President Bola Tinubu’s decision to remove some ministers from his cabinet was largely driven by feedback from Nigerians, according to Bayo Onanuga, his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy. Onanuga explained that the ministers were dismissed based on Nigerians’ assessment and hard data collected by the government.
The ministers affected by this decision include Barrister Uju-Ken Ohanenye, former Minister of Women Affairs; Lola Ade-John, who headed the Ministry of Tourism; Prof. Tahir Mamman (SAN), the Minister of Education; Abdullahi Muhammad Gwarzo, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development; and Dr. Jamila Bio Ibrahim, previously the Minister of Youth Development. The president’s move to relieve them of their duties follows weeks of speculation about an impending shake-up, which intensified after his return from France where he had been on a vacation.
In an interview on ARISE TV, Onanuga emphasized that Tinubu’s action was not arbitrary, but instead a direct response to how the Nigerian public perceived these ministers’ performance. Onanuga revealed that Hadiza Bala Usman, the Special Adviser to the President on Policy and Coordination, played a significant role in organizing a performance review, gathering public opinions, and assessing the ministers’ effectiveness in their respective roles.
Onanuga stated, “When the ministers were sworn in, the President actually told them that as the president, he has the power to hire and fire, and that he would not hesitate to remove ministers who could not perform.
“There was a retreat in October last year where he also repeated the same warning about his plan to always try to rejig his cabinet in case some are not performing well.
“It was not just something that was done whimsically, I think Hadiza Bala Usman, Special Adviser on Policy and Coordination in fact brought technology into it by asking Nigerians to score the minister. So, whoever was removed was based on some empirical facts and their public perception. Nigerians actually did the scorecard and the President acted on the results.”
Onanuga added that the dismissals did not necessarily mean that the ministers were not meeting Tinubu’s expectations.
“But the expectation of the public. Some weeks ago at the cabinet meeting, the President actually challenged the ministers to go out and tell Nigerians what they have been doing for the past one year or so.
“According to the president, the perception outside there by the people is that the people feel that the government is not performing, and the government believes that the government is performing, but the ministers were not going out to really project government the appropriate way”, he submitted.
