President Goodluck Jonathan shocked his cabinet members and Nigerians on Wednesday, when he sacked nine of his ministers.Though there had been insinuations since two months ago that the president had concluded plans to sack some members of his cabinet, the Presidency had often denied this. Huhuonline.com learnt that the affected ministers had no prior notice.The announcement, it was learnt, took place shortly after the regular meeting of the Federal Executive Council at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Those affected were Ministers of Environment, Hadiza Ibrahim Mailafa; National Planning, Shamsudden Usma; Education, Ruqayyatu Rufa’i; Science and Technology, Ita Okon Bassey Ewa; Housing and Urban Development, Ama Pepple; and Foreign Affairs, Olugbenga Ashiru.
Ministers of State for Agriculture, Bukar Tijani Borno; Defence, Olusola Obada; and Power, Zainab Kuchi were also affected.
The president’s retention of Minister of Petroleum, Deziani Alison-Madueke will however result in condemnation of the cabinet reshuffle in the coming days, as many Nigerians had earmarked her for the president’s hammer after several calls for her sack.
She been alleged to have been involved in several cases of corruption but the Presidency often turned a blind eye and on some occasions even defended the minister, who many now considered to be very powerful.
Sources close to the seat of power informed Huhuonline.com that prior to the meeting, many of the sacked ministers had exuded excitement, discussing cheerily as usual.
President Jonathan, who presided over the meeting, allowed them make contributions and without any inkling, announced the sack after thanking them for their contributions to the success of his government so far.
“As they returned to their offices after the meeting, most of the cabinet members wore sour looks. That was when we knew something had happened,” an aide of the sacked minister of education, told our correspondent.
“My boss tried to show that everything was alright, but from the way she was acting, ransacking everywhere and picking up personal materials and files, we got confused, yet none of us could ask. She finally broke the news to us and told us she was handing over immediately.”
Asked why the affected ministers were sacked, the aide said it had to do with perceived non-performance and politics. Some of the sacked ministers are believed to be close to some people who are bent on frustrating the president on his ambition for re-election in 2015.
“For example, Prof. Rufa’i is being accused of inability to curtail the challenges facing the education sector of the country. Remember the crisis that hit the University of Abuja and how, despite the indictments, no concrete action has been taken. Then see the ASUU strike,” the aide said.
He however added that her boss had often complained that the she had been the only saddled with the challenges facing the sector when she was suppose to have a subordinate.
Nyesom Wike, the minister of state for education had, according to Huhuonline.com findings, been more focused on the strategies to destabilise the government in Rivers State than he has been on his office. This, the source said, had been a major issue between him and Prof. Rufa’i.
“Now that my boss has been axed, let us see how he would effectively handle the crisis in education coupled with his ambition to contest the governorship of Rivers State,” he said.
It was learnt that the former minister had received a delegation from the United Nations Education and Scientific Organisation before she was fired.
Apart from Alison-Madueke and Wike, Labaran Maku, the minister of information and national orientation, Labaran Maku; and Bala Mohammed, the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) survived despite declaring interest to contest the governorship elections in their states.
Meanwhile, Maku has disclosed that President Jonathan has asked some of the ministers who survived to take over some ministries temporarily. Maku, who said the directive was given through the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim said he is now to supervise the Ministry of Defence, while Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike would now supervise the Ministry of Education.
Also, Minister of State for Niger Delta Development, Darius Ishaku is now to take charge of the Ministry of Environment, while Minister of Solid Mineral Development, Musa Sada has been asked to oversee the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development.
Minister of Communication Technology, Omobola Johnson is now to oversee the Ministry of Science and Technology, while Minister of State for Works, Bashir Yuguda has been directed to take charge of the Ministry of National Planning .
Minister of Agriculture, Akinwumi Adesina and his Power counterpart, Chinedu Nebo are to oversee their ministries alone until new ministers of state are appointed.
According to Maku, the shake-up had become important because government needed to be retooled from time to time to bring new lease of life to an administration. He said a list of possible appointees to fill the vacant spaces would be sent to the National Assembly soon. He also denied allegations that the sack was political, saying:
“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 retooling 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 fresh blood to achieve greater service delivery to the people of Nigeria.
“I believe this must have been coming over time. It cannot be something you do overnight. So I believe as he explained to us, he has studied the way his government has worked, and has set his targets for the next two years and what he is doing is to adjust his cabinet to realise the objectives of his transformation agenda.
“That is exactly the reason he has come out with for these changes at this time. Like I told you, he was full of appreciation for those who have served him in the last two years and if you know the president, he is not the kind of person that will take decision at the spur of the moment. He is a highly studied person, highly focused leader; he is a patient person, and he is someone who, when you see him take any decision, you know he has thought about it over and over again.”
While handing over to Wike, sacked Prof. Rufa’i, who was the first of the axed ministers to hand over, said she would return to Bayero University, Kano where she was a professor of Curriculum Studies before her ministerial appointment.
