These are not the best of times for former governors who could not make a second term or win the elections into the National Assembly as they are fast losing out in the scheme of things. Ditto for some members of the recently dissolved cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari who were regarded as super ministers on account of the powerful ministries they controlled while they held sway.
Numbered among them are former governors of Lagos and Rivers states, Babatunde Raji Fashola and Rotimi Amaechi respectively. Fashola was the minister in charge of works, power and housing while Amaechi was in charge of transport and aviation. Fillers available to Sentry indicated that while it is almost as certain as daybreak that the two gentlemen will return to the cabinet when the announcement is made, their power and influence may wane considerably because they will have to cede a part of their portfolios.
For Amaechi, the development will not be entirely new because he was not really in charge of the aviation ministry as the immediate past Minister of State for Transport and Aviation, Hadi Serika, was the one effectively in control.
As for the former governors who could not win the seats they contested in the last general election, President Muhammadu Buhari is said to be having a rethink of his earlier promise that those of them who lost in the elections would be compensated with cabinet appointments. The new thinking in the Presidency is that former governors who could not wield enough influence to win elections after four years in the saddle as the chief executives of their states could be more of liabilities to the Buhari administration than assets.
It is believed that they would not have lost the elections if they had done well in office as governors. “What value will they be adding to Buhari’s cabinet when they don’t even have enough goodwill to win elections in the states they presided over as governors for four years,” a Presidency source wondered.
Consequent on the foregoing, many of the ex-governors are said to have gone off the radar, prompting one of them to declare recently that he was not aspiring to become a minister but would rather concentrate on recovering his mandate. The truth, however, is that they have lost out.
