The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has said that the ministerial nomination withdrawal mess happened because President Bola Tinubu failed to do due diligence before forwarding the ministerial list to the National Assembly.
It would be recalled that the name of a ministerial nominee, Maryam Shetty, was initially forwarded to the National Assembly for clearance before it was withdrawn and replaced with the name of her classmate Dr. Mariya Mahmoud.
Ganduje told Freedom Radio that Maryam Shetty’s name was “smuggled” into Tinubu’s ministerial list, and the president did not make due consultations before dispatching the name to the Senate.
He mentioned that President Tinubu failed to consult with the right people in Kano State before appointing the lady.
He said: “In the process of appointing ministers, the president has people who will advise him from different states. Also, it is the prerogative of the president to appoint whoever he deems fit as a minister.
“He also has the right to consult people from the state, because they are the ones who know the people who are fit to occupy such office.
“But what happened in this case is that we were not consulted. So we just heard her name on air. Initially, we didn’t complain, taking into consideration that Mr President has the right to appoint anyone. And as loyalists of the president who understand democracy, we accepted his choice.
“But again, we don’t know her, and since we don’t know her, we can’t vouch for her competency for the job.
“Also, the President’s attention was drawn to the social media reactions that followed her nomination. Sometimes people take actions, thinking they won’t be caught. But you will be surprised that all your actions are in the public domain. That’s what happened in this case.
“The reactions became so intense, and people were questioning her competency, and worthiness to represent Kano State.
“These concerns were not raised by Ganduje, but the masses. The president was also shown the social media reactions, and he sought my opinion.
“Clearly, I told him, I don’t know who she is. He asked if there was a need to replace her, and I answered in the affirmative.
“Because these kinds of positions need someone with integrity, the person must also understand the job, and thirdly, what role did the person play in the formation of the government.
“So if you look at these qualities, we were the ones that needed to be consulted for any appointments coming from Kano State.
“Even though I don’t know all the competent people from Kano, at least our advice needs to be sought when people make recommendations, but that didn’t happen in this case.
“So the president gave us the opportunity to make a replacement with the emphasis that it must be a woman. After consultation with critical stakeholders, we settled for the new nominee, Dr. Mariya Mahmoud Bunkure. From hearing the name, Bunkure, You know where she hailed from.”
The reference Ganduje made to Maryam Shetty’s social media activities was in connection with some old tweets of the former nominee which were critical of APC and the former governor.
