President Bola Tinubu has set the record for the highest number of ministerial nominees in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic (1999 to date).
This is five ministerial nominees more than the 42 appointed by former president Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.
A week ago, Tinubu nominated 28 people to be cleared by the senate to be ministers in his cabinet. On Wednesday, the president sent another list of 19 other people, making a total of 47 cabinet members.
In his first coming, President Muhammadu Buhari named 36 ministers, and 42 ministers during his second term.
Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 named 33 nominees to be ministers in his cabinet — including nine people from the Umar Yar’Adua administration.
In 2007, Yar’Adua named a 39-member cabinet, which included 32 men and seven women.
Former president Olusegun Obasanjo initially named 42 ministers in 1999 but reviewed his cabinet to reduce the number of ministries and ministers to 27 and 40, respectively, before he left office in 2007.
Tinubu has now gone beyond Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan to name 47 ministers at one go — setting a new record in the country’s 24-year return to democracy.
