By The Federal Executive Council sat on Wednesday, 28 October 2026, with President Bola Tinubu presiding, and approved N631.3 billion for nine road projects across the country. Inside that approval sat N11.33 billion for a road project previously undertaken by the Abia State government. Three states had no minister at the table where the money was shared out. Abia, Gombe and Jigawa each stood outside the room, and the road money for one of them was approved in its absence.
Checks by SecretsReporters of the current cabinet roster, which carries 45 ministers, and of every ministerial appointment made since the resignations of early 2026 show that every other state in the federation has at least one serving minister in the Council. Abia has none. Gombe has none. Jigawa has none. The three states have stood at zero while the Council met, approved contracts and shared out federal projects through the year.
Section 147(3) of the 1999 Constitution provides that ministerial appointments must conform with section 14(3) of the Constitution, and that in giving effect to that provision the President shall appoint at least one Minister from each State, who shall be an indigene of such State. The current roster carries no indigene of Abia, no indigene of Gombe and no indigene of Jigawa, and the appointment record since the resignations carries no name sent to the Senate for any of the three states.
Abia lost its seat on 3 April 2026, when Nkeiruka Onyejeocha resigned as Minister of State for Labour and Employment. She was the state's only minister. She stepped down under the President's directive that appointees seeking elective office in 2027 leave the cabinet, and she has since taken the ticket of the All Progressives Congress for the Isuikwuato and Umunneochi Federal Constituency. No successor has been named to the Labour portfolio she vacated, and no Abia indigene has been appointed to any other portfolio in the 209 days since her resignation. The Ministry of Labour and Employment runs today under its substantive minister, Mohammed Maigari Dingyadi, an indigene of Sokoto State, with the junior seat Onyejeocha held still empty beside him.
Gombe lost its seat three days earlier, on 31 March 2026, when Sa'idu Ahmed Alkali resigned as Minister of Transportation in the same wave of departures. Alkali was Gombe's only minister. No Minister of Transportation has been appointed at all since his exit, and no Gombe indigene has entered the Council through any other door. The state has now spent 212 days without a minister, three days longer than Abia.
Jigawa has waited the longest of the three. Mohammed Badaru Abubakar resigned as Minister of Defence on 1 December 2025, on health grounds. The Defence portfolio itself was filled, by General Christopher Musa, an indigene of Kaduna State. Jigawa's own seat was never refilled behind him, and the state has stood without a minister for 332 days, through the whole of the 2026 resignation wave and every appointment that followed it.
The record of the same period shows the speed at which the Presidency moved where it chose to move. Adebayo Adelabu, an indigene of Oyo State, resigned as Minister of Power in March 2026 in the same directive wave. Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe, another Oyo indigene, was nominated in late April 2026 and confirmed by the Senate on 6 May 2026. Oyo's seat stood empty for about five weeks. Yusuf Maitama Tuggar of Bauchi State resigned as Minister of Foreign Affairs on 30 March 2026, and a State House release of 29 April 2026 elevated Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu to the substantive Foreign Affairs portfolio, while the junior Foreign Affairs seat went to Sola Enikanolaiye of Kogi State, confirmed on 6 May 2026. Bauchi in any case never lost its voice in the Council, because Mohammed Ali Pate of Bauchi remained Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare throughout.
Kebbi State carries an empty junior seat and a filled senior one. Yusuf Tanko Sununu of Kebbi resigned as Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs on 30 March 2026, and that junior portfolio stands unfilled to this day. Kebbi, however, retains Atiku Bagudu as Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, so the state never dropped out of the Council. No such second seat exists for Abia, Gombe or Jigawa to fall back on.
Three portfolios stand unfilled after the 2026 resignations. The Ministry of Transportation has no minister. The Ministry of Labour and Employment has no Minister of State. The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs has no Minister of State. Behind two of those empty chairs sit two states, Abia and Gombe, with no other minister to speak for them, and behind the Defence appointment that went to Kaduna sits the third, Jigawa, empty since December 2025.
