A former Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, says President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet overhaul is not impressive.
According to the former minister, the cabinet shake-up was more politically motivated than bringing in superior minds as ministers into the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
Shittu was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Thursday, a day after the President sacked five ministers, redeployed 10 ministers and made seven fresh nominations, awaiting Senate confirmation.
“If you look at the changes we had yesterday (Wednesday), I doubt whether it is necessarily bringing in superior minds or better minds, in terms of governance, in terms of expectations, in terms of performance,” Shittu said.
“As far as I am concerned, it is just a case of some Nigerians being asked to move on, some other Nigerians are being brought in, which does not necessarily mean that those who have been shoved aside are inferior to the new people being brought in.”
Tinubu appointed 48 ministers in August 2023, some three months after he was inaugurated as Nigeria’s president. One of the ministers, Betta Edu, was suspended in January 2024, while another, Simon Lalong, resigned and joined the Senate.
With Nigeria’s wobbling economy, skyrocketing inflation and worsening security, Tinubu, former Lagos governor, has faced intense criticisms over his ministers’ performance in the last 15 months since their appointment.
The President succumbed to the calls for him to shake up his cabinet on Wednesday, with the disengagement of five ministers, the reassignment of 10 others and seven fresh appointments.
No Time For Trial And Error
However, Shittu, a minister during the administration of Tinubu’s predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, said the cabinet shake-up was a mere political ritual to appease displeased citizens.
“More often than not, it is not everybody who is appointed as a minister that fits in,” the former minister said.
“You’ll agree with me that because of the Nigerian factor, a lot of decisions have political colourations than meritocracy in determining who becomes a minister.”
Shittu said ministerial nominees must be thoroughly screened by the Senate as Nigerians don’t have the patience for trial-and-error ministers.
He said, “I would rather prefer that people are taken through a screening process to know their suitability.
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“For instance, I make bold to say that today, we have an engineer as a minister of works. Any key watchers of events in the Ministry of Works would agree that the fact that the occupant of that position is a civil engineer impacts very positively on the assignment.
“If, for instance, I, as a lawyer, who has not had any training or any understanding of engineering, if I am to be posted to the works’ ministry, of course, it would take a lot of time to learn and Nigerians certainly don’t have too much time in such learning process.”
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