Is FRSC Boss,Osita Chidoka The Next Aviation Minister?

 

In a surprise move, President Goodluck Jonathan proves book makers wrong following his nomination of Osita Chidoka as Minister

This is authoritative: Osita Chidoka is set to vacate office as the Chief Executive officer and Corps Marshall of the Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC). This is following his nomination by President Goodluck Jonathan as Minister. He is to replace Princess Stella Oduah, former Aviation Minister, as Anambra state’s representative in the federal cabinet.
Dependable Aso Rock sources told The Source late last week that Chidoka has been penciled down for the Aviation Ministry. Since Oduah’s exit from the Jonathan cabinet in February Anambra has been without a Minister representing it in the cabinet. The Magazine was informed that the delay in replacing Oduah was conditioned by the intrigue – infested Anambra politics.
It was learnt that, while President Jonathan had earmarked the immediate past governor of the state and member of the rival All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Peter Obi for appointment as Minister, some Anambra politicians espeically members of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP with vested political interest were not favourable disposed to the move and have made several representations to the president to that effect. Matters came to head recently when a section of the PDP in the state openly protested, via newspaper advertorials, the decision by the state chapter of the party to nominate the former governor for ministerial position.
The Anambra state working committee of the PDP led by Kenneth Emekanyi had recommended Obi after its 98th meeting and hinged its action on the ex-governor’s superlative performance in office as well as his wide acceptability.
“If and when appointed, the former governor is best positioned to galvanise all the interest groups, the people of the state and the South east zone towards the forth coming presidential election,” the Emeakayi led-state PDP had argued.
But a petition to the National Working Committee of the PDP signed by Mike Okeke on behalf of a section of the party in the state accused Emeakayi of anti-party activities for “his unilateral nomination of a non-party member,” adding that “it is more reprehensible when considered against the backdrop that there are very highly qualified and loyal PDP members in the state who can fit into the position of a Minister.”
Presidency’s sources told the magazine that President Jonathan settled for Chidoka so as to to douse the tension being generated in Anambra over who gets the state’s slot in the federal cabinet. Apart from Obi, Nigeria’s former Ambassador to Austria, Jerry Ugokwe has also been severally linked with a ministerial position to replace Oduah.
The Magazine has been told that considering Obi’s impeccable integrity, the President did not want a situation where PDP Senators in the Senate who may want to assert party loyalty will subject the former governor to unnecessary embarrassment by not supporting his confirmation on the ground that he belongs to a rival party hence he settled for Chidoka.
“The President will later assign Obi a much more important and strategic role in his government,” the source informed the Magazine.
Obi, an Honourary member of President Jonathan’s Economic team, source close to him told The Source wants to rest for one year before deciding on whether to accept any political appointment. The Magazine has learnt that some politicians in Anambra became uncomfortable and envious of the rising political profile of the former governor after finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the President’s Special Adviser on inter-party Affairs, Senator Ben Obi variously spoke elegantly of him and hinted that the President could persuade him (Obi) to join the cabinet after his tour of duty as Anambra governor.
An indigene of Obosi in Idemili North local government Area state, Chidoka was 36 when late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua appointed him the Chief Executive Officer and Corps Marshal of the FRSC. A 1995 Management of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, Chidoka prior to his FRSC appointment was a Senior Adviser, Government and Business Relations, Mobile Producing Nigeria, a subsidiary of EXXON Mobile Corporation. He once revealed in an interview that “I walked away from about a N20 million per annum salary to take up this public service job (FRSC).”