Government
Worsening Hardship: Fresh Pressure Mounts on Tinubu’s Ministers Over Planned Cabinet Rejig
There is apparent fear within the cabinet of President Bola Tinubu over plans by the president to relieve some of the ministers of their duties.
Sources in the presidency said the looming rejig of the cabinet is due to widespread complaints of hunger by many Nigerians.
Top among the ministries that will be mainly affected in the cabinet reshuffle is the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.
Sources close revealed that the presidency might completely scrap the ministry.
The move, according to the impeccable insiders, is also to streamline government operations and eliminate underperforming ministries.
It was further learned that the cabinet reshuffle would go beyond portfolio swaps. Instead, some portfolios and ministries would be split, merged, or scrapped.
Those in the know opined that the planned reshuffling and scrapping is overdue and that the President would have announced the changes in the cabinet last week but for his trip out of the country.
They said Tinubu would also restructure some of the ministries for effectiveness and output owing to the alleged protest against bad governance and poverty in the country.
Other sources said President Tinubu aims to finalize changes before departing for the United Nations General Assembly.
They said that the development has ignited fear among the ministers as some who don’t have much closeness with the presidency are said to be loitering around Aso Rock to lobby their stay in their respective positions.
Upon his assumption of office, President Tinubu appointed 48 federal ministers and bagged a record as the President with the highest cabinet size since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999.
Some analysts in the country had argued that the large cabinet size would drain the country’s already depleted purse.
In January, this year, one of the nine female ministers, Betta Edu, was suspended by Tinubu over N585million scandal.
While in suspension, Edu incurred the anger of Nigerians in July 2024, after she made a comeback with a condolence message to victims of the collapsed school building in Jos in her official capacity as the humanitarian affairs minister by using the official letterhead of the ministry.
Investors King reports that since then, nothing has been heard about her alleged fraud even as the presidency remains mute.