I'm Not A Witch, I Was Handling Sensitive Cases - Kennedy Ohanenye Speaks On Her Sack As Tinubu's Minister

Ex-Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, has stated that she still does not know why she was sacked by President Bola Tinubu but she has decided not to think about it.

She, however, submitted that she performed her duties to the best of her knowledge during her stay in office.

The former Minister added that she’s not a witch to know the reason behind her removal from office and she’s now focused on what she was doing before her ministerial appointment.

“I’m not a witch to know why I was sacked, and I have decided not to think about it.

“The important thing is that I have been sacked, and I have refocused on what I was doing before,” the former Minister said during an interview with Channels Television on Wednesday.

Speaking on her performance and behaviour in office, Kennedy-Ohanenye said she was handling sensitive cases that involved a lot of human sympathies as she had to defend vulnerable people so many times.

She also countered those who thought she didn’t carry herself as a minister or felt she could have been more diplomatic in her approach to matters.

In her words, she has no regret about how she handled matters while in office and doesn’t think it could have been done better.

“Being a minister of women affairs as at that time, I was handling sensitive cases.

“You can be in the office, and they will show you a girl who was r@ped. You will see the substance from the man in her. I wonder what you expect me to do.

“Some of them said, ‘she does not carry herself as a minister. She goes to the police station herself. Why can’t she be in her office and call the IGP?’.

“I’m sorry for some people, the way they think. As a minister, you are supposed to be a servant; you listen to the people and respond quickly before things go wrong.

“I don’t know what people think about being diplomatic when things are damaging.

“I have no regrets in the way I did my job. I don’t have regrets. I don’t think I could have done it better.

“That was the highest way I could have done it. That issue of being diplomatic is what I don’t understand,” she submitted.

Kennedy-Ohanenye was one of the Ministers sacked by President Bola Tinubu in October 2023 during a cabinet reshuffle.

She was fired alongside four other ministers at the time – Lola Ade-John (Tourism), Jamila Bio Ibrahim (Youth Development), Tahir Mamman (Education) and Abdullahi Muhammad Gwarzo (Housing and Urban Development).