There are indications that the long-awaited cabinet reshuffle may be announced any moment, as President Bolong-awaited Monday, held closed door meeting with Hadiza Bala-Usman, Special Adviser to the President closed-door and Coordination.
The Policy Coordination office was saddled with the responsibility of coming up with the criteria that would determine who to go and those who would be retained.
Recall that the President had in November, 2023, saddled the office with the responsibility of overseeing the performance appraisal of the Ministers, at the end of their retreat.
The Minister had signed a “ Performance Bond”, while the office of the Special Adviser to the President on Policy and Coordination, also developed a “ citizens’ delivery tracker”, launched by the federal government that will come up with the empirical data to evaluate the performance of the cabinet members.
The cy Coordinator’s meeting with the President on Monday is seen as pivotal to the reshuffling, although details of the meeting were not made public.
The President, aside from reshuffling his current Ministers, is also expected to appoint some other Ministers to fill the offices vacated by Simon Lalong, former Minister of Labour and Employment, who was President Tinubu’s Presidential Campaign Director General DG.
Lalong resigned to take over his seat at the Senate to represent Plateau South Senatorial District, in the National Assembly
The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management has also been without a Minister, following the scandals that rocked the Ministry, leading to the suspension of Betta Edun, the substantive Minister.
Although it is not clear if the President will still retain the Ministry, or merge the roles with those of the Ministry of Finance.
The Ministry is however seen as strategic, as it develop humanitarian policies and provide effective coordination of National humanitarian interventions; ensures strategic disaster mitigation, preparedness and response; and manages the formulation and implementation of fair-focused social inclusion and protection programs in Nigeria.
Also expected to be announced, is the Minister that will coordinate the newly created Ministry of Livestock Development.
BusinessDay gathered that aside from receiving briefings from Hadiza Bala-Usman, the President who was away from the country for two weeks as part of his annual leave, also got briefings from Zacch Adedeji, the Special Adviser on Revenue and Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Services FIRS.
It will be recalled that before he started his annual leave, the President had a meeting with the Ministers and expressed his displeasure with the performance of some of them, according to Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy. Expectedly, many of the ministers are said to be in panic mode, talking to big names within the presidency that are known to have the ears of the president.
He revealed that the President expressed his displeasure, during the meeting of the Federal Executive Council FEC, and directed the Ministers to engage more with members of the public on the achievements of his administration.
Onanuga noted that the Tinubu administration has achieved much in terms of policy initiatives, but added that the President was disappointed that much has been put into the public domain.
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