PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan, on Wednesday, axed nine ministers in his cabinet.The affected ministers were Ruqa’yyatu Rufa’i (Education); Ita Okon Ewa (Science and Technology); Olugbenga Ashiru (Foreign Affairs); Hadiza Mailafia (Environment); Olushola Obada (State, Defence); Shamsudeen Usman (National Planning); Bukar Tijani (State, Agriculture); Amal Pepple (Housing and Urban Development) and Zainab Kuchi (State, Power).
Reasons for their sack were not immediately known, but it will be recalled that the president, last year, signed a performance bond with ministers, which stipulated assessment yardstick in rating the performance of his administration.
Moments after the news broke, Nigerian Tribune visited the ministries affected to assess how the news was received by aides of the axed ministers and civil servants in the ministries.
The staff, as observed, received the news with mixed feelings, while the aides were unaware that their bosses would be sacked, as they carried on with the business of the day.
The workers, citing relevant service rules, declined to make official comments, but were seen jubilating, with others in apparent shock.
At the Ministry of Education, some members of staff were overheard attributing the sack of the minister to either the lingering strike by university lecturers or a move by the president to upgrade the status of minister of state, Mr Nyesom Wike, who had shown loyalty to the president.
Also at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, everywhere was calm, as civil servants, in their offices, discussed the development in groups.
Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, is now to oversee the Ministry of Defence, while still functioning in Information ministry.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Pius Anyim, made the announcement during the briefing of the State House correspondents.
Under the current structure, Minister of State, Foreign Affairs I, Professor Viola Onwuliri, is to oversee the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Minister of State, Education Nyesom Wike, is to oversee Ministry of Education, while the Minister of Solid Minerals, Musa Sada, is to oversee the Ministry of Housing, Lands and Urban Development.
Minister of Communications Technology is to oversee the Ministry of Science and Technology, while the Minister of State for Works, Ambassador Bashir Yuguda, is to oversee the Ministry of Planning.
Minister of Agriculture, Akinwumi Adesina and his colleague in Power, Chinedu Nebo, were directed to take full charge of their ministries, pending the appointment of new ministers of state.
According to the SGF, those ministers would oversee the ministries pending the time the National Assembly would approve list of new ministers.
I’ll return to class —Rufa’i
Former Minister of Education, Professor Rufa’i, has said she will return to Bayero University, Kano as professor of Curriculum Studies.
She has accordingly handed over to the Minister of State for Education, Wike, to run the ministry as substantive minister.
The brief handover ceremony was done in a sullen atmosphere, with some of the directors and members of staff of the ministry weeping for the “painful exit.”
The permanent secretary, Dr MacJohn Nwaobiala, described the sack of Professor Rufa’i as coming like a “thunderbolt.”
Giving her speech, Professor Rufa’i thanked President Jonathan for giving her the opportunity to serve the country and contributed her quota to the development of the education sector.
She said she had no regret working with President Jonathan, adding that she had expected that what happened would come one day.
She tasked her successor to work towards achieving the set goals of the ministry, while stressing the need to emphasise on opening of access to education at all levels while ensuring the quality of the system.
Wike said the sack of Professor Rufa’i was never anticipated, describing the incident as “painful.”
Wike said he had an excellent working relationship with the outgoing minister, while he told her that she would continue to be member of the ministry’s family and useful resource to the education sector.
...Why they were sacked
Taiwo Adisa and Olawale Rasheed - Abuja
INVESTIGATIONS by the Nigerian Tribune confirmed that many of the ministers were sacked for three main reasons, to wit, accountability, ambition and lack of performance.
Government sources, however, dispelled widespread links of the action to the ongoing political crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The president, it was gathered, even fired ministers who had direct links with his loyalists, including the Minister of Science and Technology, a nominee of Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State.
Sources also said Dr Shamsudeen Usman, the sacked Minister of National Planning, was not in the camp of Governor Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso of Kano State, one of the G7 governors in the New PDP.
Besides, the Minister of State 2 for Foreign Affairs, who remained a member the cabinet, was a nominee of Jigawa State governor.
Investigations revealed that the sacked Minister of Science and Technology had gubernatorial ambition in Akwa Ibom State and had been spending time to realise his ambition.
Sources also said besides the three broad reasons for the sack of the ministers, a number of them had petitions against them, as they were being investigated by the State Security Services (SSS).
Also, a number of issues on corruption and accountability matters about the affected ministers were said to have been referred to the SSS and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
One of the sacked ministers was said to have been sacked due to allegation of contract inflation.
“There are several reports on all serving ministers, some indicting, some commending. So, for this set of ministers, thère are reports on them. Maybe the timing is the issue,” a top administration source said.
“A number of the ministers were found wanting in their area of lack of responsiveness to Nigerians. The president received a number of petitions to that effect and many of them were proved to be true,” another source said.
It was also gathered that “there is a pressing need to avert lack of performance on the part of the dropped ministers, because it has been found that some of those dropped were found to be moving contrary to what the president approved.”
The source said the performance bond signed between the president and the ministers was also a yardstick to determine those to be kicked out.
Sources confirmed that two years after their swearing-in, the president believed that the time had come to review their performance and that the indicators were negative in some of the cases.
Professor Ewa, it was learnt, was reportedly removed from office due to alleged non-performance, which led to the rubbishing of the administration during a recent public hearing at the National Assembly.
Obada was reportedly dropped because of the desire of the administration to shake up the nation’s internal and external security.
Dr Usman, it was gathered, had been a member of the cabinet in 2007, during the administration of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and was reportedly removed to inject new blood into the ministry.
Professor Rufa’i was reported to have been removed as a result of her failure to resolve the ongoing strike embarked upon by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and alleged questions about beneficiaries of some education projects.
Unconfirmed reports had it that the handling of power reform programmes may have accounted for the removal of Mrs Zainab Kuchi as Minister of State for Power.
Some board members may also go
Meanwhile, Nigerian Tribune has gathered that the shake up in the cabinet was only the first phase, as there is an ongoing move to review the list of board appointments recently released by the Federal Government.
According to the source, some members of boards may soon be axed for non-performance, ambition, as well as accountability.
TRIBUNE
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