Bye Bye to Tinubu and South-West, As El-Rufai, Ribadu, Warm Up For 2023 Presidency
Emerging report indicates that President Muhammadu Buhari has started compiling names of new Ministers, ahead of the May 29, Inauguration.
Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, has been penciled down to retain his seat.
Abubakar Malami, the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, tops the list of a few returning Ministers, with Hadi Sirika, the Minister of State for Aviation, also making the list.
The President’s inner clique, Abba Kyari, Mohammed Babagana Monguno, Mamman Daura, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, and Babagana Kingibe, are said to have taken a firm stand, to ensure that many members of the present cabinet are weeded out.
For the SGF, the clique refers to him as a level-headed and a tall standing stabilizer, especially within Adamawa politics. Other reasons include the expectation that he would play a significant role in the legal battle by Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, challenging the outcome of the Presidential election, especially as the SGF has been a long-standing Associate of Atiku.
However, Mustapha may face stiff opposition from the Wife of the President, Aisha Buhari, for his role in scuttling the chances of her younger brother, Mahmood Halilu Ahmed, during the APC Governorship nomination in Adamawa State.
For daring to oppose her in that humiliating manner, it was gathered that Aisha Buhari has also shopped for Mustapha’s replacement.
Mohammed Buba Marwa, who hails from the same Adamawa State as Mustapha, is being positioned by Mrs. Buhari’s camp to take over the SGF job, in the new cabinet.
However, Aisha’s move may be contained by the Cabal, since over time, Buhari has been swayed against her where conflicts of interest arose.
Mrs. Buhari has had cause to repeatedly cry out and openly allege that her husband’s government is ‘cabal-driven’, an allegation the President has openly denied.
However, such of the drama that would characterise Buhari’s second term may be staged in the South-West, as sources are predicting that Bola Tinubu, the National Leader of the APC, may eventually pull out of the party.
This is because the Cabal is weaving a strategic plan to checkmate his overbearing influence within the APC politics. Part of the plan is to inject a new breed of Politicians from the South-West, against Tinubu’s interest.
Akinwunmi Ambode, the outgoing Governor of Lagos State, may top the array of those disgruntled by Tinubu’s control style. If the plan succeeds, all Presidential appointees from the South-West, may be selected from Tinubu’s bitter rivals. This way, he (Tinubu) would have been cut to size, ahead of 2023.
As to why the cabal would turn its back on Tinubu, the answer lies in Buhari’s ready-made 12 million votes in the North, at least, going by the permutation of the Cabal. The position of the Cabal, is that owing to the North’s capacity to produce over 12 million votes, which was the case in the February 23, Presidential election, rotational Presidency is no longer tenable.
It is therefore, most likely that the Cabal is zeroing in on either Mallam Nuhu Ribadu or Nasir El-Rufai, to succeed Buhari, in 2023.
For the rest of the South, the Cabal has no soft spot for anybody, except that Ogbonnaya Onu, the Minister of Science and Technology, and a few others, are still considered dependable Allies.
Somehow, as the theatre of activities would be unveiled with Buhari’s inauguration, on May 29, Boss Mustapha is believed by the Cabal to possess certain indispensable qualities for the battle ahead.
