With several serving ministers bent on resigning from cabinet to further their aspiration to become governors, President Goodluck Jonathan will soon carry out a cabinet reshuffle to bring on board those that will work with him till after 2015 general elections.

The President is also expected to make a formal acceptance of contesting for re-election in 2015 as pressures continue to mount on him.

One of Jonathan’s ministers, Labaran Maku, is expected to resign from cabinet by October 20. The Information Minister is expected to vie for the governorship of Nasarawa State. He hopes to replace Governor Tanko Al-Makura of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Maku made the open declaration at a special thanksgiving service in St. Patrick’s Parish, Akwanga, a Catholic Diocese of Lafia.

His resignation will take effect two days after the grand finale of the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) rally, slated for Eagles Square, Abuja.

TAN had been very supportive of the re-election of President Jonathan and had held mass rallies in six geopolitical zones of the country and it is being rounded off in Abuja in October 18.

With Maku setting the pace of resignation from the Executive Council of the Federation (EXCOF) for governorship pursuit, other ministers with similar ambition likely to resign in the coming week include Senator Bala Muhammed (Federal Capital Territory), Chief Emeka Wogu (Labour), Nyesom Wike (State, Education), Dr. Samuel Ortom (State, Trade, Industry and Investment), Senator Musiliu Obanikoro (State, Defence), and Kabir Tanimu Turaki (Special Duties).

Muhammed is haggling to take over from Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State, and Wogu hopes to succeed Governor Theodore Orji (Abia State).

Wike aspires to take over Rivers State from Governor Rotimi Amaechi; Ortom is seeking to replace Governor Gabriel Suswam (Benue State), while Obanikoro is ambitious of taking over Lagos State from Governor Babatunde Fashola of the APC.

During the church service, Maku made a donation of N7.6 million from his family and friends both within and outside cabinet for the cathedral in Lafia.

He explained that having served as a federal minister, it was time to sacrifice the comfort of a ministerial position to join his people and go into the wilderness in Nasarawa to halt the killings, miscarriage of justice and liberate the people.

According to him, “Just thank God for me, just pray for me because by next week October 20, anyone in the cabinet that wants to contest election must step down because the time has come for us to do that.

“It is time to make my interest known. By the grace of God, I will sacrifice the comfort of a minister, to go into the wilderness.

“I want to sacrifice the comfort of the high office that I am in now to join my people in the wilderness in Nasarawa State to fight for peace and justice in this state.

“There is too much blood being shed here. There is too much evil taking place here. There is too much destruction going on in Nasarawa State. The time has come for us to ask God to bring this era to an end. And it is only God that can do it, we are asking God that as we step out voluntarily which is very important to me, that as we go into the wilderness that God as He did for Moses he will lead us to cross the red sea of politics, rip water from the rock, give us manner of heaven, pull down the wall of Jericho.

“There may be giants out there, all over, but like Caleb we trust God. We are able to conquer, we are able to subdue. So all we need is prayers and thank God for what He has done for me, not for what we are looking at, being governor will not really add anything to my name. I think I have made all the name I could make in Nigeria. But this sacrifice is for my people, to liberate my people.”

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