Posted by Amarachi on Thu 24th Oct, 2024 - tori.ng
Onanuga added that the dismissals did not necessarily mean that the ministers were not meeting Tinubu’s expectations.
Bayo Onanuga
Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, has disclosed that his principal dismissed five ministers from his cabinet based on public perception and empirical facts.
Tinubu on Wednesday discharged Barr. Uju-Ken Ohanenye, who served as the Minister of Women Affairs, Lola Ade-John, the former Minister of Tourism, Prof. Tahir Mamman SAN OON, who held the role of Minister of Education, Abdullahi Muhammad Gwarzo, who was the Minister of State, Housing and Urban Development, and Dr. Jamila Bio Ibrahim, previously the Minister of Youth Development.
In an interview on ARISE TV, Onanuga said Tinubu dismissed the ministers based on Nigerians’ scorecard.
The presidential aide further defended Tinubu’s decision to appoint seven new ministers to his cabinet, saying that the Nigerian government needs a lot of hands to tackle the problem that the country is facing.
He said, “When the ministers were sworn in, the President actually told them that as the president, he has the power to hire and fire, and that he will not hesitate to remove ministers who could not perform. There was a retreat in October last year where he also repeated the same warning about his plan to always try to rejig his cabinet in case some are not performing well.
“It was not just something that was done whimsically, I think the President- Hadiza [Bala Usman- Special Adviser to the President on Policy and Coordination] in fact brought technology into it, asking Nigerians to score the ministers. So, the reason it was done, whoever was removed out of the ministers, it was based on some empirical facts, the public perception of these ministers, they were the people who actually did the score card, and the President acted on the results.”
Onanuga added that the dismissals did not necessarily mean that the ministers were not meeting Tinubu’s expectations.
He said, “Not just the President’s expectations, it’s the expectation of the public. Some weeks ago at the cabinet meeting, the President actually told the ministers to go out there, tell Nigerians what you have been doing for the past one year or so, because according to the president, he the perception outside there by the people is that the people feel that the government is not performing, and the government believes that the government is performing, but the ministers are not going out to really project government the appropriate way.”