Adebayo Shittu who was the former Minister of Communications, says President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet overhaul isn’t great.
As stated by the former minister, the cabinet shake-up was more politically roused than acquiring predominant personalities as ministers into the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
“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.
“Taking everything into account, it is just a case of some Nigerians being asked to move on, some other Nigerians are being brought in, which does not guarantee that those who have been pushed aside are substandard compared to the new people being brought in.”
Tinubu appointed 48 ministers in August 2023, around 90 days 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, soaring expansion and worsening security, Tinubu, former Lagos governor, has faced so many criticisms over his ministers’ performance in the last 15 months since they were appointment.
The President capitulated to the calls for him to shake up his cabinet on Wednesday, with the termination of five ministers, the reapportionment of 10 others and seven fresh appointments.
No Time For Error
Be that as it may, Shittu, a minister during the administration of Tinubu’s predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, said the cabinet shake-up was a simple political custom to mollify disappointed citizens.
“As a rule, not every person who is appointed as a minister that fits in,” the former minister expressed.
“You’ll concur with me that because of the Nigerian factor, a ton of decisions have political undertones rather than meritocracy in figuring out who who becomes a minister.”
He mentioned that ministerial nominees must be exhaustively screened by the Red Chamber, as Nigerians don’t have the tolerance for trial and error ministers.
Shittu said, “I would rather prefer that people are taken through a screening process to know their suitability.
“For example, 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 concur that the way that the occupant of that position is a civil engineer influences decidedly on the task.
“In the event that, I, as a lawyer, who has not had any preparation or any comprehension of engineering, assuming I am to be posted to the works’ ministry, obviously, it would require a ton of investment to learn and Nigerians surely have very little time for such growing experience.”
