Chuks Okocha and Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja, Ejiofor Alike in Lagos
President-elect Bola Tinubu will arrive in Nigeria tomorrow after spending a month in France, exactly 35 days before his inauguration on May 29.
To recuperate and prepare for his inauguration on May 29, Tinubu left the country on Tuesday, March 21 for France.
The president-elect will enter the country on Monday night, according to one of his supporters, who told HERE yesterday.
According to the source, Asiwaju will return on Monday. He will appear on Monday night. His press office, in a statement in March, explained that he had traveled to France to rest and plan his transition program after a very grueling campaign and election season. The President-elect left the country via Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja.
According to the statement, the president-elect has decided to pause his busy campaign and election season to rest in Paris and London, before heading to Saudi Arabia to fast Umrah (Little Hajj) and fast for Ramadan.
The statement also added that during his absence, the president-elect will also take advantage of the opportunity to plan his transition program. “He has ordered all senior aides and campaign staff to also go and rest for a short time. He is expected to return home soon. We appeal to the media. media stop posting baseless rumors and claims always ask our office for clarification.” His media office was supposed to ensure his government took off effectively at the inauguration. May 29th.
One such issue is the zoning of National Assembly leadership which has polarised the two chambers of the parliament along regional and religious lines. While the South-west will emerge as the new kingmaker, the current kingmaker, the North-west, is seeking compensation in the new dispensation for delivering the highest votes to the president-elect.
To this end, the incoming lawmakers from the zone have eyes on the Senate President, a development, which is bringing them on a collision with their colleagues from both the South-east, who are crying due to perceived marginalization, and the South-south that lays the golden egg. Both the South-east and South-south are laying claim to the Senate Presidency to ensure the emergence of a Christian Senate President and balance the same-faith presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The emergence of a Senate President from the North-west would create a Muslim Senate President, which would be unacceptable to the South-east and the South-south, given the fact that both the president-elect and the vice president-elect are Muslims. The position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives is also in contention. Tinubu is expected to rally the leaders of his party and the members-elect of the two chambers of the National Assembly to resolve these issues by zoning the positions of the principal officers of the parliament to balance regional and religious interests.
The president-elect is also expected to use the next 35 days to assemble a competent team that will form his cabinet to ensure a smooth takeoff after his inauguration. It took President Muhammadu Buhari roughly six months to form a cabinet after his inauguration on May 29, 2015, and it is expected that Tinubu will not make the same mistake.
Another major challenge facing Tinubu on his return is how to handle the removal of the petrol subsidy, which is long overdue, without hurting organized labor. The labor unions had given stringent conditions for the removal of subsidies. The Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), which came into effect in 2022, provides for the removal of subsidies but the implementation of this aspect of the legislation was suspended for 18 months, which expires in June.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Ambassador Gabriel Aduda, had on Friday, stated that a lot of consideration was ongoing to ensure that the subsidy removal is given a human face. Tinubu had also vowed to remove subsidy as part of his campaign promises and how he handles it without creating a labor crisis is a task he will map out in the coming weeks before his inauguration.
The president-elect will also face the task of ensuring that there is social cohesion by initiating a healing process that will unify Nigerians. Currently, Nigerians are bitterly divided along tribal and religious lines. One of the ways he will start the healing process is by ensuring that there is equity and fairness in the zoning of the principal offices in the National Assembly. Tinubu will also have to clear himself of the grievous allegations made against him at the election petition court by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, and his counterpart in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, among others.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the APC presidential candidate as the winner of the February 25 presidential election, having polled 8,794,726 votes. He defeated his closest rivals, the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku, and his counterpart in the Labour Party, Obi, who polled 6,984,520 votes and 6,101,533 votes, respectively. Tinubu last week released 13 names of prominent Nigerians who will make up the presidential inauguration committee ahead of the May 29 inauguration. But the PDP criticized Tinubu for not appointing anyone from the East. male to its 13-person transition committee.
The submission of the 13 names follows a letter from the Presidential Transitional Committee (PTC), headed by Federal Government Minister Boss Mustapha, requesting nominations to 13 subcommittees of the association’s Investment Committee. copper.
The committee has been tasked with planning the week-long inaugural activities that will inaugurate Tinubu and Vice President-elect Senator Kashim Shettima as President and Vice President of the country on the 29th respectively. May. Tinubu previously submitted the names of the Governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu, and former Lagos State Commissioner of Finance, Wale Edun, to the council.
