Presidency denies plan to sack some ministers

By Elizabeth Archibong

The Federal Government on Monday denied reports that the President, Umaru Yar’Adua, is planning to reshuffle his cabinet. Some national daily newspapers had reported that a reshuffle was on the cards, with one paper going further to say about seven cabinet members had been slated for removal in the planned changes.

But the Special Adviser to the Nigerian President on Media and Information, Segun Adeniyi, has denied the reports.

“I don’t know where the speculations about cabinet reshuffle are coming from, but let me state for avoidance of doubt that there is no plan by the president to replace ministers at this point in time...the daily speculations in some newspapers have indeed become a needless distraction as the public is being made to believe a lie,” Mr Adeniyi said.

The Yar’Adua government carried out its last cabinet reshuffle on October 29, 2008. During that reshuffle, 20 of the 42 ministers in the cabinet were dropped. Although, the rumoured shake-up was said not to be as sweeping, several ministers and their aides have been having sleepless nights in Abuja because of the widespread claims of an impending cabinet change. Indeed many ministers have started intense lobbying to keep their job, at the detriment of their job, according to the statement from Mr. Adeniyi.

The Nigerian president returned to the country last Friday from a much criticised trip to Saudi Arabia. A lot of commentators were unhappy that Mr. Yar’Adua went to the Arab country at a time the United Nations was holding its General Summit during which the Nigerian president was expected to deliver a speech and that he also attended the opening ceremony of a state of the art University while Nigerian Universities have been closed for over three months.

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Reader Comments (10)

Posted by OKPIA on Sep 29 2009

Very often the media jump the gun and make it impossible to have due process. Why speculate on cabinet reshuffle which we all know that Nigeria urgently needs? By so doing, the lobbysts take over and the President will then do nothing. We all know the kind of President we have and do not need an innocent child to tell us that the "king is naked". Yet we all want to see the back of the likes of the openly corrupt Minister of Agriculture, Sayyadi Ruma of fertilizer and farm tractors fame, and who is the President's kinsman who boasts of being more important than the Vice President; the over recycled Petroleum Minister, Dr Rilwanu Lukman; the failed Minister of Education, Ex-Governor Egwu; the questionable SAN and Ibori-nominated Justice Minister Aondoakaa; among many others. Look at our roads and power generation! Look at our sports administration!We cannot recall the President but we can at least have new Ministers who will be able to move this country forward. Ministers chosen for cognate qualification and competence and not merely because they are party members. The Okonjo-Iwalas, El-Rufais, Bode Aristos and Dora Akunyilis were appointed for their brilliant records and qualifications and not because they were party loyalists. They performed brilliantly and they made Nigeria proud. What we have now is a cabinet of party ramblers who shame us daily among their international counterparts! We need urgent redirection and change, Mr President

Posted by Beauty@nigeriawhatisnew.com on Sep 29 2009

@OKPIA, it is not OK to lay the blame on the media rather, we should be defending their rights to publish trash. The government should be feeding the public proactive information by the minute, after all they are paid to serve us. We are all in agreement with the type of cabinet we need. Shame "The Nigerian president returned to the country last Friday from a much criticised trip to Saudi Arabia. A lot of commentators were unhappy that Mr. Yar’Adua went to the Arab country at a time the United Nations was holding its General Summit during which the Nigerian president was expected to deliver a speech and that he also attended the opening ceremony of a state of the art University while Nigerian Universities have been closed for over three months."

Posted by bunmi amosu on Sep 29 2009

Cabinet reshuffle or not, it's still going to be same of the same. As long as the head is not sincere, the rest of the body will never be upright too. What we need is a change in governance across board. Chikena!!!

Posted by omooye on Sep 29 2009

The country and the king is naked there is no doubt about that, wether the cabinet is reshuffle or not the nigeria do not expect any mirecles from the rotten ministers, no light, no good roads with oil money the people are surffering , no jobs, many people are living the country to go and die in sahara deserts,seaching jobs snd for their daily bread which never came,and they died in the sahara desert, no burial ceremony for the people that died in the sahara desert some are still being lucked up in Tripoli in Lebia, nobody to recue these people in jail in Tripoli,and we claim to have a country, leaders please think twice, time is running out for you and the day of judgement is very near, says the LORD.

Posted by Egghead on Sep 29 2009

@OKPIA: Just a note to say that it is Okonjo-Iweala and Bode Augusto. For Bode, Aristos is not a positive reference. But you gave a good write-up, although I will only agree with Bunmi Amosu that what we need is a total overhaul of political leadership at all levels.

Posted by Iya "domestic" on Sep 29 2009

Now that the suggestion has been made, the President will start thinking about it, considering that it is not a bad idea. If only it will serve the purpose for which such processes were begun in the first place!

Posted by big joe on Sep 29 2009

may GOD deliver Nigeria's from the hands of our wicked lead.

Posted by ojex on Sep 29 2009

Does it really matter? This is a country with nothing to offer its citizens. This lad called president has been in office for almost 3yrs and yet nothing has been done in terms of moving the country forward. Can somebody tell me the use of coming out with a 7 pointless agenda when an average nigerian is struggling for survival either at home or abroad and yet the government has done nothing to help. There is no infrastructure in place to alleviate the plights of its people and neither do we have any impacting policies.....so what do we have?......a bunch of morons called ministers who are just there to make the existing difficult situation worse. Nobody expects a miracle...at least the foundation to a better country should start now.. No disrespect to the functioning ministers, but if the head is dead then you expect the body to be rotten. Anyways as far as I am concerned Nigeria is not fit to be called a country....rather it should be called a JUNGLE where every predator makes the life of its prey hell.

Posted by TATA on Sep 29 2009

THIS DOES NOT MAKE SENSE, YARDIE BOY IS ENTITLED TO HIS MINISTERS, HE CAN DO WHATSOEVER HE THINKS FIT.. DISCUSSING THE NAME OF BODE AUGUSTO OR ARISTOS IS MORE IMPORTANT. FOR YOU TO BE AN AUGUSTO IN NIGERIA, YOU MUST HAVE BEEN DESCENDED FROM EARLY WEALTHY BRAZILIAN SETTLERS OF LAGOS ISLAND,(NOT LAGOS STATE, OR EVEN LAGOS OF SURULERE) ASK ANYONE WHO WAS AROUND AT THAT TIME IN NIGERIA'S HISTORY, THE IMPORT OF THEIR BEING ARISTOCRATS REALLY TALLY. IT IS SAD THAT THE TERM ARISTOCRATS WITHIN THE CURRENT NIGERIAN PURVIEW IS RESTRICTED TO YOUNG GIRLS WHO KEEP RICH OLDER MALES AS CONSORTS. THUS EGGHEAD THINKS IT IS NOT A POSITIVE REFERENCE. ACTUALLY BODE AUGUSTO IS AN ARISTOCRAT AND NOT A PLEBEIAN...EVEN THOUGH I NOW REFER TO HIM AS A COMRADE.

Posted by Freemangeo on Sep 29 2009

The press catches the attention of the masses and keeps them in suspense whenever they beat or bite the gun. However, there is no smooke without fire. This is true because time will definitely tell. The president should go ahead and do the reshufflement and thereafter face the teething problem of academic environment in our tertiary institutions. I mean that he should consider the cry of the universities and follow it up by checking what they do with the allocations. There is a newly biult and commissioned unversity hall that has gotten it tiles, doors, keys, ceiling boards, etc in shambles within 9 months of commissioning. There are junk computers displayed on the desks of the lecturers which were used to win accreditation from the NUC. So let the president give them what they want and thereafter, mount some serious checks on the mangement of these universities.