[A Must See] The 5 Major Issues In Nigeria President Buhari Will Likely Tackle When He Resumes Office

As Nigeria awaits the imminent arrival of its
supreme leader from the medical vacation in
the United Kingdom, there are some major
issues President Muhammadu Buhari will
likely tackle upon resumption of his duties.
Here are five of the major issues as published
by Daily Trust below:
1. Cabinet Reshuffle
Talks about the possibility of President
Muhammadu Buhari reshuffling his cabinet
have been there even before he went on
medical vacation. There were reports a
cabinet reshuffle had been in the offing before
May 29 when the administration marked its
second anniversary. Those expecting a
reshuffle believe that some members of the
cabinet have abysmally performed below
expectations, hence the need to ease them
out. Indications that the cabinet would be
reshuffled emerged a few days ago when
Osinbajo swore in two new ministers,
Professor Stephen Ocheni from Kogi State
and Alhaji Suleiman Hassan from Gombe
State, without assigning portfolios to them.
They were sworn in more than two months
after the confirmation of their nominations by
the Senate.
Professor Osinbajo had, after inaugurating the
new ministers, assured that their portfolios
would be announced shortly. But almost two
weeks after their inauguration, the portfolios
are yet to be named, though they have been
attending the weekly Federal Executive
Council (FEC) meetings.
It is believed that Osinbajo was only directed
by President Buhari to inaugurate the new
ministers and wait for him to assign them
portfolios when a cabinet reshuffle is
effected.
Since Ocheni and Hassan were sworn in, fears
have gripped most cabinet members who are
not sure of their fate in the event some
changes are effected in FEC. There is a
tendency that some of them will be shown the
way out while others will have their portfolios
swapped.
2. Babachir, Oke’s Fate
The fate of the suspended Secretary to the
Government of the Federation (SGF), Engr
Babachir David Lawal and the Director-
General of the National Intelligence Agency
(NIA), Ambassador Ayo Oke, is still hanging in
the balance. The report of the Acting
President Yemi Osinbajo-led three-man panel
that investigated allegations of infractions
again them has not been implemented.
President Muhammadu Buhari had on April 19
suspended Babachir and Oke and set up the
committee to investigate alleged financial
frauds against both officials within two weeks.
Babachir was investigated for allegedly
awarding millions of naira contracts to a
company in which he had interest, Global
Vision Limited, under the Presidential Initiative
on the North East (PINE).
A Senate Committee on Humanitarian Crisis in
the North-East, which had earlier specifically
found the suspended SGF culpable of alleged
complicity in a N200 million grass-cutting
contract to clear “invasive plant species” in
Yobe State, had demanded his resignation and
prosecution.
Oke was probed for alleged $43.4m operations
cash found by the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission at apartment 7B in
Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos. He had
reportedly claimed that the money belonged
to the NIA and was approved by former
President Goodluck Jonathan for some covert
operations.
In accordance with Buhari’s directive, the
most senior permanent secretary in the Office
of the Secretary to the Government of the
Federation, Dr Habibat Lawal and Oke’s senior
deputy, Ambassador Arab Yadam, are
currently acting as SGF and Director-General
of the NIA respectively.
There are reports that the presidential panel
recommended that Babachir and Oke be
sacked and replaced.
3. Ibrahim Magu
President Muhammadu Buhari must have
been told that the Senate has not shifted its
ground on the appointment of the acting
chairman of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ibrahim Magu.
The upper legislative chamber had drawn the
battle line with the Presidency long before
Buhari embarked on medical vacation. Acting
President Yemi Osinbajo has demonstrated
both in words and action that the Presidency
would not budge an inch on the issue.
Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai on July
6 said both President Muhammadu Buhari and
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo told him that
Ibrahim Magu would not be removed.
The Senate had on July 4 passed a resolution
suspending all issues relating to the
confirmation of nominees and urged Acting
President Yemi Osinbajo to respect the
constitution and laws as they relate to
nominees’ confirmation. But the executive
argued that certain federal appointments
should not require Senate’s confirmation.
That was the position of a legal advisory
prepared by judicial and legal experts as a
working document in the Presidency on the
differences in the constitutional
interpretations on matters of certain federal
appointments. The Presidency is said to be
considering approaching the Supreme Court
over the refusal by the Senate to confirm the
appointment of Magu, alleging that had more
to do with politics than with the law.
But the Senate President, Senator Bukola
Saraki, had while featuring on the News
Agency of Nigeria (NAN) forum in Abuja on
Tuesday clarified that the Senate had no pre-
meditated plan to reject Magu as chairman of
the EFCC. The Senate president explained
that Magu’s rejection was prompted by a
report from the Department of State Services
(DSS) among other issues, emphasising that
the decision to reject Magu’s confirmation
was in the interest of democracy.
4. Boko Haram Resurgence
President Muhammadu Buhari must be
worried that Boko Haram militants who his
administration was hitherto pleased to have
degraded, have staged a comeback. The
administration had last December announced
that the Boko Haram stronghold in the
Sambisa forest had been captured.
A fortnight ago, the governor of Borno State,
Kassim Shettima, while speaking to State
House reporters after a closed-door meeting
with Acting President Yemi Osinbajo and the
service chiefs, cautioned that though the
terrorists had been sufficiently decimated,
their capacity for attacks should not be
underrated.
The service chiefs have, in compliance with
the directive handed down by Osinbajo,
relocated to the command centre in
Maiduguri.
In spite of the pockets of attacks in Borno
State within the last one month, the Defence
Headquarters denied a Boko Haram
resurgence.
Nigerians would like to see how President
Muhammadu Buhari will fast track the rescue
of the officials of the University of Maiduguri
(UNIMAID) and the staff of the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)
abducted recently by the sect while carrying
out oil exploration research in the Lake Chad
Basin Frontier Exploration.
Osinbajo had last weekend directed the
military and all security agencies to intensify
counter-terror efforts in Borno State in order
to have a strong control and secure lives and
property. He charged them to continue the
search and rescue missions to locate and free
all the remaining abducted persons as soon
as possible, “using all available and expedient
means in the circumstances.”
He was said to have assured that despite the
resurgence of terrorist attacks in Borno, “the
federal government is not only on top of the
situation, but will define the end of these
atrocities by both winning the war and
winning the peace in the north-east.”
5. APC Internal Crisis
All is obviously not well with the ruling party,
the All Progressives Congress (APC). The
party seems to have been engulfed by internal
wrangling which, if not properly and perhaps
urgently handled, may spell doom for it in the
coming elections.
Things seem to be falling apart at the various
state chapters of the APC. In Bauchi State,
Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar and
the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Yakubu Dogara, are apparently not on the
same wavelength at the moment. In Kaduna
State, Governor Nasir el-rufai and Senator
Shehu Sani appear to have poised for ‘war’.
The battle of supremacy between Kano State
Governor Abdullahi Ganduje and his
predecessor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, is far from
over. In Rivers State, the recent party
“restructuring” which the former governor of
the state and Minister of Transportation
Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, reportedly did with
his own political caucus is generating ripples
at the state chapter of the party.
There are rumours that a former vice
president and chieftain of the All Progressives
Congress, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Kwankwaso
and other bigwigs of the ruling party may
return to the opposition People’s Democratic
Party (PDP) as they were reported to have
been approached. Atiku, while speaking at the
second Inter Party Advisory Council of Nigeria
(IPAC) annual conference recently, flayed the
failure by the All Progressives Congress to
organise statutory meetings for its organs. He
also observed that lack of internal democracy
had made the APC and other political parties
“undemocratic.”
Osinbajo had on Wednesday kick-started what
appeared to be a peace deal process in the
All Progressives Congress with a meeting with
state chairmen of the party.