Ahead of the February 16 polls, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mrs Khadija Bukar-Ibrahim, on Wednesday confirmed her resignation from the Federal Executive Council.
Bukar-Ibrahim was a serving member of the Federal House of Representatives when President Muhammadu Buhari nominated her for the post of a minister in 2015.
The wife of a Senator and former Governor of Yobe State, Bukar Abba-Ibrahim, resigned as a minister to contest another election to return to the House of Representatives in February.
She is contesting the Damaturu/Tarmuwa/Gujba/Gulani Federal Constituency seat.
It would be recalled that in October, 2018, the minister contested against and defeated her son in-law , Mohammed Bukar-Ibrahim, at the primaries of the All Progressives Congress to emerge as its candidate in the February 16 National Assembly poll.
While her son in-law got 15 votes, the minister scored 1,295 votes.
She informed State House correspondents, a few minutes before the start of Wednesday’s FEC meeting, that it was going to be the last she would attend.
The minister joined other cabinet members, who had also resigned for political and other reasons.
Also, it would be recalled that a former Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Jubril, left the cabinet on December 7, 2018, after he was named the 13th Emir of Nasarawa by the Nasarawa Emirate Council.
On February 24, 2017, the main environment minister, Hajiya Amina Mohammed, had resigned to join the United Nations as a Deputy Secretary-General.
Similarly, the Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi, was the Minister of Mines and Steel Development till he resigned on May 30, 2018 to contest the state’s governorship election.
On her part, Mrs Kemi Adeosun threw in the towel, following the discovery that she forged her National Youth Service Corps exemption certificate.
Another minister who resigned was that of Women Affairs and Social Development, Senator Aisha Alhassan.
She had left on the grounds of being disqualified by the National Working Committee of the APC when she sought to contest in the governorship primaries in Taraba State.
Speculation had indicated that her disqualification might not be unconnected to the minister’s known political association with the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
She had once described Abubakar as her political mentor, while still serving as Buhari’s minister.
The former minister also openly canvassed support for Abubakar’s presidential bid at some point, saying that Buhari had yet to declare any intention to seek a second term in office.
After her disqualification, Alhassan went to the APC’s secretariat in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, and took possession of all the furniture and equipment she had earlier donated to the party. Punch
