He immediately went into the civil service, serving at the National Assembly and State House clinics at different times. He retired in 1998 as a Deputy Director in the Federal Ministry of Health.

 Thereafter, Ngige turned to politics, becoming a founding member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). By 1999, he was Assistant National Secretary and Zonal Secretary of PDP in the South East region of the country.

 In 2003, he was elected governor of Anambra State in controversial circumstances. He quickly broke ranks with his political godfather, Chris Uba, brother of Andy Uba, after an unsuccessful attempt on July 10, 2003, to have him removed from office, through a fabricated letter of resignation, which the state assembly accepted. However, in August 2005, an election Tribunal led by Justice Nabaruma nullified Ngige’s 2003 victory.

 Amina Mohammed 

Amina Mohammed: Born in 1961, Amina Mohammed is the United Nations’ Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Adviser on Post-2015 Development Planning. She was appointed to this position on June 7, 2012.

 She has been working in the field of development for over 30 years both in the public sector and the private sector. Prior to her current appointment, she was the CEO and founder of the think tank Centre for Development Policy Solutions.

 Previously, she worked as senior adviser to the President of Nigeria (the late Musa Yardua and Goodluck Jonathan) on Millennium Development Goals for six years. In this position, she was in charge of designing and developing government projects to reduce poverty around the country.

 Between 1981 and 1991, she worked with Archcon Nigeria in association with Norman and Dawbarn United Kingdom.

 In 1991, she founded Afri-Projects Consortium, a multidisciplinary firm of Engineers and Quantity Surveyors, and from 1991 to 2001 she was its Executive Director.

 Between 2002 and 2005, she worked in the United Nations Millennium Project as a coordinator of the Task Force on Gender and Education.

 She has also served on many international advisory boards and panels such as, the Gates Foundation and the UN Secretary General’s Global Sustainability Panel.

 Kemi Adeosun 

Kemi Adeosun: Born and brought up in London, her father was a civil servant and she is the third of four children. A graduate of Economics from the University of East London, she was a senior manager at the Price Waterhouse Coopers, London. She is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, England and Wales. She is a mother of three.

 A finance professional with over 23 years experience gained in the United Kingdom and Nigeria. Adeosun is a member of the Institutes of Chartered Accountants, England and Wales, as well as Nigeria.

 Meanwhile, the head of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, Debo Adeniran, has described the ministerial nominee from Ogun State, as a misfit for the task if eventually confirmed by the Nigerian Senate.

 In a petition titled: Kemi Adeosun’s Ministerial Nomination; CACOL Discovers Another Misfit, Adeniran said after running through the list, he and other concerned Nigerians, cannot pretend to be comfortable with some names, prominent among which is that of Kemi Adeosun, the former Finance Commissioner in Ogun State of Nigeria.

 The group had in a statement issued last week accused the former commissioner of dual citizenship, fraud, awarding contracts to her husband, manipulation of government records, and living above her income.

 It said in a statement titled, Ten Things People Need to Know About Mrs Kemi Adeosun, Former Commissioner for Finance, Ogun State, alleged that Adeosun’s four-year stint in Ogun State left behind a trail of financial mismanagement, immeasurable ineptness and unspoken avarice.

Ahmed Musa Isa Ibeto 

Ahmed Musa Isa Ibeto: Musa Ibeto, former Niger State deputy governor, is an astute politician and grassroots’ man. He was one of the people, who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party in November 2014. The deputy governor had lost the state governorship election to Umar Nasko.

 Ibeto served as a protocol officer to former governor Abdulkadir Kure, he was also a local council chairman, a member of Federal House of Representatives, representing Rijau/Magama Federal Constituency and deputy governor for over seven years.

Suleiman Hussain Adamu: A civil engineer by training, he graduated from the Ahmadu Bello University in 1984, winning the Nigeria Port Authority Prize as the best graduating student. Twenty years after, he bagged M. Sc. (Project Management) University of Reading, UK.

 He has had several years’ professional experience, seven years of which was gained in the public sector. Has been in the consulting industry since 1989. Co-founded Integrated Engineering Associates (IEA), in 1987, a leading firm of civil/structural, electrical, mechanical and environmental engineering consultancy based in Kaduna, Nigeria.

 Has been involved in the planning, supervision and management of several building and civil engineering projects in Nigeria, mainly office/commercial structures, roads and water supply schemes.

 In the past few years, the scope of his experience has been further widened, following his secondment as Principal Consultant with Afri-Projects Consortium, Management Consultants to the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund, where he was actively involved in the planning and preparation of several national infrastructural projects in the health, education, transportation, agriculture, water resources and energy sectors.

 At implementation stage, he served as Project Manager on several projects, notably under the PTF Urban/Semi-Urban, Regional and Rural Water Supply Programmes, National Farm Power Machinery Rehabilitation Programme and National Waterways Development Project (Dredging of River Niger).

 He is at present the Vice-president of ACEN, Association of Consulting Engineers in Nigeria.

 Solomon Dalong 

Solomon Dalong: A lawyer, representing Plateau State, Barrister Solomon Dalong was born on September 26, 1964, in the town of Sabon Gida, Langtang South Local Council.

 Dalong had his primary education at LEA Primary School Sabon Gida from 1971 to 1977. He then went to Government College, Keffi, currently in Nassarawa State, for his secondary education. He joined the Nigerian Prisons Service, thereafter.

 Dalong studied law at the University of Jos, graduating in 1999. He proceeded to the Nigerian Law School, Bwari, in Abuja, graduated in 2000 and was called to the Bar in 2001.

 He was Personal Assistant to Chief Solomon Lar, when former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, appointed Lar as Adviser Emeritus. He became a lecturer in 2004, at his alma mater, the Faculty of Law of the University of Jos. He was appointed the Chairman of Langtang South Local Government Area the same year.

 Lai Mohammed 

Lai Mohammed: Apart from being the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, 63-year-old Mohammed is also a lawyer and fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations. He worked as the Public Relations Officer of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria for 10 years.

 In 2002, Mohammed resigned as the Chief of Staff to the then Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and emerged as the Kwara State governorship candidate of the defunct Alliance for Democracy. He was, however, defeated by Bukola Saraki of the Peoples Democratic Party in 2003. Interestingly, Saraki, who is now the Senate President and Mohammed are now members of the same party, the APC.

 

Audu Ogbeh 

Audu Ogbeh: Ogbeh, who is 68-years-old, is popular for being the third National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party. However, long before becoming the PDP chairman, precisely in 1982, he was appointed Minister of Communications, and later Minister of Steel Development by President Shehu Shagari. Interestingly, he and others were kicked out of office in December 1983 by Major-General Muhammadu Buhari who has now nominated him as a minister again.

 Interestingly, also, when Ogbeh was nominated a minister in 1982, he was screened by a Senate which included the father of the current Senate President, Dr. Olusola Saraki, who was the then Majority Leader. Ogbeh will again appear before the son of the late Saraki, Bukola, who is now the Senate President, for screening. Senate President Bukola Saraki was only 17-years-old when Ogbeh became the Deputy Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly in 1979.

 

Ogbonnaya Onu 

Ogbonnaya Onu: Onu was the first governor of the old Abia State. Following the redrawing of the Nigerian map due to state creation, Onu is now an indigene of Ebonyi State. Onu, who turns 64 in December, was the National Chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, a platform on which Buhari contested elections twice. This probably is the reason for their closeness.

 Onu ran for President in 1999 on the platform of the All Peoples Party (later ANPP) but lost.

 A first class graduate of Chemical Engineering from the University of Lagos, Onu was the one that gave Abia State the sobriquet, ‘God’s own state’. He also taught at the University of Port Harcourt as the pioneer Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering.

 

Rotimi Amaechi 

Rotimi Amaechi: Amaechi was the political godson and special assistant to Dr. Peter Odili, who was between 1992 and 1994, the deputy governor of Rivers State.

 Through Odili’s support and as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, Amaechi emerged as a lawmaker in the Rivers State House of Assembly and later Speaker between 2003 and 2007. He, however, fell out with his benefactor and emerged the governor of the state in 2007.

 Born on May 27, 1965, Amaechi later defected from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress after falling out with the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, and the PDP.

 The fifth Governor of Rivers State, Amaechi, has also been engaged in a running battle with incumbent Governor Nyesom Wike, his former commissioner. Wike had vowed that Amaechi would be arrested and tried after Amaechi’s tenure as governor ends.

 Babatunde Fashola 

Babatunde Fashola: The emergence of Fashola as the Lagos State governorship candidate of the Action Congress in 2006 sent a shockwave through the Action Congress with some leading members of the party threatening fire and brimstone. His political godfather and predecessor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, stood his ground by supporting Fashola’s candidature despite immense intraparty pressure to drop the ‘political greenhorn’.

 The 52-year-old University of Benin trained lawyer, who later governed Lagos State between 2007 and 2015, had his secondary education at Birch Freeman and Igbobi College, Lagos.

 A crack, however, appeared in the wall of relationship between Fashola and Tinubu when both came up with different aspirants for Lagos State governorship seat in 2015.

 It will be recalled that Fashola as governor spent N139m on the drilling of two boreholes at the Lagos House, Ikeja.

 Kayode Fayemi 

Kayode Fayemi: Working in the background for pro-democracy groups during the military years of the 1990s, Fayemi came into national prominence when he emerged the Ekiti State governorship candidate of the Action Congress in 2007.

 Born on February 9, 1965, Fayemi, is seen more as a scholar rather than the run-of-the-mill Nigerian politician. Many political analysts saw this outlook as being responsible for his electoral defeat in the hands of Governor Ayodele Fayose in the June 21, 2014 governorship election.

 It is believed that like Fashola, his personal relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari earned him the ministerial slot because like Fashola, the APC leadership is believed not to be favourably disposed to having him picked by Buhari as minister.

 He emerged the governor of Ekiti on October 15, 2010 after three and a half years of legal battle against the then Governor, Segun Oni, of the PDP.

 

Adebayo Shittu 

Adebayo Shittu: Although not known nationally, Shittu made history in 1979 by becoming the youngest member of the Old Oyo State House of Assembly at the age of 26.

 He subsequently served as the Oyo State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice under the PDP government of Governor Rashidi Ladoja

 In 2011, Shittu became the governorship candidate of the Buhari-led Congress of Progressive Change. He was a staunch critic of Governor Abiola Ajimobi of the then Action Congress of Nigeria even after their parties merged to form the APC in 2013. In late 2014, when Ajimobi was running for a second term, Shittu purchased the APC Expression of Interest form and vowed to defeat Ajimobi at the APC primary. Buhari was said to have intervened in the feud between the two. Expectedly, the APC in Oyo State which is largely loyal to Ajimobi, has rejected Shittu’s ministerial nomination. But his own faction of the APC has expressed support for him.

Abubakar Malami: Malami, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), was one of those who worked closely to advance the interest of the opposition especially that of President Mohammadu Buhari. As the National Legal Adviser of the party, he also doubled as the lead counsel of the legal team of the defunct CPC from the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court when Buhari challenged the outcome of the 2011 presidential election, which he lost to former President Goodluck Jonathan.

 He also served on the defunct CPC Merger Committee that negotiated the formation of All Progressives Congress with the defunct ACN, ANPP and factions of APGA and DPP. He is a brilliant, studious and diligent lawyer.

Senator Hadi Sirika: A trained pilot and ally of President Muhammadu Buhari, Senator Sirika was elected into the Senate in 2011 on the platform of the Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) to represent Katsina North senatorial district.

 He was the Senate Committee on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) vice chairman.

 Senator Udoma Udo-Udoma 

Senator Udoma Udo-Udoma (SAN): Udo-Udoma, is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and Senior Partner of Udo-Udoma & Belo Osagie. He was elected as a two-term member senator from 1999 to 2007 where he served variously as Chief Whip, Chairman of the Committee on National Planning, Revenue Mobilisation and Poverty Alleviation and Chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

 Udoma is remembered for his versatility in the use of the Senate Rule Book and the Constitution. He had a mastery of the floor and was very eloquent.

 Udoma has been Chairman of UAC of Nigeria Plc, Chairman of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

 Born 60 years ago, Udoma holds a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Jurisprudence, a Bachelors of Civil Laws Degree and a Masters of Arts in 1977 from St. Catherine’s College, University of Oxford.

Dr. Osagie Ehanire

Dr. Osagie Ehanire: Ehanire is a surgeon and holds a doctor of medicine (MD) degree from the College of Medicine, Ludwig Maximillians University, Munich. He also holds post-graduate diplomas from the Teaching Hospital of the University of Dusseldorf and Essen, Germany in the areas of Anaesthesiology, General Surgery and Orthopaedic Trauma Surgery.

He was a Senior Registrar, Clinical Instructor, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, member of the old Bendel and Edo State Hospital Management Board, and Consultant Surgeon, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria.

He was also the Edo State Coordinator of Muhammadu Buhari’s Campaign Organisation. He is the brother of Senator Daisy Danjuma, wife of General Theophilus Y. Danjuma.

Dr. Emmanuel Kachikwu Ibe

Dr. Emmanuel Kachikwu Ibe: DKachikwu was born on December 18, 1956. He attended St. Peter’s Primary School Ogwashi-Uku before gaining admission into St. Pius Grammar School Onicha-Ugbo, which he left in 1968 with top level performance. He was in Edo College from 1973 to 1974 equally with sterling performance. He studied Law at the University of Nigeria 1978, where he made a first class degree and was the best graduating student.

 At the Nigerian Law School Class of 79, he emerged with another first class and best graduate winning seven of available nine prizes. In his LLM programme at Harvard University in 1980, it was another stellar performance. His doctorate degree programme did not come with lesser performance.

His recent appointment, as the Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), was hailed as a “round peg in a round hole” given his wealth of experience as the former Executive Vice-Chairman of ExxonMobil (Africa Operations). Prior to ExxonMobil, Kachikwu was the General Counsel of Texaco Upstream and Downstream in Nigeria.

 Kachikwu is also a journalist, having established published several magazines in Nigeria.