Tinubu's Cabinet Shake-up: New Ministers for Power and Foreign Affairs

Tinubu Swears In Tegbe, Enikanolaiye as Cabinet Shake-Up Deepens

Tinubu has moved decisively to plug two of the most politically exposed holes in his cabinet, swearing in Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe and Ambassador Sola Enikanolaiye as the 2027 race begins to tug harder at the machinery of government. Behind the polished ceremony lies a sharper reality: a power ministry under pressure to deliver and a…

Atlantic Post

June 9, 2026

4–5 minutes

President Bola Tinubu has moved quickly to seal two of the most politically sensitive vacancies in his cabinet, swearing in Mr Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe as Minister of Power and Ambassador Sola Enikanolaiye as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs on Monday, 8 June 2026.

The ceremony at the Presidential Villa was attended by the ministers’ spouses and senior government officials, underlining the political symbolism of the moment as much as its administrative importance.

What makes the development especially significant is that the June 8 ceremony was not simply a routine swearing-in. It was the final public act in a cabinet realignment that began on 29 April 2026, when the Presidency first announced that Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu would become Minister of Foreign Affairs and that Enikanolaiye would join her as Minister of State, after Yusuf Tuggar stepped down to participate in the 2027 elections.

In parallel, the Presidency had earlier nominated Tegbe as Minister of Power after Adebayo Adelabu resigned to pursue elective office.

Tegbe arrives at the Power Ministry with a reputation built outside conventional partisan politics. The State House describes him as a fiscal, economic and institutional reform strategist with more than 35 years’ experience across the public and private sectors. He holds a First Class degree in Civil Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University, plus master’s degrees from institutions in Switzerland and Birmingham.

Before his appointment, he served as Senior Partner and Head of Advisory Services at KPMG Africa, where he worked on transformational reforms, fiscal policy restructuring and governance advisory across major institutions and companies including NCC, NBET, NERC, FIRS, Shell, Huawei, General Electric, MTN and Odu’a Group.

That profile matters. In a sector where public frustration has repeatedly centred on weak supply, policy drift and institutional bottlenecks, Tegbe’s technocratic background signals that Tinubu is again betting on a reform manager rather than a political operator.

The Presidency’s own language points in that direction, describing him as a reform expert and highlighting his current role as Director General and Global Liaison for the Nigeria-China Strategic Partnership, a post tied to economic and infrastructure coordination.

Enikanolaiye’s appointment, meanwhile, is a return to one of the country’s most tradition-bound and strategically sensitive institutions. A First Class graduate of Political Science from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and a master’s graduate in International Law and Diplomacy from the University of Lagos, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in August 1982 and rose through the ranks to become Permanent Secretary in 2016 before retiring in 2017.

His diplomatic postings included Addis Ababa, Belgrade, Ottawa, London and New Delhi, and he had recently served as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and International Relations.

The foreign affairs move also exposes an important clarification. Enikanolaiye is not the substantive Foreign Affairs Minister; Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu is.

The June 8 swearing-in therefore fills the minister of state slot, while the broader foreign affairs reset dates back to the April 29 presidential announcement. That distinction matters because it shows the administration is not merely replacing faces, but reorganising the chain of command in a sensitive diplomatic portfolio with an eye on efficiency, continuity and political control.

The resignation trail behind the reshuffle is even more revealing. On the Power side, Adelabu’s exit was tied to his ambition to contest the Oyo governorship. The Presidency had already linked his departure to the same electoral timetable that forced political appointees with 2027 ambitions to step aside.

Adelabu later pushed back against claims that he defied the President, insisting in a statement that he obtained Tinubu’s permission. His words were blunt: “Adelabu actually obtained the full approval and blessing of President Tinubu before taking the decision to resign.”

Tuggar’s departure followed the same political logic. The State House said he stepped down “to participate in the 2027 elections”, while subsequent reporting and official confirmation showed that his exit was part of a wider compliance pattern among appointees with electoral plans.

In other words, these were not abrupt sackings disguised as exits, but politically managed departures shaped by the Tinubu administration’s insistence that officeholders choose between cabinet duty and campaign ambition.

Seen in that light, the swearing-in is about more than two individual appointments. It is a window into how Tinubu is trying to keep his government moving while the 2027 race gathers pace.

The administration has replaced ministers who were pulled toward elective politics with figures whose biographies are heavy on technocratic competence and bureaucratic experience.

That suggests a deliberate attempt to insulate critical ministries from the distractions of campaign season, even as the President continues to manage the political realities of his own party and the ambitions of his allies. This is, in effect, cabinet management as electoral strategy.

For now, the message from Aso Villa is clear. The Tinubu government is not waiting for the 2027 political season to unfold on its own terms. It is shaping the cabinet around it, filling gaps quickly, and placing trusted technocrats and career diplomats in posts where performance will be judged not by rhetoric, but by results.