Following outcry that had trailed appointment of some individuals as minister, President Bola Tinubu has replaced a ministerial nominee from Kano State, Maryam Shetty, with another appointee, Dr Maigari Mahmud, and added the name of Festus Keyamo.
The inclusion of Keyamo’s name increased the ministerial nominees to 48, allegedly the highest since the country returned to democracy since 1999.
This was revealed by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, when he read out a letter presented before the lawmakers by the President during Friday’s plenary session.
As gathered, the announcement by the Senate President came minutes after Shetty had arrived at the National Assembly for the screening exercise, only for her to be informed that her name has been replaced with another member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the state.
Before Keyamo’s appointment, there had been claims that the president was not interested in rewarding those that campaigned vigorously for him considering that the legal practitioner served as spokesperson for the Bola Tinubu presidential campaign council while serving as Minister of State under the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
The withdrawal of Sherry’s name from the second batch of appointees came barely two days after Tinubu sent an additional list of 19 nominees to the senate for screening and approval.
But shortly after the announcement, there were mixed reactions from Nigerians who took to their social media, particularly, Twitter, to express their displeasure over her appointment.