Ministerial List: Why Tinubu replaced Maryam Shetty with her classmate Mariya Mahmoud

The unimaginable happened on Friday, August 4, when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu removed Maryam Shetty from his second batch of the ministerial list and replaced it with the name of Mariya Mahmoud, her classmate from way back.

As reported by Daily Trust, the selection of Ms Shetty had been greeted with criticism about her personality and inability to handle a ministerial role.

Many regarded Shetty as a mere Tik Toker due to her massive followership across several social media platforms.

Upon her (Ms Shetty) arrival at the national assembly for her ministerial screening, she noticed that she had been withdrawn from the nominees' list presented to the Senate.

Her name has been replaced with that of Ms Mahmoud, her classmate in junior high school at the Kano Foundation Secondary School and later at the Bayero University, Kano.

It was further gathered that both women were classmates in the university, taking medical courses together when Shetty was a physiotherapy student and Mahmoud a medicine and surgery student.

Mahmoud was one of the commissioners close to the then-first family during the tenure of the immediate past governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje.

She is also a friend of Amina Ganduje, one of the influential daughters of the present National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC).

Amina Ganduje was also a Medical Doctor who graduated from the University of Maiduguri and worked with Mahmoud at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH).

There were insinuations that Amina had nominated two or more commissioners in her father’s cabinet, with Mahmoud being speculated as one.