President Muhammadu Buhari has named the portfolios of his ministers, with former Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola coming out the star of the new cabinet.
Buhari consolidated three key ministries into the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing and handed it over to Fashola, thereby literally anchoring the fate of the administration on the former Lagos governor.
Although every ministry is important, but how Buhari government will be remembered would depend largely on how it is able to tackle the challenges of the power, road infrastructure and housing, all of which now are under Fashola’s purview.
Fashola was an outstanding performer as governor of the complex state of Lagos, with about 20 million population.
Analysts believe that Fashola is in deed equal to the task having discharged himself well while he was governor of Lagos State.
Remarkably, the president made a lie of the speculations about the portfolios with most of the permutations falling far off mark.
Buhari named controversial Rotimi Amaechi as the minister of Transport, Chris Ngige- Labour and productivity, Kayode Fayemi, Solid Minierials, Ogbonnaya Onu, Science and Technology, Audu Ogbe, Agriculture.
Others are Onyeama, Foreign Affairs; Dambazzu, Interior, Malami, Justice.
Buhari swore 36 ministers into his cabinet on Wednesday, five months after his inauguration.
Buhari won March elections after vowing to crackdown on corruption in Africa’s biggest economy and top oil producer. He has been criticised for waiting until September to name his ministers at a time when the economy has been hammered by the fall in oil prices.
His cabinet is smaller than that of his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, who had 42 ministers. Under the constitution, the president must include a member from each of the country’s 36 states.
Full list and portfolio shortly
