Indications emerged on Monday that the selection of Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama as the ministerial nominee from Enugu State by President Muhammadu Buhari shocked members of the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress.
Our correspondent equally learnt that the nomination did not go down well with most of the party’s members, who are not familiar with the nominee.
Onyeama, a son of Nigeria’s first ever judge at the International Court of Justice at the Hague, Charles Onyeama, was named in the second list sent to the Senate.
It was learnt that he has lived most of his life abroad, where he reportedly worked with the World Intellectual Property Organisation.
However, our correspondent gathered that most members of the APC in Enugu State were worried over his nomination because they do not know him personally.
The party faithful felt Buhari should have selected one of them for the cabinet position, according to findings by our correspondent.
A source, who did not wish to be named, said members of the party in the state were “shocked and disappointed” when Onyeama was unveiled as the nominee from the state.
Before the ministerial list came out, some high profile members of the APC in the state were touted as possible ministerial nominees.
Some of them were the party’s governorship candidate in the 2015 elections, Okey Ezea; the spokesman for the All Progressives Congress in the South-East, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, and the APC national Vice-Chairman, South-East, Chief Emma Eneukwu.
A former Minister of Power, Professor Barth Nnaji, was equally seen as a possible ministerial nominee from the state.
But the “unknown” Onyeama was eventually nominated.
It was learnt that the development informed the absence of prominent members of the party at a stakeholders meeting held at the APC secretariat in Enugu on Sunday.
Our correspondent, who visited the secretariat during the meeting, observed that those that attended were mostly state, local government and ward executives.
According to the source, they had expected that a politician, who would be appointed from Enugu, would help build the capacity of the party in the state ahead of future elections.
“To be honest with you, most of us are demoralised; we have nothing against the nominee but truth be told, we hardly know him.”
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