More facts have emerged on the reasons why President Bola Tinubu decided to reshuffle his cabinet even before they were inaugurated.
The presidency had last Wednesday assigned portfolios to 45 cabinet members ahead of their swearing in last Monday.
However, the President in a statement issued Sunday by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, on Sunday approved the redeployment of Abubakar Momoh from the Federal Ministry of Youth to the Federal Ministry of Niger Delta Development, while the Federal Ministry of Youth is to be re-assigned to a Minister-Designate soon.
Also, the president approved the resufflement of the Ministers-Designate allocated to the Federal Ministries of Transportation, Interior, and Marine and Blue Economy have been reshuffled as follows:
The statement said; “Adegboyega Oyetola is redeployed as the Honourable Minister of Marine & Blue Economy; Hon. Bunmi Tunji-Ojo is redeployed as the Honourable Minister of Interior; Hon. Sa’idu Alkali is redeployed as the Honourable Minister of Transportation; Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri is the Hon. Minister of State (Oil), Petroleum Resources; Hon. Ekperipe Ekpo is the Hon. Minister of State (Gas), Petroleum Resources.”
The President further approved the renaming of the Federal Ministry of Environment and Ecological Management as the Federal Ministry of Environment, adding that all the changes take immediate effect by these directives of the President.
However, a reliable source told TheHintsNews that the Chief of Staff to the President, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, against the President’s directive, assigned the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy to, Hon. Bunmi Tunji-Ojo instead of appointing the portfolio to the former Governor of Osun state, Gboyega Oyetola.
The source said ab-initio, Tinubu had told Oyetola that he would be appointed Minister of Marine and Blue Economy.
The source said: “For instance, the Ministry of Transportation, Oyetola met with Asiwaju, the President asked him what he wanted and he told the President he prefers the Ministry of Transport.
“Now, when they were now to do it (allocate portfolios to ministers’ designate), Gbajabiamila and Hadiza (Bala Usman) now raised a memo to create a Blue Economy (Ministry) for Tunji-Ojo. The Blue Economy was supposed to be another parastatal, that was the idea they sold to Asiwaju.
“So, when it was time to allocate portfolios, Gbajabiamila gave Blue Economy to his boy, Tunji-Ojo. He put the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), and Nigerian Inland Waterways (NIWA) under his purview. He now gave railway and road transport to Oyetola.)”
The source further revealed that before then, Gbajabiamila had been preventing Oyetola from seeing the president.
He said the Chief of Staff also prevented former Governor of Osun state, Chief Bisi Akande, Chief Pius Akinyelure, James Faleke, among others from seeing the president.
The source added: “Oyetola got angry and met with the President. He told the president that after they agreed on something and you (Tinubu) went ahead to do a different thing. The President told him he wasn’t aware that Gbajabiamila explained a different thing to him and that wasn’t what they agreed to do and promised to return it to what they initially agreed.
“He told him he would return it on Saturday and he would remove those parastatals under Tunji-Ojo and return it to Transport to be supervised by Oyetola. That was why he reversed that thing yesterday (Sunday).’’
The source added that it was the decision of Gbajabiamila to bring back the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to the presidency so that he could control it.
According to him, The President got wind of that one too and decided to announce the Ministry of Niger Delta to oversee the NDDC instead of his office.
The source said the policy summersault that has been witnessed lately was because the president was being misled and those that could tell him the truth were being blocked from seeing the president.
The source stressed: “Look at the issue of N8,000 to the poor. The governors met with him (Gbajabiamila) and convinced him that the register used by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari was not good and he advised the president to jettison the register. Instead of giving N8,000 to the under-privileged, N5 billion was given to each governor.
“The governors won’t pay the money to the poor, they will rather steal it. He is inciting the poor against the president. He convinced the president that the register is not clean. Can’t you clean the register if it is not clean? And let this vulnerable access the money.
“Now, the vulnerable Nigerians won’t get the money, the governors will sit on the money and Asiwaju will be hated.”
The source further revealed that Tunji-Ojo was not even the nominee from Ondo, adding that Gbajabiamila ensured that he blocked Chief Akinyure from seeing the president.
The source stated: “Segun Abraham was the ministerial nominee from Ondo state. Baba Akinyelure and co are not with Tunji-Ojo. Tunji-Ojo is Gbajabiamila’s errand boy.
“Asiwaju has not been able to do anything since he came on board. This is not what we campaigned for, this is not what we worked for. Everybody is complaining. Imagine someone like Baba Akande cannot see the president, Senator Abu Ibrahim cannot see the president, Pa Akinyelure cannot see the president.
“Tunde Rahman cannot see the president and they are working with the president. He (Gbajabiamila) said anyone that wants to see the president must come through him.”
Asked why Gbajabiamila was blocking people from seeing the president, he said: “He knows Asiwaju listens to these people. So, if Tinubu didn’t see them, he won’t listen to anyone. Nobody can tell him what is going on. How can you release ministerial list within a week, you are already doing resufflement, that means it was not well thought-out.”