Obanikoro, Maku, Wike resign to run for governor

Obanikoro, Maku, Wike

Seven ministers are leaving the cabinet to run for governor.

PresidentGoodluck Jonathan led the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to thank the ministers who are expected to quit before or on Monday.

Leaving are Labaran Maku (Information), Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu (Health), Nyesom Wike (Education) and Emeka Wogu (Labour).

Others are Minister of State for Trade and Investment Samuel Ortom, Minister of State for Defence Musiliu Obanikoro and Minister of State for Niger Delta Darius Ishaku

The President noted that they had not officially resigned as they were yet to send their letters of resignation to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

According to him, those leaving have up till October 20 to make their intentions known.

He said: “If you are a public officer or you are a civil servant, if you have to go into an elective office you have to disengage on or before 20th of this month.

“Going by that, that means that any of our colleagues who has the interest to contest any level of election may not be with us the next council day, that is next Wednesday.”

“I think people may want to know what is the fate of XYZ. But I want to make it very clear that as at this morning, about seven members of council may, and I use the word ‘may’ because you don’t conclude anything in politics until… so seven of us may not be here next Wednesday, if their plans continue.”

Continuing, he said: “But we may not say they are not with us until they write to us through the secretary of government. As we are talking, nobody has written and we have not dropped anybody. People should not say we have dropped ministers; no. We have not dropped ministers; they are still ministers of council, but assuming between now and next council if they decide to go on with their plans, it is only proper we wish them well assuming we don’t see them again.

“But if they change their plans, they will continue to be with us, but after receiving the letters and they change their minds, it will be too late. So, if they have to change their minds they have to change their minds before sending the letter to the secretary of the government.

“So those that may not be with us next wednesday are Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, Minister of Health, Prof. Onyeabuchi Chukwu, Minister of State Education, Nyesom Wike, Minister of State, Industry, Trade, Investment, Samuel Ortum, Minister of State Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, Minister of State, Niger Delta Affairs,  Dairu Dickson Ishiaku, Minister of Labour and Productivity, Emeka Wogu.”

Wishing the outgoing ministers well and thanking them for their service to the nation on behalf of FEC, the Minister of Power, Chinedu Nebo said: “We appreciate the service rendered by these our brothers who have rendered distinguished service to this cabinet and to our country. They have a strong call, a notching to serve our nation in other capacities  as core hard politicians. One will say that they came, they saw, they acquired knowledge and then want to go out and serve their own people in their states.”

“They have served very well. They gave us their best. They stood by you and by us their cabinet members. They identified with us and with our great leader’s transformation agenda. And now that they have decided to become your excellency’s ambassadors in their various areas, we wish them well. We wish them the best of God’s guidance and protection.”

Maku, on behalf of the outgoing ministers, expressed gratitude to the President for giving them the opportunity to serve.

He said: “This is truly a very difficult and an emotional moment for me and my colleagues who are about to take a leap of fate in our lives as individuals and as officers of state.

“For me and Chukwu and a few others, we have been here with you for the last four and half years in this hallowed chambers, going through all the experiences we have gone through as the leader of this country so far.”

“Your excellency, we believe in you, we believe in this country. Under you, this country has undergone fundamental changes, both in terms of leadership style, in focus and policy implementation for the transformation of our country.”

Maku added: “Let me say sir that I mentioned something here last week when we were discussing Ebola virus disease conquest by your leadership, that you may not be appreciated now sir, but don’t worry, a time is going to come when this country will celebrate you because from what we have seen, the experiences we have gone through and the talent you have shown as a leader, it is very clear that God brought you purposely to stabilise this country and to give us a new direction out of a crisis of several decades.”

“Your cabinet, maybe apart from First Republic and Gen. Gowon, no ministers have had this stability of tenure in this country for a very long time. And today, this stability is impacting positively in the live of our country.”

Maku said: “In the first two years or so, you were maligned but today as result continues to come in from different sectors  because of stability of leadership, your focus, your vision, the nation is beginning to read you differently.”

“The last in my opinion which is very important, is that you have a cosmopolitan approach to leadership in Nigeria. You have been able to bring together diverse people from all walks of life, you have resisted temptations to religious sentiments, resisted persuations for ethnic or sectional sentiments, you have remained a unifyer as every leader in a diverse country should be.

And so we are going out with some of these lessons which we have learnt quietly from you in the last for yours.”

He asked the President to forgive any of the outgoing ministers who might have offended him.

“But Mr. President in the last four years and know that in several respects a lot of us would have done things that you didn’t approve of but because of your kind of personality,  you may not feel like telling us and you may not never tell us maybe in your memiors one day if you choose to vouch.”

“But let me say that in any ways we have fell short of your vision for us, expectations in the execution of our public duties, we seek your forgiveness, sincerely. I want to assure you that that would not have come intentionally for those of us who truly believe in you.”

“But we know we are human beings we must have offended you, sir, we seek your forgiveness, your understanding wherever we have failed you in the discharge of these duties.”

“One of the difficulties we have had as a government is that people outside hardly believe in you so if those of us inside do not believe in you, others are always attacking you inspite of the things you are doing. It is my hope and prayer that as we go out that we will remember that once we have come to this level of trust, it is expected of us to return home and do better for you than we are doing now to find ourselves in the future.”

“Finally, the challenges Mr. President faces, the challenges of national unity, terrorism, distraction within the Nigerian federation because of the dysfunctional nature of ruling class here and challenges of our divisiveness where we quarrel even when our nation ought to be together, when we quarrel even when we have best opportunity to build a nation. If those challenges were not brought on you after the 2011 elections, today Nigeria would have been playing at a very high league with Brazil and others.”