Why Fashola, Amaechi might not be chosen

                                              
President Muhammadu Buhari is set to name his ministers this month and according to reports, the list will be a shocker.

An earlier report also had it that Buhari was forced to change his nominees after 33 out of 36 of them failed a corruption litmus test.

Hence, the president has made it very clear that he intends to work with “clean hands” and will do as much as possible to actualize this goal.

This is why former Governors Rotimi Amaechi and Babatunde Fashola might not make the list.

Both Amaechi and Fashola have in recent times been the target of smear campaigns which have sought to paint them as corrupt in order to taint their chances of being appointed by Buhari.

Amaechi confirmed this on Sunday, August 2, 2015, while speaking at a reception organized in his honour in Abuja saying:

“Let me tell you what is currently going on in Rivers State. The governor and PDP are afraid of me getting an appointment to the national executive council because that will determine what the politics of Rivers State will be.”

“And they know that the current President abhors corruption and the only way they can stop me from getting the appointment is to paint me with corruption. And the people that know me in Rivers State know that I don’t like money,” he added.

The former Rivers State Governor is being accused of embezzlement by his successor, Nyesom Wike who has set up a probe panel to investigate the previous administration.

Fashola, on the other hand, has been accused of spending N78 million on a personal website and N139 million on two boreholes during his tenure as Lagos State Governor.

In response to the allegations of corruption levelled against him, the former Lagos governor said that his detractors had been paid to tarnish his reputation.

In contrast to Amaechi’s response however, Fashola told his critics that he’s ‘not looking for a job.’

Both governors had been pegged for positions in Buhari’s cabinet due to Amaechi’s support for the president during his campaign and Fashola’s reputation as a performing public servant.

However, due to the smear campaigns and the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) claims that Buhari is exempting his party members from the ongoing anti-corruption war, the president might be forced to exclude Amaechi and Fashola from his ministerial list.