The waiting game over when President Muhammadu Buhari will unveil his second-term cabinet continued, Tuesday, amidst conflicting reports that he may have forwarded his ministerial list to the Senate.
Quoting multiple sources, and a tweet credited to Mallam Garba Shehu, Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, some online portals, and several social media influencers had reported that the president had transmitted the ministerial list to the Senate ready for vetting.
The two chambers of the National Assembly had resumed work, Tuesday, after adjourning for two weeks shortly after inauguration on June 11, 2019.
However, a report by the Daily Trust newspaper had stated that Nigerians may have to wait a little longer to know who-is-who in the list as the Department of State Security, DSS, had just scrutinised the names, claims and CVs of some 21 persons among those submitted by the president.
According to the newspaper, some ministers who served in the first term made the new list. Quoting a source, it reported that two of the former ministers, who have been screened, reportedly intimated their aides of their success in the exercise.
But when The Crest contacted Senator Ita Enang, Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on National Assembly Matters, at 4.48 p.m. on Tuesday, he denied knowledge of any ministerial list submitted to the Senate.
“I’m not aware of this development at the moment,” he told The Crest on phone. “Not to the best of my knowledge.”
Similarly, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, took to his twitter handle to debunk the report.
“My Twitter account is a verified one,” Shehu tweeted. “Whoever wants to know what I have said should go to it, not to a fake one.
“I have no breaking news on the appointment of ministers because I have not been briefed about it.
“Ignore the report they are attributing to me please.”
In recent weeks, there has been heightened public interest on when President Buhari would unveil his cabinet. This followed the pledge by the President that his administration would operate at a faster tempo in the second term than it did in the first.
In 2015, it took the president six months to constitute his cabinet, a delay he blamed on the need to clean the vast swamp of corruption he met when he took power.
On May 28, 2019, President Buhari dissolved the federal cabinet but his key aides, including the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, his Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, and others, have continued to discharge their duties without pay and without a formal announcement of their re-appointment.
With days rolling into weeks, after inauguration, and with the President still keeping the nation in suspense over his new cabinet, Nigerians began to worry if there would be any noticeable change in the tempo of government during the second term.
The public apprehension has, perhaps prompted some administration officials to reassure the nation that the president would not delay the constitution of his cabinet a day longer than necessary.
Only recently, the SGF, Mr. Boss Mustapha, said in an interview that President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet will become a reality in July after the National Assembly resumes from its recess.