A report by Daily Independent indicates that barring last minute changes, any of the trio of Col. Hameed Ali, Adamu Adamu or Babatunde Raji Fashola, will be named as substantive Chief of Staff to the President.

Ali is the current Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service, while Adamu and Fashola are the immediate past Ministers of Education and Minister of Works, Housing and Power respectively.

According to the report, the move is part of the President’s plan to attract less controversies and rejig his cabinet for the next four years.

With the Presidential inauguration last week, all eyes are now set on who gets appointed into the President’s kitchen cabinet and the Federal Executive Council made up of Ministers and key appointees.

The office of the Chief of Staff and key Ministerial appointments is said to have become subject of intense lobbying, intrigues and horse trading among friends and family members of Buhari, it was learnt.

This, according to the newspaper findings, became apparent after the President made plain that he intends to effect sweeping changes in the next four years.

Even more, there are those who say that Buhari might not have been impressive about the cabinet composition which appeared lopsided with the bulk of his key men coming from his geographical zone and religion.

According to Presidency sources, Mr President came to the realisation that unless a clean sweep is made of his kitchen cabinet made up principally of his close relatives no federal cabinet can function well.

“Unknown to many, President Buhari follows up on many of those complaints made about his principal staff like Abba Kyari (Chief of Staff). It will be by an extremely weird circumstance that he will make him back into his cabinet,” a Presidency source quoted in the report said.

Meanwhile, outgoing Ministers and State Governors elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, are said to be intensifying their battle of wits to make their way into the next cabinet of President Buhari.

Many of the Ministers are keen to return, even as some of the outgoing Governors who want to move to the federal level are also making political moves to get into the cabinet.