Overbearing Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr.Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Minister of Information, Labaran Maku are not in the best of terms following the insistence of the former on the sack of Head, Public Relations Unit of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Yushau Shuaib.
Okonjo-Iweala is believed to be after Shuaib for an article on his blog that she considers unhelpful to government interests.
“For those of us who still respect the Hon Minister of Finance and Economic Development, we strongly believe she should dissociate herself from current allegations of ‘biafranization’ of top public offices in Nigeria,” Shuaib had written in the last paragraph of his Open Letter.
“We are in democratic government where policy issues should not be done in dictatorial manner of ‘we-are-now-in-power.’ I therefore urge her to ensure that appointments into important positions should be done in credible and transparent manners that can withstand public scrutiny. I believe strongly that only those that mean well will dare to tell the truth on the general feeling in the country.”
Shuaib, a top information officer in the Federal Ministry of Information, has written more than 2,000 pro-government articles in defence of policies of President Goodluck Jonathan and Okonjo-Iweala. But the finance minister is reported to be uninterested in all that; and she went ahead to report Shuaib to the president despite the opposition from some ministers.
“In spite of the fact that she is Coordinating Minister of the Economy, she does not know due process. She has been dishing out orders to Maku to either redeploy Shuaib to trouble spots in the North or get him out of the system,” a source said.
“We do not have peace again in the Federal Ministry of Information. Maku and all the directors have been under pressure. When a senior government official approached Maku to draw his attention to how Shuaib had assisted the government, the minister simply said ‘this is an order from Oga patapata.’
“As a first step, Okonjo-Iweala bypassed Vice-president Namadi Sambo, who is supervising NEMA, to recall Shuaib to the Federal Ministry of Information last Wednesday.”
Shuaib’s last assignment was last Wednesday, when he issued a statement on the proposed establishment of National Emergency Information Centre (NEIC). The following day, he received a letter from the Federal Ministry of Information ordering his recall to the Ministry.
Yushau Shuaib, a blogger also known for his syndicated articles in over 20 years, was said to have received threats and warnings over the article before Okonjo-Iweala engineered his recall for adequate punishment.
According a reliable source, the officer would receive an official query soon after which he’d be suspended and later posted to act as Federal Information Officer in any of the troubled states in the Northern Nigeria, either Borno or Yobe.
Shuaib, a recipient of several awards in PR, was a beneficiary of the Presidential Automatic Employment Award in the Federal Civil Service 20 years ago as a recipient of State and National NYSC Honours award for his unique writings. He was Press Secretary at Federal Ministries of Finance, Health and at the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission. He was also Public Relations Officer at the Government House, Asaba, Delta State, after winning the state NYSC Honours awards. He is also author of books on Mass Media and Public Relations.
