Six Ministers To Resign From Jonathan’s Cabinet

At least six ministers may soon quit President Goodluck Jonathan’s cabinet in preparation for their governorship aspiration in the forthcoming 2015 elections, Punch reports.

The affected ministers are expected to resign their appointments in order to pursue their governorship ambitions on the platform of the Peoples’ Democratic Party.

Last week, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) released guidelines for its primaries ahead of the 2015 general elections.

The guidelines require serving public office holders to quit by October 20 if they want to seek the ruling party’s nomination in the primaries scheduled to hold in November and December.

This affects appointees like ministers and commissioners, as well as civil servants.

Ministers who may quit Jonathan’s cabinet in October to join the governorship race include Senator Bala Muhammed (Federal Capital Territory), Mr. Labaran Maku (Information), Chief Emeka Wogu (Labour), Mr. Nyesom Wike (State, Education), Dr. Samuel Ortom (State, Trade, Industry and Investment) and Senator Musiliu Obanikoro (State, Defence).

Mohammed from Bauchi, Maku from Nasarawa and Wike from Rivers are the most obvious governorship aspirants among serving ministers.

Muhammed is interested in Bauchi state governorship position, Maku is interested in Nasarawa state while Wogu may be going for the governorship position in Abia state.

Wike is nursing the ambition of taking over from Gov Amaechi in Rivers state, Ortum intends to succeed Gov Suswam of Benue state while Obanikoro has his eyes on Lagos State.

The President’s Special Adviser on Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation, Prof. Sylvester Monye, is also nursing the ambition of becoming the Delta State Governor after Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan.

A presidency source said: “Their resignation will come very soon. You know the President will have to fill the vacancies that will be created before the general elections in February 2015.

You also know that the Senate must approve nominees.

“It is therefore important that the list be forwarded to the senators before everybody will be engrossed in election matters in their various constituencies.”

Their imminent resignation is expected to lead to a major shakeup in the Federal Executive Council.

As the 2015 elections draws closer, political parties and politicians are gearing up for victory.