The Scramble for Tinubu’s Chief of Staff 

POLITICAL NOTES

Before the news gained any significant traction that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, had been considered the Chief of Staff to the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, suspicions had been rife immediately after the elections that the placement was the speaker’s ultimate goal.

In fact, he was soon accused of jettisoning his certificate of return and whatever responsibilities left of his speakership, which is still valid, to be junketing around the world with Tinubu, a development, which had necessitated his swift rebuttal. Even then, he has yet to collect his certificate of return from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

But no sooner had THISDAY reported that Tinubu might have eventually settled for Gbajabiamila as his chief of staff than the real scramble for the job began to manifest, indicating even more clearly that it’s a position that many who share equal space or even more in Tinubu’s heart, had been penciled in for the job.

Particularly noteworthy has been the deluge of attacks being hauled at the speaker as not only unfit for the job despite his current office, but also that the narrative that he had secured the job was solely his, just to outplay and undermine the chances of other prospective candidates being presumably considered for the job.

No doubt, the office of the chief of staff to the president or governor is a personal appointment, but equally a critical one, which demands that the qualification of the individual in terms of character, integrity, competence, attitudinal disposition, temperament and human management, if not more, should be equal to that of his principal. In other words, the chief of staff is often considered the president de facto, without necessarily giving too much credit to the office. 

The question, therefore, remains: is Gbajabiamila all of these and more outside leveraging his closeness to Tinubu? Unfortunately, many people around the president-elect do not think so. And already, they have launched their disapproval of him, including one of the supposedly interested parties allegedly saying he had been prevailed upon twice to stand down for him on the race for speakership and as such, cannot have the chief of staff again. Whatever it is, the position is one to be announced soon and that phase would be settled almost instantly.