Jonathan appoints Shekarau, 3 others as ministers

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi.

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday appointed former Governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau, including three other nominees as ministers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

In a letter forwarded to the Senate President, David Mark, titled: “Confirmation of ministerial nominees”,, President Jonathan also appointed former National Publicity Secretary of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) from Ekiti state, Adedayo Adeyeye for ministerial appointment.

Also on the list as ministerial nominees read on the floor of the Senate yesterday by the Senate President during plenary, were Abdul Bulama, from Yobe State and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) South-South zonal Vice-Chairman, Stphen Oruh, who is from Delta state.

As the Senate President read the letter, the name of the former governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau, who recently dumped the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the ruling PDP, caused some uproar in the Senate with hailing and murmuring from PDP and APC senators respectively.

It was gathered that three out of the four ministerial nominees will fill the gap created by the exit of the former minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godsday Orubebe (Delta), the minister of Police Affairs, Caleb Olubolade (Ekiti), and the former minister of state for finance, Yerima Ngama (Yobe).

It will be recalled that Jamila Salik, from Kano state, was among the twelve ministerial nominees forwarded to the senate for confirmation by President Jonathan in January this year, but was not screened along with the eleven others at the time Shekarau dumped APC for PDP.

However, the latest nomination indicates that Kwara and Anambra states are yet to get ministerial nominees to fill the slots of their states, following the removal of Bolaji Abdullahi from Kwara state as Sports Minister in March this year and Stella Odua as minister of Aviation, who hails from Anambra state.