ABUJA—Barring any last minute delay, Federal Government is to release the names of board members of federal agencies, boards and ministries. This follows the fine-tuning of the lists of the nominees by the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, on the instruction of President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure lasting peace over the contentious issue.
It was learned last night that following the intervention of Buhari, the list of nominees already sent in by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, OSGF, has been adjusted to take care of all interest groups.
A competent source confirmed to Vanguard last night that the intervention of the President followed complaints by governors and other party big-wigs that they were not consulted by the OSGF before the list of board chairmen and members was compiled. Under existing tradition, the OSGF compiles the names of chairmen and members of boards of Ministries, Agencies and Departments, MDAs, on the direction of the Presidency to reflect the interests of those who supported the making of the government.
However, it was gathered, yesterday, that the furore generated by governors and top officials of All Progressives Congress, APC, that they were schemed out of the nominations for boards of key parastatals, forced the Presidency to recall the list for what a source described as ‘further action.’ Reason for delay It was learned that the list would be tampered with to accommodate the interests of all the key stakeholders to ensure continued party unity and cohesion, especially as the next round of electioneering is likely to kick off in a subtle way this year.
A competent source said that it was untrue to say Vice President Osinbajo had been appointed by President Buhari to replace the SGF, David Babachir, since they were not on equal rating. The source defended Buhari, saying that he merely asked Osinbajo to ‘take a second look at the board nominations’ to ensure that all interests were catered for and to ensure justice, equity and fairness.
The source said: “Look, what the President has simply done is to ask his Vice to see what can be done to take care of all interest and does not in any way mean replacing the SGF because the two offices are not equal. “There is no way the President would ask a Vice President to replace someone who is not equal to him in ranking. “The list of nominees for board appointments they are talking about is the one that was compiled before and what the VP is simply doing at this time is to ensure that everyone will be happy at the end of the day, because Mr. President wants peace and stability in the country.
“The President wants his Vice to go through the list to ensure that everyone is accommodated and it is simply based on the template that had already been set by the OSGF and nothing more.” The development runs contrary to media report that President Buhari has replaced the SGF, Babachir with Osinbajo as Chairman of the Presidential Committee on the reconstitution of federal boards and parastatals.
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