Lots
of angry reactions appeared following President Goodluck Jonathan’s
decision to spare some of his most controversial ministers in a
Wednesday cabinet reshuffle that saw the removal of nine ministers.
Activists
and political leaders criticised the president’s decision to sack only
nine ministers from a cabinet that had 42 largely non-performing
ministers, many facing serious allegations of corruption.
They specifically
expressed outrage that the Ministers of Petroleum Resources, Diezani
Alison-Madueke, Finance/Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala; Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke;
Police Affairs Minister, Caleb Olubolade and others were left
untouched.
The National
Publicity Secretary of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties,
CNPP, Osita Okechukwu said although the president had the discretion to
sack any minister, he disappointed Nigerians by keeping Mrs. Diezani
Allison-Madueke and Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala, in government.
Mr. Okechukwu
said the economic policies introduced by Mrs Okonjo-Iweala, who is also
the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, were anti-people and at
variance with the social condition of the people.
He also said the
petroleum minister had shown that she did not understand that the
nation’s refineries could be rehabilitated or that new ones could be
constructed.
A group, Human
Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, applauded the sack of the
ministers, but insisted that the president “must carry out further
surgical overhaul of the Executive Council of the Federation to weed out
other lazy and incompetent persons currently constituting grave cog in
the wheel of progress of Nigeria.”
The Chairman of
the Civil Society Network Against Corruption, Olarenwaju Suraj, said
there was nothing to celebrate about the cabinet reshuffle, stressing
that the President should have sacked the non-performing ministers and
those variously linked with corruption cases. In particular, he referred
to Mr. Wike, said he had no business remaining in government because he
was behind the political crisis in Rivers State.
“Except the sack
of the Education Minister and that is because there have been crises in
the education sector, there is nothing to celebrate about this
(reshuffle),” the Chairman said.
President
Jonathan on September 11, 2013 Wednesday, fired Ruqqayyatu Rufa’i
(Education), Olugbenga Ashiru (Foreign Affairs), Hadiza Mailafa
(Environment), Shamsudeen Usman (National Planning), Ama Pepple (Housing
and Urban Development) and Ita Bassey Okon (Science and Technology),
saying he wanted to retool.
Three ministers of state- Zainab Kuchi (Power), Olusola Obada (Defence) and Bukar Tijjani (Agriculture), were also affected.
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