Sources: Tinubu still finalising ministerial list as deadline looms

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has cleared his activities for Tuesday and Wednesday as he tries to review and finalise his ministerial list, TheCable can report.

As a result, he will not be receiving visitors for the two days.

He has till Friday, July 28, to submit the list to the senate in line with section 42(a) of the constitution which states that “the nomination of any person to the office of a Minister for confirmation by the Senate shall be done within sixty days after the date the President has taken the oath of office”.

He was sworn in on May 29.

Sources informed TheCable that even though most of the nominations are settled, there are states posing a challenge because of the candidates.

Many of his associates are in the dark over the final list.

“The president is a chess player. He keeps most of his decisions to himself till last point,” a presidency official told TheCable.

There was a lot of speculation last week that the list had been sent to the senate but the upper chamber of the national assembly did not, as customary, discuss it.

Sources told TheCable that the imminent nomination of Abdullahi Ganduje, former governor of Kano state, as the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is one of the gaps Tinubu is trying to fill.

Ganduje had been pencilled down as a minister but the forced resignation of Adamu Abdullahi as chairman led to further adjustments of the list.

The president has been criticised for the delay in forming his cabinet.

President Muhammadu Buhari did not name a cabinet until after five months after his inauguration in 2015 but there was no constitutional timeframe then.