1) Lai Mohammed

Apart from being the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, 63-year-old Mohammed is also a lawyer and fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations. He worked as the Public Relations Officer of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria for 10 years.

In 2002, Mohammed resigned as the Chief of Staff to the then Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and emerged as the Kwara State governorship candidate of the defunct Alliance for Democracy. He was, however, defeated by Bukola Saraki of the Peoples Democratic Party in 2003. Interestingly, Saraki, who is now the Senate President and Mohammed are now members of the same party, the APC.

2) Audu Ogbeh

Ogbeh, who is 68-years-old, is popular for being the third National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party. However, long before becoming the PDP chairman, precisely in 1982, he was appointed Minister of Communications, and later Minister of Steel Development by President Shehu Shagari. Interestingly, he and others were kicked out of office in December 1983 by Major-General Muhammadu Buhari who has now nominated him as a minister again.

Interestingly, also, when Ogbeh was nominated a minister in 1982, he was screened by a Senate which included the father of the current Senate President, Dr. Olusola Saraki, who was the then Majority Leader. Ogbeh will again appear before the son of the late Saraki, Bukola, who is now the Senate President, for screening. Senate President Bukola Saraki was only 17-years-old when Ogbeh became the Deputy Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly in 1979.

3) Ogbonnaya Onu

Onu was the first governor of the old Abia State. Following the redrawing of the Nigerian map due to state creation, Onu is now an indigene of Ebonyi State. Onu, who turns 64 in December, was the National Chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, a platform on which Buhari contested elections twice. This probably is the reason for their closeness.

Onu ran for President in 1999 on the platform of the All Peoples Party (later ANPP) but lost.

A first class graduate of Chemical Engineering from the University of Lagos, Onu was the one that gave Abia State the sobriquet, ‘God’s own state’. He also taught at the University of Port Harcourt as the pioneer Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering.

4) Rotimi Amaechi

Amaechi was the political godson and special assistant to Dr. Peter Odili, who was between 1992 and 1994, the deputy governor of Rivers State.

Through Odili’s support and as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, Amaechi emerged as a lawmaker in the Rivers State House of Assembly and later Speaker between 2003 and 2007. He, however, fell out with his benefactor and emerged the governor of the state in 2007.

Born on May 27, 1965, Amaechi later defected from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress after falling out with the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, and the PDP.

The fifth Governor of Rivers State, Amaechi, has also been engaged in a running battle with incumbent Governor Nyesom Wike, his former commissioner. Wike had vowed that Amaechi would be arrested and tried after Amaechi’s tenure as governor ends.

5) Babatunde Fashola

The emergence of Fashola as the Lagos State governorship candidate of the Action Congress in 2006 sent a shockwave through the Action Congress with some leading members of the party threatening fire and brimstone. His political godfather and predecessor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, stood his ground by supporting Fashola’s candidature despite immense intraparty pressure to drop the ‘political greenhorn’.

The 52-year-old University of Benin trained lawyer, who later governed Lagos State between 2007 and 2015, had his secondary education at Birch Freeman and Igbobi College, Lagos.

A crack, however, appeared in the wall of relationship between Fashola and Tinubu when both came up with different aspirants for Lagos State governorship seat in 2015.

It will be recalled that Fashola as governor spent N139m on the drilling of two boreholes at the Lagos House, Ikeja.

6) Kemi Adeosun

At 48, Adeosun is arguably the youngest ministerial nominee among the 21 nominees. The former Ogun State Commissioner for Finance was born and raised in London. A graduate of Economics from the University of East London, she was a senior manager at the Price waterhouseCoopers, London. The mother of three is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, England and Wales.

Due to her foreign upbringing, the outspoken feminist told Sunday PUNCH in an interview in 2013 that the “Yoruba language I speak sounds like Chinese to others.”

On a lighter note, Adeosun who has also been nominated by Governor Ibikunle Amosun could become the first Nigerian to double as a commissioner and a minister if her nominations are approved by the Senate and Ogun House of Assembly.

7) Kayode Fayemi

Working in the background for pro-democracy groups during the military years of the 1990s, Fayemi came into national prominence when he emerged the Ekiti State governorship candidate of the Action Congress in 2007.

Born on February 9, 1965, Fayemi, is seen more as a scholar rather than the run-of-the-mill Nigerian politician. Many political analysts saw this outlook as being responsible for his electoral defeat in the hands of Governor Ayodele Fayose in the June 21, 2014 governorship election.

It is believed that like Fashola, his personal relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari earned him the ministerial slot because like Fashola, the APC leadership is believed not to be favourably disposed to having him picked by Buhari as minister.

He emerged the governor of Ekiti on October 15, 2010 after three and a half years of legal battle against the then Governor, Segun Oni, of the PDP.

8.) Adebayo Shittu

Although not known nationally, Shittu made history in 1979 by becoming the youngest member of the Old Oyo State House of Assembly at the age of 26.

He subsequently served as the Oyo State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice under the PDP government of Governor Rashidi Ladoja

In 2011, Shittu became the governorship candidate of the Buhari-led Congress of Progressive Change. He was a staunch critic of Governor Abiola Ajimobi of the then Action Congress of Nigeria even after their parties merged to form the APC in 2013. In late 2014, when Ajimobi was running for a second term, Shittu purchased the APC Expression of Interest form and vowed to defeat Ajimobi at the APC primary. Buhari was said to have intervened in the feud between the two. Expectedly, the APC in Oyo State which is largely loyal to Ajimobi, has rejected Shittu’s ministerial nomination. But his own faction of the APC has expressed support for him.

Compiled by Tunde Odesola and Eniola Akinkuotu
Copyright PUNCH.

Barr adebayo shittu,mrs kemi Adeosun and Ogbonnaya Onu

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