Seyi Tinubu To Gets Ministerial Appointment
It may happen for the first time in Nigeria that president’s son will be in his father cabinet.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has a Seyi Tinubu decision to make. He could appoint the younger Tinubu to a cabinet position, or he could keep things as they are and continue to violate the constitution on at least two counts. Either way, Nigerians deserve clarity about the position of the son within the father’s government.
If the president chooses the first option, he will only be giving legal recognition to what effectively exists as a political fact, since his son is already deeply involved in government and national politics. If, on the other hand, the president sticks with the status quo, then we must raise the unprecedented constitutional issues, as I shall argue presently. Whatever the president does on this, the operative terms here are the Nigerian constitution, presidential convention, and the violation of either.
For the first time in Nigeria, we have a presidential son who wants to be fully, openly and directly part of the gig, and a president-father who would let him, or at least who would not issue a firm “No”.
Nigerian leaders from Tafawa Balewa in 1960 to Buhari in 2023 generally refrained from directly involving their children in their own government beyond the symbolic perks of a “First Family”. This practice has grown into a strong tradition and convention, and in any case, many presidential children were young or still in school when their parents served. Of course, quite a few adult children of our past leaders were influential in politics and business particularly, as Abacha and Obasanjo’s children reportedly were. Iyabo Obasanjo was commissioner for health in their home state, Ogun, and was elected a senator when her father was president. Presidential daughters and sons have also often married into prominent political, business or royal families when their parents are in office, as was the case with Yar’adua and Buhari.
None of this, however, is in the same proportion or category as Seyi Tinubu’s role in his father’s government is shaping up to be. Seyi clearly wants to be more than just a president’s son, but to be front and centre of politics and government alongside his parents. He is also not content with the conventional approach of operating and wielding influence in the shadows, as some presidential children before him had done.
He has been a presidential spokesman, lashing out at critics of his father, “the greatest president in Nigerian history”. He has been a goodwill ambassador, helping to build or mend bridges between his father and former heads of state and governors. He has been an envoy of peace, doling out ‘Ramadan baskets’ all across northern Nigeria and donations to victims of flood. He has reportedly influenced his father’s appointment of ministers and presidential advisers. Above all, Seyi wants a seat at the cabinet table to be part of it all at the Federal Executive Council. All of these are cabinet-level roles, which then raise the question; what precisely is Seyi Tinubu’s official role within his father’s presidency?
