•Two-third of ministers underperforming – Opposition

Strong indications have emerged that President Bola Tinubu is planning to rejig his cabinet to ease out underperforming ministers.

Tinubu has been facing increasing pressure from within and outside his party, the All Progressives Congress, to sack ministers some of whom appeared to have been inactive.

The President had last year set up the Result and Delivery Unit, headed by the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, Mrs Hadiza Bala-Usman, to measure the performance of ministers and other top government officials serving in his administration. He warned that any minister or aide that underperformed would be sacked.

Last week, Tinubu replaced the directors-general of the National Intelligence Agency and the Department of State Services after the heads of the agencies resigned their appointments.

Sources in the Presidency told Sunday PUNCH that a cabinet reshuffle was imminent.

The officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter, revealed that some ministers would be dismissed, while others would be reassigned to other ministries for improved effectiveness.

However, the sources did not disclose the ministers likely to be affected.

“What I can tell you is some (ministers) will go. A few will swap positions, then new people will be brought on board. But the President will be focused more on capacity now; on people who can easily add value to his government”, a source stated.

Another source disclosed that Tinubu’s close associates agreed that the President required a stronger cabinet to implement his policies effectively.

The source stated, “The general concern among some of his aides, friends, and even the public is that the cabinet can be far better than this. There is a consensus among his (Tinubu) close friends that he needs a stronger cabinet to push through with his policies. It is one thing to announce policies and it is another thing for your ministers to deliver the outcomes you want. Oftentimes, it is the capacity of your cabinet members and heads of agencies that determines how you will deliver on those outcomes.

“If you look at the editorial by Financial Times earlier this week, it was not palatable at all. And what they were saying is that, yes, he has taken bold decisions, the reforms are good, but he has a weak cabinet that cannot help him to deliver on those reforms. That is why it appears like we are wobbling. So, he needs to bring in people with more energy and expertise, who are more patriotic and willing to roll up their sleeves and work for Nigeria and turn things around.

“If the past one year has not been eventful, he cannot afford to waste another year. This next one year is very critical. It is the next one year that will define the government.”

‘We expect nothing good from Tinubu, APC’

Meanwhile, opposition political parties have said they are not expecting anything good from the APC-led Federal Government.

Speaking to Sunday PUNCH, Yunusa Tanko, the campaign spokesman for a former Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, said the party was more concerned with improved electoral reforms.

He said, “We are not really interested in whether Tinubu changes or sacks his ministers. One of the major areas we thought there would be an improvement in is our demand for electoral reform. If we have an improved electoral reform, it will inevitably give us a good opportunity for credible elections to take place.

“Sacking or replacing your cabinet with new people is an extension of state capture. He will only be replacing them with his loyalists which we know will be a strategy ahead of 2027. But if he is really serious about improving the performance of his governance at the moment, he can start considering reshuffling his cabinet. Quite a number of the ministers are not measuring up to expectations.”

On his part, the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party, Ibrahim Abdullahi, attributed the ministers’ woeful performance to Tinubu’s lack of empathy for Nigerians.

Abdullahi said, “It is not about changing the cabinet. When you acquire power through fraudulent and desperate means, it would take a million efforts, programmes, and policies to correct it because something cannot stand without a foundation. So what is the foundation of his presidency? That is the crux of the matter. As PDP, we are not expecting anything good during this period of divine grace, that God will keep him in power.”

The National Secretary of the Coalition of United Political Party, Peter Ameh, cautioned Tinubu against making the same mistake as his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, by keeping his ministers for eight years.

He said CUPP was not surprised by the failure of Tinubu’s ministers, adding that a responsible government would have dismissed them long ago.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, said only less than 15 ministers had met the expectations of Nigerians with their performance.

He argued that for Tinubu to succeed, he must “weed out” ministers underperforming and merge ministries and agencies performing similar functions.

He listed some of the underperforming ministers to include: the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman; Minister of Health, Muhammad Pate; Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ekperikpe Ekpo; Minister of Transportation, Sa’idu Ahmed Alkali; and the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu.

Adeniran described some of Tinubu’s appointments as “jobs for the boys” and called on the President to urgently implement the recommendations of the Steve Orosanye report to reduce the size and cost of government.

“Most of the ministers are not performing; they are just noise makers and they seem not to understand the job they have been appointed to do. From our assessment, few of the ministers, less than 15 of them are performing.

“The President needs to weed out more than two-third of the crowd he put together as his cabinet. If he has 48 ministers, we are saying that he should weed out a minimum of 36 of them, so that we will know those that are the performing ministers.

“If he (Tinubu) continues with these people, many of them are pulling him back on what he calls his mission in office and that is why Nigeria is in problem today. Weeding them (ministers) out will stabilise his administration more and make those that will remain to be focused. When he weeds out that two-third, he should not replace them with another, he should just merge the ministries with other ones and supervise others directly”, Adeniran said.

Also speaking, the Secretary of the Joint Action Front, Abiodun Bamgboye, attributed the poor performance of the ministers to the anti-people policies of Tinubu, saying even if the President sacked and replaced them with angels, they would fail.

According to him, the President is trying to save his face by planning to sack underperforming ministers, adding that the poor performance of the ministers was a reflection of Tinubu’s leadership.

“When you look at the current economic situation of the country, it does not suggest that any minister has performed to the expectations of Nigerians, but is not the question of ministers, it is the economic policies that this regime adopted,” Bamgboye said.

An economic expert, Aliyu Ilias, argued that holding ministers accountable by reducing their numbers could serve as a check on performance and improve governance.

Ilias stated that the current administration’s decision to maintain a large number of government officials was misguided.

He said, “We have not seen them sacking or reducing ministers. Rather, we see them praising them by saying that there is a livestock ministry again. This doesn’t make sense. Let’s give the President the benefit of the doubt. Sacking underperforming ministers will help this government and this will be like a check and balance on them to perform well.”

The Katsina State command of the Nigeria Police Force has confined the arrest and detention of three individuals suspected to be gunrunners.

According to the force, the individuals were arrested while transporting a significant quantity of ammunition intended for terrorists within the region.

During a press briefing at the Katsina police headquarters on Friday, the Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Abubakar Sadiq Aliyu, disclosed that on August 29, 2024, at approximately 12:45 PM, law enforcement officials apprehended three individuals known for their involvement in gunrunning and seized a substantial amount of live ammunition.

He indicated that the suspects were captured in Dutsinma town, located in the Dutsinma Local Government Area, while they were in the process of delivering 740 rounds of live 7.62mm ammunition to alleged bandits in the Yauni forest, situated in Ummadau village, Safana Local Government Area of Katsina State.

Initial investigations suggest that the suspects had obtained the ammunition from Nasarawa State, intending to deliver it to a certain Harisu, a suspected leader of bandits who is currently evading capture.

Naija News understands that the three individuals have admitted to their roles in the operation and have implicated Harisu as the orchestrator, Aliyu further stated.

In a separate incident, three suspects confessed to the police regarding their method of transferring N6 million from a victim’s bank account by utilizing the victim’s mobile device.

The police spokesman said: “The fact of the case is that on 3rd August 2024, the command received a complaint that on the same date at about 0130 hrs, a three-man gang of suspected armed robbers criminally conspired and attacked the residence of one Ukashatu Isah, of Kofar Arewa quarters, Baure Local Government Area, Katsina State, where they robbed him of his two mobile phones at gunpoint.

“The suspects, using the stolen mobile phones, criminally transferred a total sum of N6 million naira from the victim’s bank account into three different bank accounts.

“Upon receipt of the report, detectives swung into action, and they successfully traced and arrested the trio in connection with the offence.

“During investigations, the suspects confessed to the commission of the offence and they will soon be charged to court.

“The Command is working tirelessly to apprehend more suspects and bring them to justice.

“This achievement demonstrates our commitment to combating banditry and gunrunning in Katsina State and beyond.”

•Suppliers unwilling to sell on further credit
•Credit trading not peculiar to us — Spokesman

Global suppliers of petrol are no longer enthusiastic about supplying the product on credit to the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) due to piling debts, Sunday Vanguard has learnt.

Competent industry sources told our correspondent last night that NNPCL, which solely imports the product using supply agents, is apparently weighed down by over $6 billion in debt, which the firm has not settled over time.

The setback, according to informed sources, is apparently responsible for the lingering hiccups in fuel supply in recent weeks, our correspondent gathered.

One of the sources familiar with the PMS importation into the country revealed that, at the moment, no fewer than five vessels which were primed to supply petrol to Nigeria have refused to discharge the product to NNPC due to fear that they would not be paid cash on delivery.

The insider pointed out that the mounting debt has heightened the pressure on the petroleum company, which has now resorted to rationing its stock and appealing to its long-term suppliers to not cut off supply.

A senior official at the NNPC, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the company is struggling to supply dealers due to a shortage of products at its disposal.

The official lamented: “Bulk sales of ships and trucks to depot owners have slowed down in the last five days due to shortage of supply”.

The source added that no bulk sales had taken place since Tuesday, resulting in the scarcity in the downstream sector.
Another NNPC staff told this newspaper that fuel shortage, which resulted in the long queues being experienced in the last two months, was principally caused by the reduction in supply of products by suppliers who are being owed by the Nigerian oil firm.

The top official admitted: “I was aware that at some points in mid-August, the Federal Government had to come in by giving money to NNPC to defray some of the outstanding liabilities and boost the confidence of the suppliers to continue.

“However, what was paid was about $300 million, which only helped us get some reprieve for about a week before the queues fully returned,” he said.

Credit transaction common in the oil business – NNPC

Responding, the Chief Corporate Communications Officer of NNPCL, Mr Femi Soneye, said it was a common practice in the global oil industry to trade on credit but would not say more than that.

Soneye said: “In the oil trading business, transactions are often carried out on credit; so it is normal to have outstanding balances at certain times.

“Additionally, through our subsidiary, NNPC Trading, we maintain open trade credit lines with several traders.”

But when asked to confirm the exact amount the company owes its PMS suppliers, the spokesperson declined, saying, “I will need some time to provide you with the exact amount”.

Vanguard News Nigeria

Sule Lamido, an ex-governor of Jigawa, says former President Muhammadu never wanted Bola Tinubu to be his successor. 

Lamido said Buhari wanted Ahmad Lawan, a former senate president, to succeed him.

In an interview with the Nigerian Tribune, Lamido said Buhari was “naive and absurd” in his political calculation, adding that the former president wanted a northern successor after he had spent eight years.

The former governor said Buhari did not trust his vice-president, Yemi Osinbajo, to succeed him.

“Prior to the convention, he (Tinubu) was in Abeokuta, Ogun state, where he boasted that it was his turn to rule Nigeria. And Buhari, very naive, was watching,” Lamido said.

“He never liked Tinubu. There was somebody he wanted. He didn’t even trust his own vice president, Professor (Yemi) Osinbajo; he wanted Ahmed Lawan, but his calculation was absurd. 

“You have done eight years for the north, and you wanted another northerner for another eight years! No. Maybe later, but there are some dynamics which you can’t alter, not in Nigeria of today.

“The president of Nigeria, after being in office for eight years, lacked the courage to push through his anointed choice.

“He was there at the convention, and Tinubu, that he never liked, and never believed in, emerged.

“Tinubu knows that his victory wasn’t from Buhari; therefore, he owes him nothing.

“He wasn’t the choice of Afenifere; Obasanjo never liked him, but he became president. All the other groups, including the governors, were there, but he won. He was determined to demolish all obstacles, and he crushed them.”

The former governor said it will be “very difficult” for Tinubu to be defeated in the 2027 presidential election. 

He added that Tinubu defeated all obstacles to become president in 2023, including a sitting president, who did not want him.

“We are working hard, but it is a huge task. It is going to be difficult with Tinubu, with his hold on the country, on the economy, and his audacity to say this is where I stand against Nigeria’s interest. It is something else,” he said.

“Tinubu is very daring; he is his own creation, he is a self-made man, right from Chicago, what he went through on the streets.

“Look at how he was able to fight the Alliance for Democracy and Afenifere and then Obasanjo.”