The recent shake up that led to the ouster of nine ministers by President Goodluck Jonathan must have taken many by surprise. Not many keen watchers of events at the Presidency had much inkling about the development.
The news which was broken at the Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday revealed the affected ministers as Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru (Foreign Affairs); Ruqqayatu Rufa'i (Education); Shamsudeen Usman (National Planning); Ama Pepple (Land and Urban Development); Hadiza Mailafia (Environment) and Ita Ewa ( Science and Technology). Others are Erelu Olusola Obada (Defence); Zainab Kuchi (Power) and Tijani Bukar (Agriculture).
Commenting on the sack of the nine ministers, the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, during a post-FEC briefing said the cabinet reshuffle is a normal process, adding that irrespective of the decision taken by the president, the sacked ministers will continue to be useful to the Jonathan-led administration and Nigeria in general.
He also expressed President Jonathan's satisfaction with the services of the affected ministers since their appointment and assured them that the president would continue to engage them in the future when needed for the development of the country.
Although the reasons why the nine ministers were sacked was not made known to the public but many believe that they were dropped from the federal cabinet because they allegedly failed to meet up with the performance contract they signed with the President on August 22, 2012.
While the ministers were signing the performance bond some people raised alarm that the process was a deliberate plan to witch-hunt some ministers, especially those who are perceived not to be in the good book of Mr. President. In a quick reaction however, President Jonathan said that the performance bond which was developed by the Ministry of National Planning, was aimed at enhancing performance, transparency and accountability in governance and not aimed at witchhunting anyone.
Since the news of the sack of the ministers was broken, people have expressed different opinions about the development. Many have seen the ministers as having performed below expectation, hence saw the sack as a good sign.
Those who are excited by the development are of the belief that there have not been any concrete achievements by the personalities. They believe that in the last two years, some of the ministers cannot point to any tangible projects or major activities carried out by them. Despite this position, there are some of the ministers who many people believe were victims of political indifferences in Nigeria polity.
Analysts have linked the sack of some of the ministers to the ongoing crisis in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP). This is particularly in relationship to factionalisation of the ruling party. In one of the factions is President Jonathan, Bamangar Tukur and about 16 PDP governors as leaders while former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Kawu Baraje and seven aggrieved PDP governors are leading the new PDP.
Looking at the storm raging against the return of President Jonathan in 2015, it is believed that the presidency may have decided to do away with some ministers who are technocrats.
Since some of them are technocrats without any electoral values in their state for President Jonathan in 2015 elections, the aim of erecting a formidable structure may be the main reason why some of them were shown the red card.
The political tussle between President Jonathan and some members of the new PDP, especially the aggrieved seven governors and loyalists of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has also been attributed to the sack of some of the nine ministers. Four of the sacked ministers: Rufa'i, Pepple, Kuchi and Usman are from Jigawa, Rivers, Niger and Kano states respectively.
The governors of the four states are members of the G-7 governors who are at loggerheads with the President. Ashiru, who was nominated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, is believed to have been allegedly sacked because presidency is uncomfortable with Obasanjo's alleged clandestine involvement in the PDP crises. Ditto for Obada, a former deputy governor of Osun State and close associate of former Osun State governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who is the National Secretary of the new PDP.
The reasons why people have ascribed the sacking of some of the ministers to political intrigues is that were the shakeup in the cabinet based on performance there are some ministers who should have also gone, but have been left to stay behind by the president.
Some of the ministers, it is said, have had a number of petitions and public outcry against them and their activities.
To have left such ministers in the cabinet, it has been argued, has shown that merit as being speculated by some people, was not the criteria for the action of the president.
The postulation in some quarters now is that rather than bring in new technocrats, the president is likely going to appoint core politicians as replacements for the sacked ministers. It is believed that those who are going to be appointed will be those that will be loyal to the President and most importantly be in a vantage position to contain the seven aggrieved governors and members of the new PDP in the build-up to the 2015 elections.
In a quick reaction to the speculation that some of the ministers' removal was political, Maku, at the post-FEC briefing, denied any political undertone in the sack of the ministers.
He said: "There is no government in the world where the leaders do not reshuffle their cabinets; there is none. The cabinet reshuffle is part of a systematic public administration and I believe what the president has done is simply to address the issues of re-tooling his government to achieve service delivery. It is at the discretion of the president at all times to reshuffle his cabinet.
"It is his own prerogative under the constitution and this has nothing to do absolutely with any other factor other than having come two years into his administration in the last lap, what I see the President doing is to refocus his government, to inject in fresh blood to achieve greater service delivery to the people of Nigeria.
That is the only reason for it, any other thing has nothing to do with the decision of the president. I believe this must have been coming over time. It cannot be something you do over night."
Speaking to Saturday Mirror, human rights activists and Founder/President of the Hope for the Niger Delta Campaign (HNDC), Comrade Sunny Ofehe, said the president has the mandate to appoints his minister and as a result also holds the constitutional rights to sack them.
Said he: "I was surprised when the news broke out that nine ministers have been sacked. It is very difficult to justify the reason or whether the sack is justified. The President has the mandate to appoint his minister and as a result also holds the constitutional right to sack them.
You can only sack someone if you think he is no longer useful to your administration. Therefore, I will assume at this moment that the president took the decision to sack the ministers because he thinks they are no longer useful or productive to his administration.
"I only hope that the sack is not connected to the current quagmire in the ruling PDP party. I only question the timing of the sack because the president would have concentrated more in resolving the current crisis that has divided his party rather than engage in the sacking of his ministers in what some are already calling a controversial decision."
Ofehe stressed further that: "The country is currently faced with difficult economic and social problems, the Nigerian people are feeling the impact. My advice is that the president must not be political or sentimental in his decisions while choosing or sacking the ministers in his cabinet. When you make such a drastic decision to sack, it must be that you find the minister incompetent to run his ministry.
"I have always said that the minister alone does not have the power and capacity to effect change in his ministry alone. The minister will need the president and career staff to believe in his approach to carrying out the president's policies within the ministry. Sacking ministers is not enough to create effect in government.
It is the performance of who takes over the position of the sacked minister that determines if the sack was justified or not. So, we cannot predict the outcome of the sack until the new ministers are sworn in and their performances are assessed after a while. "I want to believe that the president made the decision to sack the ministers in the best interest of the country.
Time alone will tell if this is the case or not." In his view, three-time governorship candidate of National Conscience Party (NCP) in Ogun State, Ogbeni Lanre Banjo, said that in Nigeria commissioners and ministers serve governors and the president at their pleasure.
"Commissioners and ministers serve governors and the president at their pleasure. The governors and the president therefore reserve the right to remove anyone serving at their pleasure at any time. As a citizen, I am very familiar with Gbenga Ashiru and I think he responds when Nigerians suffer abroad. However, he served the president and his boss has his performance records to which I am not privy.
"On the other hand, if all these ministers are fired because of the crisis in PDP, the president is further digging holes for himself. The appearance that those fired are from the states where he is not pleased with PDP leaders who either formed the new PDP or those he believed sponsored the crisis, is not politically right.
This president is not politically wise. The professionals serving from Kano State has absolutely no control over what Kwankwanso does so why deny citizens from the services of such a Nigerian because of the action of a governor," he said.
The question on the lips of many people is: What next for the nine sacked ministers? While it is believed that some of the sacked ministers who are technocrats may go back to their profession, the same cannot be said of politicians.
Some of the sacked ministers, who are politicians, may seek political office in 2015. Professor Rufa'i, while handing over to the Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, for instance said she would return to her university job at the Bayero University, Kano, where she was a lecturer before her appointment.
She said: "I want to use this medium to thank Allah for giving me the opportunity to serve in the Federal Ministry of Education for a period of well over three years. I am going to take over my office in Bayero University, Kano.
It is very important for you to know that I have been a commissioner for three years before coming here. I am just on secondment from my university and I have been here through God's grace and it is my governor, Sule Lamido who nominated me to be here. So, I thank him for that opportunity, but now that I have this scenario, I am going back to report in office as a Professor of Curriculum Studies in Bayero University."
National Mirror