Umana Umana, a leading member of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom, disassociated himself from a publication calling for President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint him a minister.
Mr Buhari, who was sworn in for a second term on Wednesday, is expected to soon appoint his new cabinet.
Politicians and their associates will lobby for appointment, putting pressure on the president.
Mr Umana, managing director of the Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority (OGFZA), said in a statement issued on Wednesday by his media assistant, Iboro Otongaran, that the group that canvassed his appointment as minister was not working on his behalf because they had no “mandate to speak for him.”
“We would also like to say it is President Muhammadu Buhari’s prerogative to appoint anyone he chooses to serve in his cabinet. No one has the right to pressure or stamp out his official responsibility on such exercise,” Mr Umana said in the statement.
“We would therefore like to advise Akwa Ibom State’s good people and members of the general public to ignore the said publication as a whole.”
Mr Umana, a former secretary to the government of the Akwa Ibom State, was the candidate for governorship in the state for the 2015 APC.
