NEW TELEGRAPH
These are not the best of times for President Bola Tinubu and his cabinet as there are overwhelming pressures from various places for the number-one citizen to rejig his team and bring on board a virile team that would tackle the various challenges confronting the nation.
There had been major concerns within and outside Nigeria over the economic woes and security challenges bedeviling the country, leading to several calls on the President to hurriedly assemble a team of experts and technocrats to deal decisively with the multifaceted challenges.
Surprisingly, the pressure on Tinubu is coming from within his cabinet, among the governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and friends and allies, who are asking the president to remove some of his ministers and sack some heads of agencies and parastatals, in order to boost his team and let go of non-performing individuals.
Highly placed sources close to the Presidency informed Saturday Telegraph that the arrow head of the agitations is none other than the Vice President (VP), Alhaji Kashim Shettima, who was said to have told the President that he needs to sack some ministers and board chairmen because they are not performing and are giving the regime a bad image.
The Vice President was said to have got the backing of some APC governors, who are serving their first term in office. These governors are said to be worried about their own situations, as some of them are jittery that they may not return, if the performance index of the Tinubu administration continues to nosedive.
One of the sources, who is a former governor, explained that the call for the sacking of ministers had been a recurring one since the regime clocked one year in office but they have been waiting endlessly to see the president take action.
However, President Tinubu is said to be foot-dragging because he is unwilling to show some of his trusted men, who had been fingered among the non-performers, the exit from the cabinet. Though the sources did not mention any minister or board chairman, they however gave a hint pointing at some individuals.
Checks by Saturday Telegraph revealed that the issue is already causing a rift between the president and his deputy. When Saturday Telegraph probed further, another source within the Presidency asked our correspondent not to further cause a rift between the duo.
He said: “Are you not aware that the matter has caused disaffection? This question you are asking may further cause a clear division among the two of them.
Another source made a veiled reference to some of the President’s men when he noted that the VP and the governors “no longer have confidence in the so-called Team Lagos”, giving an implied hint on the unnamed allies that the president is unwilling to remove.
He said: “It is a good thing that the VP has also added his own voice to the growing call now, and it seems that something is about to happen within a short period. When the governors and some of us were saying it, the President and his ‘ears,’ didn’t care, they didn’t give it a thought.
“Now that the VP is having it as a priority and talking about it, we will see whether the Leader won’t listen to his deputy. This is not the Asiwaju we used to know. As the Leader, he was a listening one, he took advice from us, but as the President, he seems to have changed”, the politician noted.
Another source, who was hitherto in the opposition, alleged that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, and the Chief of Staff to the President, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, were among those that didn’t allow the President take a decision when it mattered.
“Even Akume and Gbaja were brushing it aside, now it is very close to them. Mr. President was always relying on information from the SGF and the CoS but those two didn’t tell him what he needed to know. You know that some of these people in the cabinet are their friends and some of them even came through both of them.
“If Akume and Gbaja had been talking when we said it, there would have been changes. And by now, you would have been seeing performances. But we thank God that it is not too late, we are just in the second year. With the VP adding his voice, the issue is about reaching a crescendo.
“It has now become something that is recurring at every meeting. The VP is now the mouthpiece of everybody. Remember what I told you? That it has been happening since May 29, after one year in office. I don’t understand how Mr. President will leave people that are not making an impact in his team”, the source stated.
Indications are also rife from across the states and within APC stakeholders that some ministers are about to be shown the exit door. This is based on the information that Tinubu has recently received the ministers’ scorecard from his Special Adviser on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala-Usman.
Each minister had signed a performance contract after their inauguration in 2023, where the President threatened to sack them if they were not capable of meeting set goals. Tinubu had then set up the Result and Delivery Unit to monitor the ministers’ performance.
The unit, headed by Bala-Usman, is aimed at measuring the performance of ministers, heads of agencies and parastatals and special aides as well as other top government functionaries.
THIS STORY FIRST APPEARED IN NEW TELEGRAPH
