President Muhammadu Buhari may return to their former positions the ministers who resigned their appointments from his cabinet to run for tickets of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for elective positions in the 2023 general elections.

Prominent among the ex-Ministers are Chief Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, former Transportation Minister, Dr. Christopher Ogbonnaya Onu, former Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation and Senator Godswill Akpabio, ex Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, all of who resigned to seek election as presidential flagbearer of the APC.

Some other ministers, who initially resigned, including Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Malam Abubakar Malami and Minister for Women Affairs and Social Development, Pauline Tallen had quickly beaten a retreat and withdrawn their resignations.

Buhari had ordered the Ministers to resign their appointments if they wanted to run for tickets in the primaries of the APC.

A source close to the presidency said that the recall of the ex-Ministers is a high probability, noting that it was one of the reasons why the positions had not been filled since the ministers exited the Cabinet.

Amaechi came a distant second to the winner of the APC presidential primary, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, while Onu performed poorly. Akpabio, on his part, was one of the aspirants who withdrew at the last minute for Tinubu.

Our source said that the President would feel more comfortable to have the ex-ministers back at their desks than begin in these last months of his administration to look for new hands that he would have to put through security checks and Senate screening.

Also, the senior public officer said, the ex-ministers would just continue from where they stopped before their resignation, which would mean less disruption of the system, stressing that not much is expected to be done between now and the commencement of full political campaigns for the 2023 elections.

He also said that the offer of return to their cabinet positions would, in some way, also blunt the sharp pains of rejection by the delegates during the primaries as well as the loss of the N100 million paid for the presidential Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms of the party.

Insisting that the reabsorption of the ex-ministers may be a win-win solution for the Presidency and the party, our source noted that such a move would also serve to motivate the ex-ministers to fully support the party’s candidates, at the states and federal levels, instead of working underground against them out of the bitterness of rejection at the primaries.