President Bola Tinubu has allocated portfolios to ministers a few days after they were screened and confirmed by the senate. Initially, the president had submitted a list of 47 ministerial nominees to the senate without assigning specific ministries, sparking discussions on their eventual roles.
The practice of submitting ministerial nominee lists without portfolios is not new, as past presidents such as Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan, and Muhammadu Buhari have also followed this approach. While there's no constitutional requirement to attach portfolios to nominees, experts argue that attaching portfolios helps the senate ask more pertinent questions during the confirmation process.
Out of 48 ministerial nominees, the senate approved 45, with three—Nasir el-Rufai, Stella Okotete, and Danladi Abubakar—rejected due to security clearance concerns. The distribution of ministers across regions reveals that the north-west has 10 ministers, the north-east has six, the north-central and south-west have eight and nine, and the south-east and south-south each have five and seven ministers.
Additionally, the trend of appointing ministers of state continues, with 13 individuals being designated for these roles. Ministers of state typically handle state-specific matters within a ministry, often seen as junior ministers. However, some experts and analysts speculate about the absence of a petroleum minister, a trend seen since 1999, and the absence of a Niger Delta affairs minister, suggesting potential shifts in governmental priorities.
Source: The Cable