President Buhari under pressure to reshuffle cabinet
Following recent happenings, President Muhammadu Buhari, is poised
to effect some changes in the federal cabinet in the next couple of
weeks.
The president is said to be under intense pressure from
some ‘powerful’ forces, including his party, the All Progressives
Congress (APC), to “undertake a cleansing of the Federal Executive
Council (FEC),” it was gathered.
As part of the impending changes,
the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, and her foreign affairs
counterpart, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, may be moved to other ministries.
Also,
the tripod of the Works, Housing and Power Ministry under former Lagos
State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, may be split into three. Besides,
the Transportation Ministry under Mr. Rotimi Amaechi might also be
split into Transport and Aviation Ministries.
Senator Hadi Sirika may fully man the Aviation Ministry if it is eventually severed from transportation.
For
Fashola, whose volume of work is considered ‘unwieldy,’ he has already
engaged the man who served as his Works Commissioner in Lagos State,
Toyin Hamzat, as his Special Adviser on Works, while equally appointing
Faud Oki as Adviser on Housing and Urban Development. Oki served
Fashola’s government in Lagos.
Specifically, a source privy to the
move hinted that the Finance Minister is seen as being ‘overwhelmed’ by
her position and may give way for someone from the South-East
considered more ‘grounded’ in economic and fiscal matters.
But it
could not be confirmed if the plan to move the Finance Minister to
another ministry has anything to do with the cold war between her and
the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali
(rtd).
Contrary to established practice where the CG of Customs
reported to the Finance Minister, the former military administrator of
Kaduna State reports directly to the Presidency.
The Finance
Minister has had it rough with about three ministers whose suggestions
on the possible solutions to stem the nose-diving economy, especially
the weak naira, have been interpreted as undermining her job.
She was also said to have had an altercation with Transport Minister, Amaechi, while on a presidential delegation to China.
Adeosun,
the immediate past Finance Commissioner in Ogun State, who rode on the
back of Governor Ibikunle Amosun to get the ministerial position, is not
alone in this category.
Onyeama, who mans the Foreign Affairs Ministry, is likely to be affected in the cabinet change.
Already,
the president recently appointed a former member of the House of
Representatives, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, as his Senior Special
Assistant on Foreign Affairs.
“Truly, both finance and foreign affairs ministers are having issues. The expected changes may affect them,” a minister said.
The
education minister, Mallam Adamu Adamu, has also come under heavy
criticism that he lacks the requisite knowledge and experience to
supervise the ministry compared to a renowned educationist and former
vice chancellor, Prof. Anthony Anwuka, who is junior minister in the
ministry. Adamu is a journalist by profession.
Though
it could not be independently confirmed if some ministers will be
dropped, feelers are strong that the number of ministers of state might
be reduced in the event that the president bows to the pressure
currently on him as some of them are likely to man the split ministries
under the envisaged regime.
Senior Special Assistant to the
President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, could not be
reached for comments as he did not pick calls made to his mobile line.
He had yet to respond to a text message on the issue either.
Regardless,
a source in the forefront of the president’s election on March 28,
2015, confided that a group of northern politicians had met Buhari
before he travelled out to Saudi Arabia and Qatar on the need to ‘do an
urgent thing’ about his cabinet.
On the delegation to the
president, according to the source, were two former governors, now
senators, a serving northern governor and two traditional rulers.
The
source said: “We cannot pretend that all is well, especially when there
are brazen acts that can bring disrepute to the government of President
Muhammadu Buhari.
“From
what we have discovered, the need for the president to reorganise his
cabinet is becoming increasingly necessary by the day, particularly when
there are signs that some incompetent persons have found their ways to
the cabinet.
“This is not to disparage or denigrate persons, but
the truth need to be told this time that there are some round pegs in
square holes and the need to arrest or stem this tide is now because,
from all indications, if nothing is done now, more issues that will
ridicule the president and government are likely to emerge in the next
few months.
“For God’s sake, what is a journalist doing as
education minister and supervising a professor of education? Is that
thinkable at all? And you think people should not talk to the president?
“So, the need to urgently do something came up and a few concerned
persons had to approach the president to sound him out that something
urgent must be done as far as his cabinet is concerned, those found to
be incompetent must pave the way for those who can make things happen.
“In
fairness to the last administration, aside the plundering of the
nation’s finances, it had one of the best economic management team with
sound ministers of finance at different times.
“We are in an era
that only ideas can make things work and, from our assessment of some of
the ministers, they are just filling slots without inputs from them and
we think such era is gone.
“It is our duty to let him know and it
is his responsibility to do the needful because the whole world is
watching us as a nation as we are battling with our economy and the
security challenges.”
It was learnt that Adamu may be moved to man the Information Ministry while Lai Mohammed moves to a new ministry. (Someone said Lai Mohammed has been feeding Nigerians with lies)
The
president is said be considering taking out Culture and Tourism from
Information. Though the pressure on Buhari to effect changes in his
cabinet could not be confirmed as a pan-northern agenda, coordinator of
the Concerned Northern Professionals, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, saw nothing
wrong in the development.
He alleged that there are saboteurs around Buhari in the Presidential Villa.
“There
is nothing wrong in the need to rejig the cabinet because the bulk
stops on the president’s table. So, if there are serious needs, which I
think are many, the president should go ahead.
“For instance, the
unjustifiable negotiation between the communications minister and MTN
over the fine slammed on it by the Nigerian Communications Commission
(NCC), to my mind, was criminally done because the minister does not
have such powers to do so. It is an act of sabotage that must be
sanctioned by the president.
“There are several of such persons
around the president in the villa some of whom without official
designations but are there obstructing and sabotaging and even
undermining serving ministers.
“Such persons must be weeded out
and the earlier that is done the better for the president because
without such moves, the man will not succeed as president.
“In a
civilised nation, all those who had a hand in the budget scandal would
have resigned. But even if they do not, we are ready to encourage the
president to cleanse such bad eggs,” Mohammed said.
The ruling All
Progressives Congress (APC) is also worried about the slow pace of work
of the administration since it came into office in May last year.
A
member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party, in an
interview expressed concerns that there appears to be a lull in
governance. This is even as he confirmed that a reshuffle of FEC was
necessary for optimum performance.
“What we are seeing appears to
be a lull in governance. From the outset, it was a wrong move that the
president on his own without considering the party, picked persons to
man ministries.
“If, for instance, party leaders were consulted,
who would have agreed that works, housing and power be given to one
person? The result is that today, so many files are unattended to and
this is not good enough for our party,” he said.
He added that the
planned reorganisation of the cabinet could take any form without
necessarily increasing the number of ministries as presently composed.
“No,
it is not true. There’s nothing like that on the table to the best
knowledge of the party,” Alhaji Mai Mala Buni, APC national secretary,
said.
Imagine Cup: Microsoft begins search for best innovative students
On March 1, 20169:09 pmIn TechnologyComments
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By Emeka Aginam
Technology giant, Microsoft has begun search for the best innovative
technology students for the 2016 Imagine Cup software competition
Being the world’s premier student technology competition, the biggest
student software competition in the world has brought together 400,000
competitors representing over 183 countries since its inception in 2003.
With this, Microsoft has now opened entries for the 9th edition of the
competition which is open to students in the tertiary institutions
across the country.
Already, semi finals for the South West will be held tomorrow at the
Wennovation Hub, Samonda Ibadan, Oyo state.
Similarly, semi finals for South-East/South-South will be on 5th of
March, 2016 in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, while semi finals for North
will be held on 7th March, 2016 at the G-Learning Center Africa,
District Abuja.
The competition inspires students around the world to innovate across
all of Microsoft’s technology platforms while cultivating a spirit of
entrepreneurialism throughout the year-long competition and creates
opportunities for students to learn how to launch their business and
bring ideas to market.
Microsoft fosters a student developer community through Imagine Cup;
providing tools and resources beyond the competition that allow students
to continue growing and developing their knowledge and skill sets
Currently in its 9th edition in Nigeria, Microsoft Nigeria has sponsored
over 30 students from public and private tertiary institutions across
the federation to participate in this competition.
Read more at:
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/03/imagine-cup-microsoft-begins-search-for-best-innovative-students/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
