President Muhammadu Buhari will assign portfolios to all his 36 ministers, according to a presidency source.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, stated this in a telephone interview with Daily Trust.
The president had reportedly said Friday that not all the 36 nominees would be ministers as some of them would only sit in the cabinet in order to meet the constitutional provision which stipulates that each state of the federation must have a representative in the cabinet.
Buhari was reported to have disclosed this during an interview he granted the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and Channels Television shortly before he left New Delhi where he participated in the third summit of the India-Africa Forum.
But the presidential aide stated that all the 36 ministerial nominees that had been screened by the Senate would be assigned portfolios.
Shehu clarified that what President Buhari meant was that not all the ministers would have full control of the ministries.
He said the president would retain the structure in which there are substantive ministers and ministers of state.
According to the presidential aide, it is not possible to have a more ministries than the number of ministers.
Shehu said: “You know we have a structure of government in place in this country whereby there are substantive ministers and ministers of state.
“What the president meant (in the interview granted) was that not all the ministers in his cabinet will have the full control of the ministries. You know it is not possible to have the number of ministries more than the number of ministers. Even former President Goodluck Jonathan had 28 ministries and 42 ministers”, he said.
