It has been a very busy week for Nigeria’s President Buhari, the 72-year old has had the enormous task of dismissing and replacing quite a number of Senior Officials, as well as inaugurating a new cabinet, which he did on Wednesday the 11th of November.
Over time, President Buhari has received an incredible amount of backlash for a number of things, including the amount of time he has taken to produce a ministerial list. When he finally submitted a complete list, which he did in two parts, he was criticised on the lack of inclusivity, particularly in the areas of gender, ethnicity and youth representation.
Regarding the representation of women, though there are only six women on the Federal Executive Council, President Buhari strove to include more women in his recent appointment of Federal Permanent Secretaries, where he had 13 women appointed.
Although not much can be said on youth representation, the President did well in designing a diverse cabinet with members that cut across the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria. Every state, but the Federal Capital Territory, is duly represented in the President’s cabinet.
| State | Minister | Ministry |
| Abia State | Okechukwu Enelamah | Trade, Industry, and Investment |
| Adamawa State | Muhammadu Bello | Federal Capital Territory |
| Akwa Ibom State | Udo Udo Udoma | Budget and National Planning |
| Anambra State | Chris Ngige | Labour and Employment |
| Bauchi State | Adamu Adamu | Education |
| Bayelsa State | Heineken Lokpobiri | Agriculture (State) |
| Benue State | Audu Ogbeh | Agriculture |
| Borno State | Mustapha Baba Shehuri | Power (State) |
| Cross River State | Pastor Usani Uguru | Niger Delta |
| Delta State | Ibe Kachikwu | Petroleum (State) |
| Ebonyi State | Ogbonaya Onu | Science and Technology |
| Edo State | Osagie Ehanire | State for Health |
| Ekiti State | Kayode Fayemi | Solid Minerals |
| Enugu State | Geoffrey Onyema | Foreign Affairs |
| Federal Capital Territory | ||
| Gombe State | Amina Mohammed | Environment |
| Imo State | Prof Anthony Onwuka | State for Education |
| Jigawa State | Suleiman Adamu | Water Resources |
| Kaduna State | Zainab Ahmed | Budget (State) |
| Kano State | Abdulrahman Dambazau | Interior |
| Katsina State | Senator Hadi Sirika | Aviation (State) |
| Kebbi State | Abubakar Malami | Justice |
| Kogi State | Barr James Ocholi | Labour (State) |
| Kwara State | Lai Mohammed | Information |
| Lagos State | Babatunde Raji Fashola | Power, Works and Housing |
| Nasarawa State | Ibrahim Usman Jibril | Environment (State) |
| Niger State | Abubakar Bawa Bwari | Solid Minerals (State) |
| Ogun State | Kemi Adeosun | Finance |
| Ondo State | Cladius Omoleye Daramola | Niger Delta (State) |
| Osun State | Isaac Adewole Folorunsho | Health |
| Oyo State | Barr. Adebayo Shittu | Communications |
| Plateau State | Solomon Dalong | Youths and Sports |
| Rivers State | Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi | Transportation |
| Sokoto State | Aisha Abubakar | Trade and Investment (State) |
| Taraba State | Aisha Alhassan | Women Affairs |
| Yobe State | Khadija Bukar Abba | Foreign Affairs |
| Zamfara State | Dan Ali | Defence |
With this, President Muhammadu Buhari can say he has designed a cabinet that looks like Nigeria, relatively. Maybe now the critics will give him some breathing space as the attention shifts to the new ministers who already have quite some work cut out for them, considering the state of the country’s economy.
