Tinubu Orders Cabinet Members Who Want to Contest for Political Offices in 2027 to Resign

In a new directive, Nigeria's President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has issued a deadline of March 31, 2026, for those in his cabinet who intend to run for political office to tender their resignation.

The directive comes as the country's political scene is heating up ahead of the 2027 general election, which is barely 8 months away. The implication is that all of the President's appointees, whether in ministerial positions or principal aides, would have to step down and turn their attention to focusing on their political ambitions while the president appoints new persons to take their place.

Among cabinet members who have been reported to have been nursing political ambitions in 2027 is the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, who is expected to throw his hat in the ring to clinch the nomination of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2027 Oyo state gubernatorial elections.

Adelabu, who is a trained accountant and banker, was appointed as a deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014. In 2019, he was the APC candidate for the Oyo state governorship election, which he lost to the People's Democratic Party's Candidate Seyi Makinde.

Tinubu, who has the largest cabinet of any President since 1999, has reschuffled his cabinet twice, with the latest being the redeployment of former junior Minister of Finance Doris Ogala to the Ministry of Budget and Planning, and replacing her with Taiwo Oyedele, who previously served as the Chairman of the Presidential Tax Reform Committee.

The president's directive comes just before he jetted out to the United Kingdom in the company of the First Lady and other high-ranking state officials for Nigeria's first state visit to the UK in nearly 40 years.

The incoming resignations will further heat the 2027 elections as politicians have been making strategic moves to align their interests with the right political party.

The ranks of the ruling APC continue to swell as they have now secured 31 of the 36 governors. Recently, 12 lawmakers left the People's Democratic Party to join the APC and the African Democratic Congress, which is shaping up to be the leading opposition party after major opposition leaders, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former governor of Anambra state Peter Obi, and former governor of Rivers state Rotimi Amaechi, among others, all joined the party.