President Goodluck Jonathan, in his first major cabinet shake-up since his inauguration on May 29, 2011, sacked nine ministers on Wednesday.The sacking , announced by the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, shocked the Federal Executive Council members, most of whom had arrived the Council Chambers in the Presidential Villa in high spirits exchanging banter.
Before they left, deafening silence
enveloped the Council Chambers as the President reeled out the names of
the affected ministers. Some of the sacked and retained ministers
betrayed their emotions as they shed tears.
The Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, announced the cabinet shake-up after the weekly FEC meeting in Abuja.
The sacked ministers are Prof.
Ruqayyatu Rufai (Education); Okon Ewa-Bassey (Science and Techology);
Olugbenga Ashiru (Foreign Affairs); Hadiza Mailafia (Environment);
Shamsudeen Usman, (National Planning); and Ama Pepple (Housing, Lands
and Urban Development).
The Minister of State for Defence,
Olusola Obada, and her counterparts in the Agriculture Ministry,
Alhaji Bukar Tijani and Power, Zainab Kuchi, were also affected.
The PUNCH had exclusively
reported on August 29 that Jonathan was under pressure from his close
aides to sack some ministers and appoint those believed to have
political value in their states.
The aides were said to have argued
that if the President decided to seek re-election in 2015, many
ministers lacked the required political clout to deliver their states.
A top Presidency source had said that
Jonathan was advised by the aides to constitute what they described as
“election cabinet.”
Such a cabinet, according to a source,
will comprise mostly people that would be proud to defend Jonathan
whenever he was being criticised.
But Maku explained that the dropping of the ministers had no political undertone.
Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the FEC meeting, Maku, said the cabinet shake-up was with immediate effect.
He said the President, through the
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, had
named the retained FEC members that would oversee the affected
ministries pending the appointment of substantive ministers to head
them.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is
to be overseen by the minisiter of State, Prof. Viola Owuliri; the
Education by the Minister of State, Nyesome Wike; and the Minister
of Solid Minerals, Musa Sada, Housing, Lands and Urban Development.
The Minister of Communications
Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, is to supervise the Science and
Technology Ministry; the Minister of State for Works, Ambassador
Bashir Yuguda, Ministry of Planning; Maku, Defence; and Minister of
Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Goodsday Orubebe, Environment Ministry.
When Maku announced that he would
oversee the Defence Ministry, State House correspondents shouted but he
pleaded with them to allow him to continue his briefing.
He then added that the Ministers of
Agriculture, Akinwumi Adesina and Power, Chinedu Nebo would take care of
the duties of the sacked ministers of state in their respective
ministries.
Maku said the President expressed satisfaction with the performance of the affected ministers while in office.
He stated that Jonathan assured them
that he would call on them whenever their services were needed for the
development of the country.
The Information minister said, “These
ministers have been affected in the cabinet reshuffle and the President
in Council expressed his satisfaction and happiness over their
commitment to government since they were appointed.”
“He (the President) also thanked them
for their services to their fatherland and said he would continue to
engage them in one way or the other in the implementation of the
transformation agenda and of course in the various challenges that
government faces around the country and in terms of efforts to transform
our country.”
The minister said that the President
would soon send a list of new ministers to the National Assembly to
replace those who had been dropped.
Maku who described the cabinet shake-up as a normal process,added that it was meant to inject fresh blood into the government.
Maku said, “There is no government in
the world where the leaders do not reshuffle their cabinets, there is
none. And cabinet reshuffle is part of a systematic public
administration and I believe what the President has done is simply to
address the issues of re-tooling his government to achieve service
delivery.
“It is at the discretion of the
President at all times to reshuffle his cabinet. It is his own
prerogative under the constitution and this has nothing to do absolutely
with any other factor other than having come two years into his
administration in the last lap, what I see the President doing is to
refocus his government, to inject in fresh blood to achieve greater
service delivery to the people of Nigeria. That is the only reason for
it, any other thing has nothing to do with the decision of the
President.
“The President is trying to in reject
fresh blood into the system while retaining again the loyalty of all
those who have worked.”
A source at the meeting said the President caught the ministers unawares.
He quoted Jonathan as saying, “Some of
you will not be with us at the next Federal Executive Council meeting.
It is not because you didn’t do well, but that is the ingredients of
democracy. You will hear the details from the SGF.”
He then read out the affected names and then hurriedly left the Council chambers.
One of the retained ministers,Edem
Duke of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation was
seen dabbing his eyes intermittently with his handkerchief. The former
Minister of Environment, Mailafia, also did the same before she was
driven out of the Villa.
Before Maku’s briefing, Duke’s action made journalists think that he was one of the nine that were fired.
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