Photo credit: The Cable
If we are hearing the President right, he’s saying he is about to reshuffle his cabinet and he wants public opinion to shape this move. Ok, sir!
The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga made this known to journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, September 25. Going by Onanuga’s explanation, Tinubu is not only going to handle this like a teacher grading students’ classwork, but he’s also going to make sure that Nigerians see his decision to sack or keep ministers as evidence-based. To make this happen, he is asking all his ministers to show the public what they have been up to.
“Because the feeling out there is that the government is not doing enough and the government has been doing a lot. It is up to them to go out there and blow their own trumpet. They should go out there and talk about what their ministries have been doing,” Onanuga explained.
He is basically saying that the President is tired of the dragging and nicknames you’ve all been giving him on social media and now, he wants to show what his prefects have been up to so that you can all calm down.
Apparently, the President also wants to keep the ministers on their tippy toes because when journalists asked Onanuga exactly when the cabinet reshuffle would be happening, he said that he too did not know. “He has not given us any timeline as to when he’ll do it but he’ll do it. He has expressed his plan he wants to do it.”
Why is this important?
It’s important like mad. First of all, Tinubu has a record breaking 48 ministers in his Cabinet, the largest since Nigeria returned to democratic rule in 1999.
When he announced his ministers in 2023, experts warned and advised that he cut down the list mainly because maintaining that amount of ministers would dry up Nigeria’s already empty purse but the President went ahead anyway. Currently, despite the historic size of his cabinet and his constant promises, Nigerians continue to complain they’re not seeing any real change. A major result of these complaints was the nationwide ‘hunger protests’ which happened in August.
With citizens facing hikes in fuel prices, a cost of living crisis, heightened insecurity, poor electricity, unemployment, and more, this proposed cabinet shuffle needs to happen as a matter of urgency.
This is where you come in
Edakun bring your pen and jotter
Tinubu’s Special Assistant, Bayo Onanuga says that some of the ministers “have been media shy, television shy, and he [the President] wants them to overcome all of that and go out there and speak about what they have been doing.”
What this means is that all ministers are expected to flood radio stations, TV, and social media reporting themselves to the public. This also means that citizens get to have a say in who goes or stays by holding the President accountable should he end up keeping ministers who by evidence underperformed. More importantly, everyone has been given a unique opportunity to exercise their civic rights by respectfully calling out ministers on this list who are not obeying the President’s orders to show evidence of their work or have underperformed.
