Ahead of his planned dissolution of his entire cabinet next month, President Muhammadu Buhari has asked for a comprehensive “status reports on policies, programmes and projects” from ministers on their ministries, departments and agencies.
Buhari gave the order Wednesday as the countdown begins for the end of his first term on May 28, 2019. The following day, the president will be sworn in to begin a new tenure of four years.
According to a statement by Garba Shehu, the ministers have up till April 24, to submit their reports to the Presidential Audit Committee in the office of the Vice President.
A circular to this effect issued by Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, also requested members of the Federal Executive Council to “ensure that all outstanding memoranda they intend to present to the Federal Executive Council are submitted to the Cabinet Affairs Office, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, not later than Tuesday, 30th April, 2019.”
The circular also informed the cabinet members that the “9th and 10th meetings of the Council have been rescheduled for Thursday, 25th April and Thursday, 2nd May, 2019 respectively” in view of the Easter break and May Day celebrations.
Less than two months to the start of his second term, the pressure is mounting on President Buhari as he weighs his options for a new cabinet that would help him take Nigeria to the next level, particularly in the areas of security, fight against corruption and revival of the economy. The President wants to start his second term on a clean slate, and he is contemplating sacking all but two of the incumbent ministers. Huhuonline.com has learnt from sources inside Aso Villa that only the junior oil minister, Ibe Kachikwu and Babatunde Fashola, who heads the new power, works and housing ministry will survive the axe.
Although the president has told his close aides that he is looking forward to injecting fresh blood and appointing more technocrats; that has not stopped many incumbent ministers from lobbying to return to office. Huhuonline.com gathered that most of the Ministers have abandoned their offices and their official duties and are now running around close associates of the president to help keep them in Buhari’s good books, for them to keep their jobs.
Aso Villa sources also told newsmen that the lobbying has become so intense that Buhari and his close aides have begun to worry that critical issues of governance are being sacrificed on the altar of the personal ambition of cabinet ministers and the president is already compiling a list of such ministers, vowing to ensure that they do not make the next cabinet.
Unlike in 2015 when it took Buhari almost six months to appoint his cabinet, the president is said to be determined to hit the ground running this time around. Buhari plans to send his list of ministers to the Senate immediately after the national assembly convenes and elects its principal officers on June 9. 2019, sources told Huhuonline.com. The president might be contemplating a clean sweep of his cabinet but some Ministers are even using their wives to lobby the first lady on their behalf. There are concerns that given the pedigree and political connections of some of the outgoing ministers, the president might not be able to withstand the pressure and might eventually return many of them.
“Choosing a cabinet in Nigeria is a complicated balancing act. One must juggle the need for skilled leaders with the requirement to repay political allies, while navigating the shifting alliances of internal party politics and eliminating accumulated deadwood. Then there’s the need to carefully maintain an ethnic and religious balance, and to make sure each of the country’s 36 states is somehow represented,” one presidential source said.
