Jonathan sacks Education minister, 8 others

President Goodluck Jonathan has
reshuffled his cabinet, dropping nine
ministers.
The ministers affected are Ruqayat
Rufai (Education); Zainab Kunchi
(Power, [state]); Buka Tijani
(Agriculture [state]), Shamsudeen
Usman (National Planning; Ita Okon
(Science and Technology); Olugbenga
Ashiru (Foreign Affairs); Ama Pepple
(Lands) and Hadiza Mailafia
(Environment).
Nigerians had long expected President
Jonathan to rejig his lackluster cabinet
which has largely failed to deliver
services to the Nigerian people.
But while the expectation mounted, Mr.
Jonathan repeatedly dispelled
speculation that he had plans to fire
non-performing ministers.
Last August, he unveiled a rating
procedure known as Performance
Contract Agreement for ministers but
said he would not use the result of the
assessment in considering who to fire.
Mr. Jonathan said the assessment would
only appraise his administration’s
performance and delivery of targets to
Nigerians.
“I read all kinds of thing in the media,
that the president wants to assess the
ministers so that he would know who
would go and who would stay. That is
not the purpose of this.
“We would have done it probably in
the first week when we came on board,
but the key thing is that we have given
ourselves points that we think we will
get at, we believe that if we get at those
points or even if we achieve 70 per cent
of that, at least it will be better off for
our own country,” the president said.
According to the president, the exercise
was to ensure enhanced performance,
transparency and accountability in
governance, adding that it is not a
witch-hunting exercise.
“I want to assure every one of you who
has taken part in the exercise that this
is not a witch-hunt targeted at
anybody,” the president said in his
remarks after the signing ceremony.
Source: Premium Times