Jonathan’s cabinet: The nominees

By OUR REPORTERS

EDO:
 Arch.Mike Onolemenmen

Arch. Mike Onolemenmen was the former Minister of State for Defence and first cousin to the former Chairman,Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Tony Anenih. He is also from Uromi, in Edo Central Senatorial District with Chief Anenih.

His nomination has torn the party apart in the state which is an indication that the party could soon be engulfed in another round of crisis that may see several of the leaders either dumping PDP for the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) or they will remain in the party and ensure further destruction of PDP.

Some of the leaders who have kept calm so far on the issue have done so because they do not want to offend Chief Anenih.

Their grouse is that in the heart of the crisis that engulfed the party during the Prof.Oseriemen Osunbor-led administration in the state, when the party was split between ex-military governor of defenct Bendel State, Dr Samuel Ogbemudia and Chief Anenih, Onolemenmen was never in the picture.

Besides, the leaders of the party in Edo North and South, are querying why Uromi should produce the chairman of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) Anenih, and also a minister when there are other qualified people in that senatorial district.

Again, Edo Central had produced four ministers in the past while the North has not produced any and that was why many thought that the position favoured either Prof. Julius Ihonvbere or Chief Dan Orbih.

However, going for him is the fact that no scandal was traced to him during his earlier ministerial stint. However, the hurdle is still not over yet for  Onolemenmen because two senators from the state, Senators Ehigie Uzamere and Domingo Obende, are ACN senators. It may not be surprising if the duo team up with Governor Adams Oshiomhole to stop  Onolemenmen knowing full well that he is Anenih’s prodigy.

OGUN:
Mr. Akinwunmi Adesina and Gbenga Ashiru

Mr. Akinwunmi Adesina is an agricultural economist and presently an Associate Director at the Rockefeller Foundation’s where he is one of the leading experts in the agriculture division of the foundation. He could be the first southerner to be Minister of Agriculture in recent Nigerian history.

Ashiru is a diplomat and former Nigerian High Commissioner to South Africa. He could end up picking up the Foreign Affairs portfolio in the absence of the former Minister, Odein Ajumogobia.

For members of the PDP in Ogun State, the two Ministerial nominees are not “known party members” giving the impression that they are being imposed on members.

Most leaders of the party, however, are wary of speaking on record on the issue apparently in order not to be on the wrong side of former President Olusegun Obasanjo who is believed to have nominated the duo.

Shocking to most is the exclusion of the party’s governorship candidate; Gen. Adetunji Olurin whose nomination has been seen as a forgone conclusion.

But perhaps most disturbing in the choices is the fact that the duo are from Ogun Central and East Senatorial Districts with Ogun West which had been crying against marginalization at the gubernatorial and ministerial levels being left out again.

ONDO:
Dr Omobola Johnson

THE nomination of Dr Omobola Johnson has jolted all the quarrelling factions of the PDP in Ondo State. President Jonathan has sidelined the quarrelling factions by going for a technocrat who was a former Country Manager of Accenture. She was believed to have during her stewardship at Accenture led the team that conceived the government’s Vision 20:2020 programme.

Sources in the state PDP, however, admitted that former governor Olusegun Agagu and former President Olusegun Obasanjo may have had a hand in the nomination of the technocrat.

Mrs. Johnson is the daughter of a prominent High Chief, the Lisa of Ondo Town, High Chief Bayo Akinnola and she is married to the son of a former Military Administrator of Lagos State, General Mobolaji Johnson.

KADUNA:
Yusuf Hamisu Abubakar

Yusuf Hamisu Abubakar came to public reckoning as the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund, PTDF. He was, however, to run into troubled waters over his management of the organization following the face-off between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his then deputy, Atiku Abubakar.

In 1992, at the age of 27, Yusuf was appointed the Kaduna State Commissioner for Health and Social Development. He held this post from February 1992 to November 1993. In 1994, Yusuf was appointed Director-General, Bureau for Lands and Survey, Kaduna State, where he stayed till 1997.

In 2000, he was appointed the Executive Secretary of an obscure Federal Parastatal, the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF)

BAYELSA:
Mrs. Diezani Allison-madueke

Mrs. Allison-Madueke was the immediate past Minister of Petroleum Resources and allegedly the personal nominee of President Goodluck Jonathan. It is as such not surprising that given Governor Timipire Sylva’s new thinking since Dr. Jonathan emerged as President last year, that there was little disputation over her nomination.

Diezani, an architect who came from the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), she was initially seen by many including the youths who are today singing her praises as an outsider not in tune with the politics of the state having spent all her time abroad and in the oil industry while they (Ijaw youths) were up in arms against the oil industry’s alleged environmental despoliation of their region.

 Counting to her credit today are her achievements in stabilizing fuel product prices across the country and continued availability of products. She is, however, faced with questions over certain actions she took in the sensitive oil industry during her stewardship as Minister of Petroleum.
ENUGU:
Prof. Barth Nnaji

The nomination of Professor Barth Nnaji to occupy the Enugu State ministerial slot by President Goodluck Jonathan may have foreclosed the reappointment of the former Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Fidelia Njeze who reportedly had the sympathy of the Deputy Senate President for the position.

Also, Governor Sullivan Chime’s desire to install one of his loyalists, Engr. Vita Abba, the State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP who was on the list of 10 nominees forwarded to the Presidency by the party, may have also hit the rocks as the president was said to have nominated Nnaji,former Chairman, Presidential Task Force on Power without consulting the two power brokers.

Vanguard learnt from reliable sources yesterday that the alleged disagreement between Chime and Ekweremadu gave the president the leeway to appoint Nnaji, who is being tipped as the Minister to oversee the power ministry for the Jonathan administration.

Although both Chime and Ekweremadu have neither admitted nor denied media reports regarding their disagreement over the choice of ministerial nominee from the state, there had been insinuations among their supporters that the political alliance between them became unstable recently on account of their discordant tones over who should represent the state in the new federal cabinet.

 ADAMAWA:
HAJIYA ZAINAB MAINA
Hajiya Zainab Maina was a commissioner in the defunct Gongola State under the military regime of late Colonel A.G Hussein.

A woman activist, she was once the National Chairperson of the National Council of Women Society, NCWS.

Zainab, an indigene of Nassarawa State by birth is married to an indigene of Adamawa State from Mubi. Her political base in Adamawa State is presently of no significance and she is known to operate more at the federal level.

She is, however, known to be a woman of strong will with an independent political view even at home.

OSUN
ERELU OLUSOLA OBADA
Erelu Olusola Obada was the deputy governor of Osun state during the two terms of Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola’s administration in the state.

A trained lawyer, Obada who hails from Ibodi, in Atakumosa West local government area of Osun state was at a time the Public Relations manager of the defunct Nigeria Airways.

She was one of the leading PDP governorship aspirants in Osun state in 2003 before late Sunday Michael Afolabi asked all the aspirants to step down for Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola who eventually chose her as his running mate.

Throughout the period she served the state in the capacity as the deputy governor she never for once confronted the governor or had any confrontation with him contrary to what happened in some states which earned her the appellation of being the most loyal deputy governor in the country.

During former president Olusegun Obasanjo administration, she was chosen to held the committee on cocoa rebirth made up of deputy governors from the cocoa producing state of the country.

Her contribution at the committee levels earned her the appellation of “Mama Cocoa”.
It was gathered that Erelu Obada became very close to President Goodluck Jonathan when both served on the committee on cocoa rebirth which she headed.
ABIA:
NWADIALA EMEKA WOGU.

Nwadiala Emeka Wogu is the ministerial nominee from Abia state who beat permutations on Onyema Ugochukwu taking the slot. He was allegedly helped by the strong confidence on him by both the Governor and the President.

 While he facilitated the smooth return and harmony between the Abuja based Abia politicians and the Governor, he also won confidence in the presidency with the way and manner he handled industrial affairs as Minister of Labour.

He hails from Ohanku area of Aba, the commercial capital of Abia state. A lawyer by training, Wogu is a grassroots politician. He served as the Chairman of Aba Souncil and Abia’s representatives at the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC for about 8 years.
OYO:

OLOYE JUMOKE AKINJIDE
The nomination of Oloye Jumoke Akinjide, daughter of the former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the federation, Chief Richard Akinjide(SAN) for ministerial appointment has attracted mixed reactions in Oyo State.

While some indigenes of the state applauded the gesture of President Goodluck Jonathan, some said the nomination had further widened the gulf of differences in the party and would also jeopardize the reconciliation moves of the party.
To those who oppose the nomination, it has clearly shown that the national leadership of the party is just paying lip service to the on-going reconciliation.

Senator Lekan Balogun who is of the view that the party in the state has been turned to a private property being managed by the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and some people said it was the height of “incorrigibility” .

 RIVERS:
 TONYE COLE
Tonye Cole, son of Ambassador Dele Cole is reportedly the ministerial nominee from Rivers State.

Cole attended Corona school, Lagos, and later moved to Kings College also in Lagos state.  He was a merit honours graduate of architecture. He studied architecture at the University of Lagos and Universidad de Brasilia.

He worked as an architect with a Brazilian architectural firm, Grupo Quartro SA in Goiania. His Sahara Energy Resource limited is a major player in the oil and gas industry in the country and beyond.