Cabinet reshuffle: Presidency defends Tinubu as FG slashes ministers’ vehicles, aides
President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday, which had Ogun State reportedly producing four ministers, the highest by a state in the cabinet, has sparked reactions across the country.
In a significant cabinet shakeup during the 19th Federal Executive Council meeting at the State House, Abuja, Tinubu approved the re-assignment of 10 ministers to new portfolios, discharged five others and nominated seven new ministerial appointees for onward transmission to the Senate for confirmation.
This came as the President renamed the Ministry of Nigeria Delta Development to the Ministry of Regional Development, scrapped the Ministry of Sports Development, and merged the Ministries of Tourism and Arts and Culture to become the Federal Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy.
The seven new ministers, pending their confirmation by the Senate, are Dr Jumoke Oduwole (Ogun State) as Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment; Dr Nentawe Yilwatda (Plateau) as Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction; Muhammadu Dingyadi (Sokoto) as Minister of Labour & Employment; Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu (Imo) as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs; Idi Maiha (Kaduna) as Minister of Livestock Development; Yusuf Ata (Kano) as Minister of State, Housing and Urban Development and Dr Suwaiba Ahmad (Kano) as Minister of State for Education.
The incoming Dr Jumoke Oduwole joins Wale Edun (Minister of Finance), Dr Adekunle Salako, the new Minister of State for Health, who was previously Minister of State, Environment and Bosun Tijani (Minister of Communications and Digital Economy) as ministers of Ogun extraction.
Senate, SANs back FG
While the appointments of the four Ogun ministers raised eyebrows in some quarters, with some of the opinion that it fell short of the Federal Character criteria for appointments, Chairman, Senate Committee on Federal Character, Allwell Onyesoh (PDP, Rivers East), acknowledged that while the Federal Character was a constitutional matter, it wasn’t the sole criterion for selecting ministers and other high-level public office holders.
He said, “Yes, Federal Character is an important issue, and I am sure the President would not want to go against the Constitution. However, what the Constitution states is that one person per state, so, once that has been met, I am not sure there should be an issue.”
Senator Onyesoh added, “The Federal Character isn’t the only requirement; we need competent people. The Constitution also empowers the President to be proactive, which means he is allowed to bring efficient people on board to do their jobs.
“Why are people so critical of this administration? It wasn’t the same for the previous administration.”
The criticisms come as Ministers vehicles reduced President Tinubu on Thursday restricted Ministers, Ministers of State, and Heads of Agencies of the Federal Government to a maximum of three vehicles in their official convoys.
“No additional vehicles will be assigned to them for movement,” the President affirmed in a statement he signed Thursday titled, ‘President Tinubu issues new directives on reduction in cost of governance.’
Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, who released the statement, said “The cost-cutting measure was announced today (Thursday) in a statement signed by the President.”
In January 2024, Tinubu issued a directive which the Presidency said was to reduce government expenditure.
The directive included reducing his entourage on foreign trips from 50 to 20 officials.
For local trips, he reduced it to 25 officials.
Similarly, he reduced the Vice President’s entourage to five officials on foreign trips and 15 for local trips.
In the directive, Tinubu also ordered all ministers, ministers of state, and heads of agencies to have at most five security personnel attached to them.
“The security team will comprise four police officers and one Department of State Services officer.
“No additional security personnel will be assigned, he ordered,” the statement read.
President Tinubu also instructed the National Security Adviser to engage with the Military, Paramilitary and Security Agencies to determine a suitable reduction in their vehicle and security personnel deployment.
The Presidency said “All affected officials are expected to comply with these new measures immediately, underscoring the urgency and seriousness of these changes.”
A former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Dr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), also said there was no law that stopped the Nigerian President from appointing more than one minister from a state.
Agbakoba said it was the President’s prerogative to appoint any number of persons from a state to serve as ministers.
Agbakoba, who spoke to one of our correspondents via the telephone on Thursday, stated that the only restriction was that the ministers must be appointed across all 36 states.
“That’s the only restriction,” he said. So, one may say why four? But nothing stops the President from appointing even 10.
“There’s no law that says he can’t appoint more than one. The only thing the law says is that he must appoint one person from each state on the principle of Federal Character, so that every state feels included. The point is, are all the 36 states not represented in the cabinet? The minimum requirement is that there has to be one minister from all 36 states.”