Senate Defends Tinubu on Cabinet Reshuffle, Ministers’ Aides and Vehicles Slashed

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 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.”

Niger Delta kicks

Tinubu’s new appointments were also met with scathing criticisms by a section of the polity with Second Republic Senator and leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, Chief Edwin Clark, accusing the President of behaving like his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, by making lopsided appointments.

The Ijaw leader on Wednesday called on Tinubu to rescind his decision in the scrapping of the Ministry of the Niger Delta Affairs in a swift response to the announcement.

On Thursday, the Ijaw leader, who spoke via telephone at the Special General Assembly of the Pan Niger Delta Forum in Port Harcourt with the theme, ‘Fostering Peace and Unity for Sustainable Development of the Niger Delta Region’, expressed sadness that despite public outcry about inequality and marginalisation in the country, Nigeria was still sharply divided along religious and ethnic lines.

He stated, “Nigeria is divided across the lines of ethnicity, along the lines of religion, hunger and everything that you can think of. Today Nigeria no longer has a middle class. The wealthy have carried away the wealth.

“They seize our oil wells. So we are nowhere. Can you imagine a man like me, two, three years ago, if I wanted anything from the oil companies, from the oil industry I have to travel to Daura (hometown of former President Mahammadu Buhari) to meet with Mr President who would then grant me?

“What type of country do we belong to, a country where we have no respect for one another? They think it is right. And this is still continuing.”

On the scrapping of the Ministry of Niger Delta, Clark added, “Today they declare us arrogant when we ask for our rights. Could you imagine that I was sleeping last night when I woke up to see that they had scrapped the Niger Delta Affairs Ministry?

“It didn’t come to me as a surprise because when they did it the first time they were hardly in office. Up till now they didn’t provide an investigation. They have provided nothing. So, scrapping it now means nothing to us.

“We (Niger Delta) must work together if we must survive in the country. Who owns this country more than yourselves, nobody. Every country has what God has given to that country to be a powerful country. We the people of the Niger Delta are Nigerians, we must fight for Nigeria.

“We should not allow anyone who cannot manage people’s diversity, who believe that once they are in power their people must take over, our people must be suppressed. Former President Muhammadu Buhari did it.

“He (Buhari) said the Fulanis are the only Nigerians. Every office was headed by a Fulani or Hausa. And today most of these things are being repeated by President Tinubu. In doing so he has followed the pattern of his predecessor in office. Where are we? We produce the oil, produce everything.”

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has said the Ministry of the Niger Delta Affairs was expanded and not scrapped as reported in some sections of the media.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, stated this at the PANDEF event.

He said, “It is very important to use this opportunity to explain that I was at the Federal Executive Council (meeting) when that decision was taken on the issue of Niger Delta Ministry.

“The Ministry was not scrapped at all. It was rather expanded to coordinate all regional development agencies. Apart from the NDDC there is nothing stopping the South-South Region from getting the South-South Development Commission.

“And I think something like that has already gotten to an advanced stage. So the Ministry for Regional Development will co-ordinate not just the NDDC it will also co-ordinate if there is any South-South Development Commission, it will coordinate that. It will coordinate North-East, it will coordinate South-East, it will coordinate all regional development under the leadership of your own son.

“Your own son is still the leader. We must understand that point, I want to use this medium to explain to you that we have nothing to lose at all. We are in fact losing nothing. Rather we may gain more if we have the South-South Regional Development Commission.”

He added, “Let me also say this to you that the Niger Delta till tomorrow is considered the most strategic region in the country and the President acknowledges that. Some of the very steps that we are taking today will benefit people of the Niger Delta more than others.

“Sometimes when you are making very bold decisions people may feel anxious. But that is the price we need to pay to get to the Promised Land.

“You recall that as of today there is more money for states and local governments and not to the federal government. It is also important to state here that my leaders don’t hold the federal government accountable alone. The time has come for every tier of government to pay its own share of the development of the Niger Delta.

“Last month the three tiers of government shared about N1.3tn. Some of our states got N50bn, N60bn. It is time for PANDEF not to look at what it can get from the Federal Government alone. But see how we can challenge our local government now that there is local government autonomy.

“Local Governments are also getting N600m, N800m. Yes local governments and I say some of these things we complain about could very well be done by local governments but because everybody is looking at the Federal Government, we have given people their honeymoon for too long. Let that honeymoon end now.”