There are strong indications that President Bola Tinubu has finalized the list of individuals and their roles for his reshuffled cabinet.
Several sources within the Presidency, who spoke to Saturday PUNCH in confidence, revealed that Tinubu had completed the list of ministers to be dismissed and retained, with plans to release it on Thursday night, a day after arriving in the UK for his two-week annual leave.
Amid worsening economic conditions and nationwide protests in August, President Tinubu has been under growing pressure from both inside and outside the All Progressives Congress to remove non-performing ministers.
Despite occasional warnings from the president about underperformance, his cabinet has largely remained the same, except for the suspension of Dr. Betta Edu, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, in January 2024.
During a three-day retreat for cabinet members and presidential aides last November, Tinubu revealed that a Central Delivery Coordination Unit, led by his Special Adviser on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala-Usman, would evaluate the performance of ministers and senior government officials.
Tinubu noted that these regular performance evaluations would decide who would stay or be removed from the cabinet.
“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.
A year after Tinubu’s cabinet was inaugurated in August, Sunday PUNCH reported that a reshuffle was approaching. However, officials who spoke with our correspondent couldn’t specify the timing.
It was also learned that the changes would go beyond mere portfolio exchanges. Some ministries, including the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, would be dissolved, while others would be reorganized and combined.
Officials, who spoke on Friday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk about the matter, said Tinubu was expected to release the list on Thursday but decided to “sleep on it” for a little while.
“We are just waiting for the go ahead. All I know is that we are waiting for him to send the new names of those he wants to drop and those he wants to appoint.
“We have been expecting them since yesterday (Thursday). I am not sure of any specifics regarding names for now.
“The last I know, he (the President) said he wants to sleep over the list again before he releases it. Maybe he still wants to change his mind about some names,” a source said.
Another source, who asked not to be named, said, “I’m surprised the list did not come out yesterday (Thursday). That thing is almost finalised already.”
The PUNCH
