The ministers sacked were Ruqqayyatu Rufa’i (Education) from Jigawa State; Olugbenga Ashiru from Ogun State (Foreign Affairs), Hadiza Mailafa from Kaduna State (Environment), Shamsudeen Usman from Kano State (National Planning), Ama Pepple from Rivers State (Housing and Urban Development) and Ita Bassey Okon from Akwa Ibom (Science and Technology). Three ministers of state sacked were Zainab Kuchi from Niger State (Power), Olusola Obada from Osun State (Defence) and Bukar Tijjani from Borno State (Agriculture). Executive Director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Rasfanjani told PREMIUM TIMES that the exercise had nothing to do performance, but instead attributed it to the fall out of the crisis in the PDP. According to him, the firing of the Education minister and her Housing and Urban Development counterpart may not be unconnected with the crisis in the ruling party because their governors, who nominated them for the positions, had since fallen out with President Goodluck Jonathan. While the Education minister was nominated into the federal cabinet by Mr. Lamido, Ms. Pepple was brought in by Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State. Besides, it was learnt that Mrs Kuchi was booted out of the cabinet because she was nominated by the Niger State governor while Mrs Obada suffered that fate because of her close association with Mr Oyinlola and ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo. In fact, before her appointment as defence minister, Mrs Obada was deputy to Mr Oyinlola while the latter was Osun State governor. They were sacked by the Court of Appeal which recognized the incumbent, Rauf Aregbesola as the duly elected governor. However, there are also speculations that Mr Jonathan fired Mr Ashiru as Foreign Affairs Minister because he was nominated into the cabinet by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The Youth Minister, who was nominated into the federal cabinet by the Sokoto State governor, was also sacked recently. Mr Amaechi has also tasted the negative side of the power game as his associates, Sam Sam Jaja lost his place in the PDP as Deputy National Chairman while the party structure in Rivers State was retrieved from him and given to his political rival, Nyesom Wike, who now will oversee the Education Ministry until a substantive minister is named. It is not even unlikely that the controversial junior minister may be retained as the substantive minister in the strategic ministry. In the main, although, Mr Obasanjo has been involved in the troubleshooting in the party since the crisis began and in fact heads the PDP Elders Committee, which met with the two factions in Abuja last Friday, it was gathered that Mr Jonathan had fingered him (Obasanjo) as the brain behind the crisis. premiumtimesng/news/144551-jonathan-axes-ministers-linked-pdp-dissidents.html
Posted on: Thu, 12 Sep 2013 10:04:53 +0000
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