A public affairs analyst, Olufemi Adegbulugbe has faulted the retention of the Ministers of Defence and Power in the cabinet of President Bola Tinubu.
In a statement circulated to Media houses, Adegbulugbe said, there was no basis for retaining them, considering the rising insecurity and epileptic power supply in the country.
It is difficult to justify the pass mark that this performance review and cabinet rejig has given to the Minister of Defence, and the Minister of Power. With rising insecurity and cyclic repeating power grid collapse, there is serious need to excuse the Ministers of Defence and Power from office, to provide room for more competent persons”, he stated.
He added that there was also need to beam the search light on more minsters such as the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Isiaka Oyetola, who according to him, has largely been either inactive, ineffective, or incompetent.
“There must be no sacred cows if we want to have a fair, transparent assessment of performance of public office holders”, he said.
While appreciating the efforts of Pres. Tinubu towards improving the performance of his Cabinet members, Adegbulugbe opined that Nigeria has no need for a Ministry of Regional development to coordinate or oversee the activities of regional development commissions.
He suggested that the President should consider the termination of Ministry of Women Affairs.
“The activities of Min. Of Women affairs is covered under the Min of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty alleviation as well as the Social Investment program agency. That ministry is an engine and driver of corruption”, he stated.
The analyst observed with dismay that the recent restructure and reshuffle of the federal cabinet by the President reduced the total number of ministries by 1 but inflated the total number of ministers by 2.
“The constitutional requirement is to have 36 Ministers plus 1 (FCT). Going by the Dec 2023 statistics, Nigeria had 49 Ministers. 13 Ministries were assigned 2 Ministers (Minister and Minister of State. The Petroleum Ministry had 3 Ministers (1x Minister and 2x Minister of State).
“In light of the current harsh economic climate, it is important for Government to adopt a lean and agile cabinet portfolio structure. This will provide the intrinsic benefits of cost reduction and improved efficiency.
“There is absolutely no justification for Nigeria to exceed the constitutional requirement of 36+1 Ministers.
It is not good governance to create ministerial positions to satisfy the need for political entitlement and political reward. There is also no justification to have more than 25 Ministries.
“The above recommendations has the potential to provide over N1trillion in cost savings over a few years, reduce budget deficits and promote efficiency in governance”, he explained.
Furthermore, Adegbulugbe proposed the collapse and merger of more ministries.
“The Ministry of Special duties should be collapsed and transferred to the Office of Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Ministry of Steel Development should be merged with the Ministry of Solid Mineral Development. (Steel is considered a solid mineral). Ministry of Youth should be merged with Ministry of Labor and Employment. Ministry of Regional Development should be scrapped. Ministry of Women Affairs should be collapsed and transferred to Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and social development.
“In addition to the above, there is need to understand what the following Ministries stand for and their defined strategic objectives; Min. of Marine & Blue Economy, Min.of Communication, Innovation and digital economy and Min. of Information and Orientation”, he said.
