The former minister of youths and sports, Solomon Dalung, has said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu nominated five ministers in the cabinet of the former Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari,as well as the former Vice President, Yemi Osinbanjo.
Dalung made this statement in the latest episode of Politics Today aired on Channels Television.
This is contrary to claims by Tinubu that he didn’t nominate anyone as minister into the Buhari government.
The president had dismissed insinuations he was part of the ‘cabal’ allegedly pulling the strings of the Buhari administration, when he visited Ogun State during the All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign, where he coined the popular term, Emilokan (it is my turn).
But contradicting Tinubu, Dalung said, “I mentioned that as we continue to hit blame on the buhari government and bulk shifting, Buhari was a stranger in his government. It was run by the current president. He (President Tinubu) nominated five ministers and even the vice president,” Dalung said.
In a Channels TV podcast aired in December, Dalung had previously alleged that Buhari was used and dumped by the political elites and made a stranger in his own government.
Reiterating his earlier comments when he featured on Politics today on Tuesday, the former minister narrated how Buhari failed to achieve his campaign promises due to the emergence of a power cult which “hijacked power at that level” and made the ex-military head of state a stranger in his government.
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He said, “Coming to the issue of Muhammadu Buhari being a stranger in his government, what I meant was there was an initial intention upon which we campaigned, got the buy-in of the majority of Nigerians, and their investments in campaigns to produce president Muhammadu Buhari.
“But the government was not a reflection of the stakeholders who brought it into office. Rather, we had the emergence of a power cult that hijacked power at that level and things were completely done out of context of the initial promises. He was more or less a stranger in a government where he was elected and failed to meet his campaign promises.”
Tinubu has in the past admitted to nominating Yemi Osinbanjo as the Vice President under the Buhari-administration.
During his visit to Abeokuta during his presidential campaign period, Tinubu said he was asked to suggest three names for the office of the Vice President under the Buhari-administration.
“I was asked to submit three names, Yemi Cardozo, Wale Edun and Yemi Osinbanjo but I noticed that if I mentioned three names, I will be opening the door for a fourth person so I insisted on nominating only one name, which was Yemi Osinbanjo,” said Tinubu.
