In a surprise move, the Presidency has announced that President Muhammadu Buhari will undertake the much anticipated reshuffle of his cabinet, dropping what he described as “deadwood” and “rectangular pegs” in round holes”. CNN, quoting reliable sources, said the changes had become necessary in light of the unforced errors that have become the hallmark of the administration.
Nigerians have long expected that President Buhari will rejig his cabinet to bring life to a cabinet that has been lacklustre at best. It will be recalled that it took President Buhari six months after he was sworn in on May 29, 2015, to announce his cabinet. The view then was that Mr. Buhari was planning to search far and wide for fresh faces to implement his change agenda. To the chagrin of millions of Nigeria, when he announced his cabinet, it was made up of the usual suspects.
Since the cabinet was formed, pundits have been critical of the calibre of ministers and have called on the president to dissolve it and bring in fresh hands and ideas. The recent move is coming as a surprise to many considering that elections are less than a year away. The political fallout of the recent move by Mr. Buhari will reverberate across the country in the days ahead.
With the latest development, ministers have become jittery, not knowing who will be affected by the cabinet shakeup. Some are even said to be making moves to lobby those very close to President Buhari, including the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, and the power behind the president, his nephew, the mercurial Mamman Daura.
When contacted, spokesperson of Mr. Buhari, Elder Femi Adesina, said “As a listening president, PMB decided to do the needful. You know Nigerians have been clamouring for this. As a listening father, PMB has seen the wisdom in changing a cabinet that has not lived up to expectation.”
Asked why it took the president so long to act, Elder Adesina said, “The president is one who takes his time before he takes decision. Remember it took him six months to put this cabinet together. If you buy a car and you are not getting value for money, you won’t discard the car just like that. You have to enjoy it a bit. Look, I know the president more than most Nigerians. He takes his time before he reacts, even when it appears things are going dangerously wrong. Sometimes, two or three people will be talking to him at the same time and he will be nodding and you think he is not listening. But if you ask him the following week, he will tell you verbatim what was said at that meeting. That is the superhuman skill that the president possesses.”
President Buhari will make the blockbuster announcement in a nationwide broadcast later today, April 1, at 7:00am Nigerian time.
“Since he has not spoken to Nigerians in a long while, he is using this historic April 1 broadcast as an opportunity to connect with Nigerians to show that he is a caring president,” Elder Adesina said.
According to Adesina, “In President Buhari, Nigeria has a messiah. Without him, I don’t know where the country will be today. The president will address sundry issues, including the treasonable outburst of Rtd Gen. TY Danjuma and the comments by the wailing PDP stalwarts that there are ‘PDP lotters’ in APC and that they may have financed the president’s election in 2015. They simply can’t get over their thrashing at the polls three years ago. They don’t miss an opportunity to drag the president to their level. The Buhari I know is beyond reproach. He won’t come near any corrupt politician much less take money from corrupt people to finance his elections. I am happy that the Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, has put a lie to their campaign of calumny and published the names of the real, not imaginary, corrupt politicians. Did you see anyone on the list who is a friend of Mr. President? If not that today is April Fools’ Day, I would have said that these ‘raving mad animals’, apologies to Brother Tolu Ogunlesi, should pack their toothpaste and brushes like Senator Dino Melaye because Mr. President has awarded the contract for their prison uniform.”
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