2023: Minister eyeing Buhari’s seat resigns

One of the Ministers eyeing the seat of President Muhammadu Buhari has resigned.

His resignation was announced during the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting of Wednesday.

• I’ll step down on May 29, 2023 –Buhari
• Sylva, Ngige… Buhari’s men who joined presidential race amid raging crises in their ministries

Emeka Nwajuiba, Minister of State for Education, quit the cabinet to focus on his presidential ambition.

He is among the six ministers who have obtained the N100 million presidential forms of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the primaries slated for the end of this month.

Others are Ministers of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; Niger Delta, Godswill Akpabio; Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige; Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, and Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva.

Buhari has given all those interested in the 2023 contest a deadline of Monday to leave his government.

In the heat of the pressure mounted on Nwaijuba to step down last month, the minister had said he would carry on with his duties.

Critics had accused him of trivialising the strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) by joining the presidential race.

But while addressing his supporters, the minister said he would only resign 30 days to presidential election as stipulated by the Constitution.

“The resignation of a minister or anybody who is in office is guided by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We are required to contest election if we want. We are required to resign 30 days before any election we choose to contest. That is the position of the law. Every other person can have an opinion.”

“My position is that the law of the country rests on the grund norm called Constitution. If you do not like the Constitution, your work is to amend it There is no subrogation of power that is required for you to include into a law what is not in that law.”