President Bola Tinubu has all but finalised his decision to name Abdullahi Ganduje into his cabinet, aides told Peoples Gazette while expressing apprehension the move could distract the administration, divide the ranks and thwart an opportunity to burnish the president’s sordid perception vis-à-vis corruption and good governance. 

At least seven appointees of the president interviewed by The Gazette over the weekend saw Mr Ganduje’s potential ministerial nomination from distinct perspectives that further underscored how polarised the consideration would be if allowed to stand. 

While two aides missed words to convey how mortified they were to learn about the decision, five others gave reactions to The Gazette that ranged from angrily supportive to mildly critical, with a plurality absolving the president of entire responsibility if Mr Ganduje can scale through the Senate confirmation process. 

The president, who assumed office on May 29, is due to submit his list of ministers to the Senate within the next 10 days in compliance with a recent federal law that mandates a new president to name cabinet positions within 60 days. There were signs weekend the names would be sent to the parliament this week, although The Gazette could not obtain confirmation of this from the State House.

But what aides were able to confirm was Mr Ganduje’s nomination, more than any other potential nominees in a list that could contain more than 40 individuals, sources said.

“Final decision has been made to nominate Abdullahi Ganduje as a minister,” a person familiar with the matter first informed The Gazette on Saturday afternoon. “His name is on the list as one of the two ministers from Kano.” 

The person said the president listened to “strong arguments” against appointing Mr Ganduje into his cabinet but ultimately decided to pay him back for his support. Seyi Tinubu was among those said to be strongly opposed to the idea, per our sources. The president’s son was not available for comments by telephone on Monday morning.

‘Gandollar Series’

Mr Ganduje, 73, has been widely deemed politically radioactive following the publication of a series of videos that showed him collecting bribes from a public works contractor while governor of Kano, Nigeria’s most-populous state and northern commercial hub.

In one of the videos, published October 2018 by the online outlet Daily Nigerian, Mr Ganduje pocketed over $230,000, which he pleated all over his babanriga. He promptly denied bribery allegations and received support from President Muhammadu Buhari, who disputed “the technology” used in the viral multimedia, later dubbed ‘Gandollar Series’ by social commentators.

But if there were political consequences, Mr Ganduje has yet to appear to suffer any. He was reelected governor a few months after the footage and remained friends with members of the nation’s political elite. He was also among the first to support Mr Tinubu’s bid for president, which gave the former Lagos governor an early boost for the party’s nomination and acceptance in the predominantly-Muslim and culturally-conservative northern sections of the country. 

Now aides are worried Mr Tinubu’s decision to compensate Mr Ganduje with a ministerial position could favour his personal resolve and still hurt his administration overall. 

For one, some aides said the president’s actions would show that he would always be someone that could be trusted to stand by and reward anyone who showed him loyalty. As Lagos governor, he embraced many people who were his allies during the pro-democracy struggles of the 1990s. 

After concluding his two governorship terms of eight years in 2007, Mr Tinubu continued to favour people in and out of his inner circles. His three successors so far, Tunde Fashola, Akinwunmi Ambode and Jide Sanwo-Olu, have all been elected governor on the basis of their loyalties to and benevolence of Mr Tinubu. 

“People know they can count on him for rewards,” an aide said. “I think he can further prove this point by nominating Mr Ganduje with his baggage.”

The Gazette was told that Mr Tinubu did not know about Mr Ganduje’s bribery videos until 2022, when it was discussed during a campaign strategy meeting, according to sources familiar. 

The ex-Lagos governor appeared to be close to Mr Ganduje for political rather than public perception expediency, aides said. 

“The president is thinking along the line of how Ganduje was reelected even after the videos and how he himself was elected president despite picking a Muslim running mate,” an aide said. “It was all bad public relations but pragmatic political calculation.”

Presidential baggage

Mr Tinubu, 71, has for decades exuded an aura of odium after being caught in a plethora of corruption, drug-trafficking and political thuggery scandals. In 1993, he was busted for narcotics dealing by the United States government and forced to forfeit over $460,000. 

In 2011, federal authorities arraigned him over assets fraud. Although he beat the charges, most Nigerians believed the evidence tendered in court stood sufficient to convict Mr Tinubu, but he escaped by bribing his way through the country’s venal judicial system. 

Even then, Mr Tinubu did not emerge from the charges unscathed. A photo of him in the dock remained in popular circulation. Chicago court documents of the messy narcotics case in the U.S. were widely circulated during the election and used as one of the key prongs of ongoing litigation to nullify his presidency before an election petitions tribunal in Abuja. 

Mr Tinubu was also involved in looting Lagos, with billions of public funds traced directly to his businesses by The Gazette. He denied the allegations, but the denials did little to assuage the public’s distrust of him since documents bearing the fraud were also published.

Mr Tinubu was declared president because the election was a three-way race in which the opposition was almost evenly divided. He scored about 36 per cent of the votes, while his main challengers, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, scored 29 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively. Mr Obi was Mr Abubakar’s running mate in 2019, and both were of the PDP in that cycle, but they lost the election largely because they were up against incumbent Mr Buhari, a northerner seeking reelection. 

Mr Tinubu’s aides recognised the fragility of his mandate and said they were disturbed by how badly appointing Mr Ganduje could hurt him now and later. 

“We know the president has an image problem,” an aide said. “However, we thought it was something we would focus on managing once we’re settled in government.”

But with Mr Ganduje on the senior team of a president with a history of corruption, fears are rising that the administration would be distracted and may ultimately give ammunition to political opponents. 

“The president is fiercely hated on social media, where it seems as if he has no supporters, but this will further give them a potent talking point that can endure for the rest of the administration,” an aide said.

Senate buck passing

But while presidents are often accorded due deference in naming their ministers, aides are counting on senators to save Mr Tinubu from himself by voting down Mr Ganduje’s nomination.

“Let’s face it: Ganduje worked heavily for the president, and he has been playing behind-the-scenes roles since the inauguration. He was the only unappointed aide that followed the president to Guinea-Bissau for the AU conference,” an aide said. “That’s just to give you an idea of how strongly their ties have grown recently.”

The aide said the president should not be blamed if the lawmakers approve his nomination following background findings of the State Security Service, the national intelligence office that serves entirely at the pleasure of the president and has a reputation for clearing nominees despite criminal records. 

“The SSS would look into Ganduje before the Senate,” the aide said. “If both institutions cannot find any grounds to disqualify him from becoming a minister, then why blame the president?”

Yet another aide spoke along that lying, saying Mr Ganduje should be rewarded for his support for the president unless turned down by senators, even as the official acknowledged the decision’s inherent controversy. 

However, only two out of five senators interviewed by The Gazette, all members of the ruling APC, said they would reject Mr Ganduje’s nomination. 

“I will not vote to confirm Abdullahi Ganduje as a senator of the federal republic,” one senator said Sunday night. “No serious nation would have Abdullahi Ganduje as a cabinet member.”

Another senator said Mr Ganduje shouldn’t be considered for any national office until the conclusion of an independent probe of his bribery case. 

“He must first be cleared of the bribery allegations in the videos that were shared on social media,” the senator said. 

Three other senators said they were fine with Mr Ganduje’s nomination if forwarded by the president. 

“I know we have oversight functions to perform, but the president has the final say on his own appointees,” one of the senators said. “It is his government, he was the one elected by the people to run the executive arm of our government.”

Kano PCACC

Mr Ganduje was not charged following the video because he had constitutional immunity from prosecution. But even now that he has been out of office for more than six weeks, federal anti-graft offices are reluctant to bring charges to a key ally of the president. 

While ministerial appointment cannot shield Mr Ganduje from criminal prosecution under Nigerian laws, clearance would be required from the president, which no law enforcement outfit would seek, much less receive approval to execute. 

The case was recently reopened in Mr Ganduje’s home state, where the Kano Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC) confirmed the authenticity of the videos and vowed prosecution. Governor Abba Yusuf is of the opposition NNPP, but to take Mr Ganduje into custody for prosecution would still require the cooperation of the police, SSS or other law enforcement agencies — all under the president’s absolute control.

Mr Ganduje shunned an invitation to appear in Kano for questioning following verification of the videos. A spokesman for Kano’s anti-corruption agency declined comments about the status of the case when reached by The Gazette on Monday morning.