Bola Tinubu, the President-elect of Nigeria, has begun assembling his team prior to his inauguration on May 29 as the 16th President and Femi Gbajabiamila, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, has reportedly been selected as his Chief of Staff.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that other individuals, including Wale Edun, the former Commissioner for Finance, and Atiku Bagudu, the Governor of Kebbi State, are also being considered for key positions in the new administration.
According to an insider, Gbajabiamila has already begun functioning as Tinubu’s Chief of Staff and has unofficially started working with him in France to plan out processes and strategies for the upcoming administration.
“He has technically resumed with him in Paris, and they are trying to work out process and plans,” the source said.
Tinubu is said to have also appointed Edun and Bagudu to his economic team, with Edun serving as the coordinator of the economy, either as the Finance Minister or the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Bagudu has also been assigned a significant role in the administration.
“Wale is supposed to be the coordinator of the economy, either as Finance Minister or the CBN governor. It is not clear yet what his plans are for Bagudu. But he has also been penciled in and is going to be operating at a very high and serious level in the administration.”
Meanwhile, among other things, various influential Nigerians, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Ayo Adebanjo, the leader of Afenifere, the PDP presidential candidate, Abubakar Atiku, and the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, have all called for the restructuring of Nigeria’s political system.
According to many, the 1999 constitution was enacted by a former military head of state, Abdulsalami Abubakar, without input from the Nigerian people, making it ineffective today.
Recently, as part of restructuring various sectors of the country, President Buhari approved the decentralization of the country’s electricity grid, prisons service, and railway service.
