48 Ministerial Nominees: APC Defends Tinubu

Amidst criticisms and controversies that have greeted the 48 ministerial nominees, the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has come to the defence of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

According to the APC leadership, President Tinubu was still within his constitutional confines.

There have been criticisms over the number of ministerial nominees by the President, as some have argued that it is over blotted.

However, the opposition parties had earlier stated that there were no economic reasons for the President to have more than constitutionally provided for a Ministerial nominee. The Constitution provides for a state.

But President Tinubu had nominated 48 ministers, with some states having three, two and one. These discrepancies have caused some upheavals in some quarters.

But defending the President on this, the APC National Secretary, Senator Basiru Ajibola said, “Opinion is free, heterogeneous in a democratic society, so that should be made very clear by the constitution of Nigeria, every state is expected to have a ministerial nominee, at least for the first time the President appointed a nominee from the FCT for which the FCT people where happy.

So, mandatorily you must have a minimum of 37 ministers by constitutional provisions, adding an additional 10, I think it is the prerogative of the executive.

“Section 5 of the Constitution is clear that the President is vested with executive powers for which he may exercise directly, personally or through ministers that he has appointed.

“That said anybody is free to make comments as to the size of the ministers and as to the compositions of the ministers.

“And that essentially is within the prerogative of the President having regard to Section 5 of the constitution of Nigeria and mind you Section 1 subsection 1 of the Constitution of Nigeria also says Nigeria shall be governed in accordance with the Constitution.

So the President has not done anything that is outside the confines of the Constitution.

On the issue of financial misappropriation in the party, the National Secretary said, “What I think is good to say is that we should not misrepresent the reasons for the resignation of our chairmen. I don’t know where you got your financial recklessness you are talking about with respect.”

On the issue of external auditors, “they are being appointed, it has been the routine of our party to appoint external auditors and it is a standard procedure and practice everywhere.

“It has nothing to do with the resignation of any officer of our party.

“And if you go back, there has not been a year that the party account has not been audited by external auditors,” the National Secretary said.