Sixteen days after the Youth Minister, Alhaji Inuwa
Abdulkadir, was relieved of his post, President Goodluck Jonathan
yesterday, carried out a major cabinet reshuffle that removed nine
ministers.
The President announced the sack of the
ministers shortly after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC)
meeting in Abuja even as he said that the names of new ministers will be
sent to the Senate for approval.
One of them, former Minister of
the Environment, Hadiza Mailafia, betrayed her emotions, when she shed
tears. To discourage insinuations, the government said the dropping of
the ministers had nothing to do with politics.
Another minister affected, Minister of Education Prof Ruqqayatu Ahmed Rufai has said she will return to her university job.
She spoke yesterday while handing over to the Minister of State for Education Nyesom Wike.
The professor said she would return to the Bayero University, Kano where she was a lecturer before her appointment.
Rufai
was a Commissioner of Education in Jigawa State under Governor Sule
Lamido for three years before she was appointed Minister of Education by
the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
The former minister, who
expressed gratitude to President Goodluck Jonathan for allowing her to
serve in his cabinet, promised to always support the President.
Prof
Rufai, who spent three years in office, introduced the Four-Year
Strategic Plan for the development of the education sector.
President Goodluck Jonathan sacked nine ministers yesterday –
in a shocking move that sparked questions on the motive of the action.
![photo](http://img.naij.com/n/10/8/sacked-ministers-620x330.jpg)
Five factors accounted for the ministers’ sack:
According
to highly-placed sources in government, some of the reasons are:
non-performance; security reports on alleged corruption; political
allegiance and doubtful loyalty to the President; poor management of
turn-key projects; and the crisis in the ruling Peoples Democratic
Party(PDP).
A source, who pleaded not to be named because of the
“sensitivity” of the matter, said: “You will recall that the President
asked the ministers to sign a performance bond. About four of the nine
ministers failed to live up to expectations in the assessment of the
Presidency.
“In fact, three of the ministers were yet to
understand their mandate after being in office for two and a half years.
One of the ministers had more than 20 agencies under him but his
performance was poor.
“We cannot also rule out alleged corruption
acts by two to three of the ministers. For instance, there is a
particular outgoing minister who forced the parastatals under the
ministry to buy a N17million Sports Utility Vehicle SUV for personal
use.
“The money-spinning parastatals were unhappy but they had to
do it. It also got to a ridiculous extent that the minister was always
asking for remittance of interest accruable from funds kept in some
banks by parastatals under the ministry.
“Another minister had
problems with award of contracts, some of which were rated as inferior.
The agencies supervised by the minister made a joint demand for change.
“Ironically,
the minister lost a plum cabinet position at a time a platform was
created in a state to fight political adversaries of Jonathan. The
minister was dazed when the President announced the sack.”
According to a source, there was also the alleged tardiness in the award of the $1.3billion (N212billion) Zungeru Hydro Project.
The
Federal Government is expected to spend about N303million in generating
one megawatt of electricity. The hydro project is said to be one of the
most expensive in the world.
“Although no corruption infraction
was found against Hajiya Zainab Kuchi, she was sacrificed for not being
vigilant,” the source claimed.
It was also learnt that the
alleged overstaying in the cabinet by the former Minister of National
Planning, Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman, may have led to his exit.
Another
source said: “I think Shamsudeen has been in the cabinet since 2007.
Though he did well in designing the Performance Benchmark for the
Federal Executive Council(FEC), the nation’s planning system has not
improved.
“An egg-head, who is a former Deputy Governor of
Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN), he may have lost his post because of
difficulty in measuring his achievements which appeared to be long term.
And you know, politicians have no patience for long term gains.”
As
at press time, political motives were being read into the sack of some
of the ministers but a source in the Presidency disputed these.
Some ministers were reportedly sent packing because of the rebellion of the G-7 governors in the PDP.
“People
alluded to this factor because some of the Ministers were nominated by
their governors. Such Ministers are Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufai(nominated by
Governor Sule Lamido); Zainab Kuchi(by Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger
State); Alhaji Bukar Tijjani(from Borno now being controlled by APC
without being unable to mobilise PDP to launch counter-attack),” said
the source, adding:
“For Shamsudeen, who was not nominated by
Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, his alleged cold war with the Kano State
Governor led to the factionalisation of PDP in his state. He became a
political risk for Jonathan to retain him in the cabinet.
“But,
contrary to political permutations, some ministers from the rebellious
states, like Adamawa , Rivers and Kwara, are in the cabinet because of
performance without anyone touching them.”
Ms Amal Pepple, who is
from Rivers State, is believed to have lost her job for being unable to
read the President’s mood on the crisis in the state.
“Concerned
about her state, Pepple recently walked up to the President, knelt down
and asked him to forgive Governor Rotimi Amaechi of whatever sin the
governor had committed,” the source said, adding:
“Although Pepple was not nominated by Amaechi, her U-Turn made the Presidency suspicious of her loyalty.
“Her
innocent intervention in Rivers crisis and fact that she was also just
waking up to make impact at the Ministry of Housing and Urban
Development cost her the job.”
Ashiru’s removal was said to have
shocked his colleagues. “In fact, one of the ministers almost shouted as
the President was reeling out the names of those to be dropped,” the
source said.
He said: “There is a strong suspicion that since the
Presidency was uncomfortable with ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, who
brought Ashiru into the cabinet, the minister’s days were numbered. In
spite of the mediatory role of Obasanjo in PDP crisis, the position of
the Presidency was that he had only attempted to clear the mess he
created. Ashiru might just be a scape-goat.
“As for the Minister of Environment, Hadiza Mailafia, the tempo of political situation in Kaduna requires a change of guard.”
President Jonathan shocked the sacked ministers as he did not betray any emotions at the FEC meeting.
A
Presidency source said: “We all went in with the usual exchange of
banters. The President and his deputy and a few others came late but we
did not suspect anything.
“After honouring a star athlete,
Blessing Okagbare, we went into the business of the day with most of the
nine ministers making contributions, oblivious that they would go.
“As
we were about to say the closing prayers, the President said: ‘I wish
to inform you that some ministers will be attending this FEC meeting for
the last time there will be some changes; some will be dropped.’
“A pin-drop silence overwhelmed the Executive Chambers as he was reading the names in a military fashion.
“After the list was read, the Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro, said the closing prayers.”
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