In no distant time, President Bola Tinubu will rejig his
cabinet, the Presidency on Wednesday confirmed.
The Presidency also said that the cabinet reshuffle will be
based on empirical evidence from performance reports the President has received
in the past months.
The hint was dropped by the Special Adviser to the President
on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, and the Senior Special Assistant to
the President on Digital/New Media, Mr. O’Tega Ogra, during a joint briefing at
the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Onanuga said although there is no timeline for the impending
reshuffle, the president has “expressed his desire” to do it.
According to him, “Let me tell you, I don’t have any
timeline. The President has expressed his desire to reshuffle his cabinet, and
he will do it.
“I don’t know whether he’s going to do it before October 1,
but he will surely do it. So that’s what I will say. He has not given us any timeline
when he wants to do it, but he will do it. He has expressed his plan that he
wants to do it.”
Also speaking, Ogra said the decision would not be arbitrary
but would be based on performance reports presented by the Special Adviser to
the President on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala-Usman. Bala-Usman who also
heads the Central Delivery Coordination Unit.
“The President’s decision to reshuffle his cabinet is also
based on empirical evidence. You know, he had said when he was speaking at the
retreat for the ministers that they were going to have periodic reviews and the
decisions that are extracted from these reviews will be used to make that final
decision.
“I know he has gotten a couple of reports, and as Mr.
Onanuga said, when he is ready to do that, he will.”
Recall that the Tinubu government has been facing increasing
pressure from within and outside his party, the All Progressives Congress, to
sack underperforming ministers in his cabinet.
It was gathered that the President may scrap the Ministry of
Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation as part of the cabinet rejig.
Sources at the presidency further hinted that the exercise
would also see some portfolios split and others merged into a single entity,
while some ministers would be relieved of their duties.
Although the President warned against underperformance about
10 months ago, the cabinet remained largely intact, save for the suspension of
Dr. Betta Edu, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.
Last November, after a three-day retreat for cabinet members
and presidential aides, Tinubu announced that a Central Delivery Coordination
Unit headed by Mrs. Hadiza Bala-Usman, would measure the performance of
ministers and other top government officials.
Their performance would determine who would leave or remain,
Tinubu stated.
“If you are performing, nothing to fear. If you miss the
objective, we’ll review it. If no performance, you leave us. No one is an
island and the buck stops on my desk,” the President told participants.
The action will be a departure from the President Muhammadu
Buhari‘s administration, which had most of his appointees intact for eight
years except some isolated cases.
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