Ibrahim Shekarau, former governor of Kano State who recently left the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has been sworn-in by President Goodluck Jonathan as the new Minister of Education.
Shekarau was among the four nominees presented by President Goodluck Jonathan to the National Assembly for confirmation last week. Others sworn in alongside Shekarau on Wednesday were: Stephen Oru, Adedayo Adeyeye and Abdul Bulama.
Adeyeye, Oru, and Bulama were sworn in as Minister of State for Works, Minister of Niger Delta and Minister of Science and Technology respectively.
Urging the new ministers to hit the ground running, Jonathan noted that the new ministers came at an “injury time”, and thus should be dedicated to their duties to the satisfaction of Nigerians.
He congratulated them for the appointment, but noted that, it is not an enviable appointment. He likened the appointment to scenarios in a football match.
“When you get to the injury time and a player is brought in, expectation is high that the player would bring the goals,” Jonathan said.
He reminded the appointees that the government has less than a year to go, and having been brought in at such a short time they appointees “know the reason why you have been brought in.”
“You have no time to sleep, unfortunately for you because first you have to learn how to climb the ropes, because maybe it is a different setting, no matter how experienced you are if you go to something different you will need some time to adjust,” Jonathan said.
“But from your background we know that all of you are eminently qualified to be here and we know that it will not take you too many hours to settle down. We believe that you will perform not just to satisfy Mr President but to satisfy Nigerians.”
Jonathan also announced a minor cabinet reshuffle with the current Minister of Works, Bashir Yuguda, now Minister of State for Finance and substantive Minister of National Planning as he replaces Yerima Ngama, who had resigned for an international appointment.
