Former Minister of Communications Adebayo Shittu has expressed disappointment in President Bola Tinubu’s recent cabinet overhaul, describing it as unimpressive.
“As far as I am concerned, it is just a case of some Nigerians being asked to move on, some other Nigerians are being brought in, which does not necessarily mean that those who have been shoved aside are inferior to the new people being brought in.”
“More often than not, it is not everybody who is appointed as a minister that fits in,” the former minister said.
“You’ll agree with me that because of the Nigerian factor, a lot of decisions have political colourations than meritocracy in determining who becomes a minister.”
Shittu stated that ministerial nominees must be thoroughly screened by the Senate as Nigerians don’t have the patience for trial-and-error ministers.
He said, “I would rather prefer that people are taken through a screening process to know their suitability.
“For instance, I make bold to say that today, we have an engineer as a minister of works. Any key watchers of events in the Ministry of Works would agree that the fact that the occupant of that position is a civil engineer impacts very positively on the assignment.
“If, for instance, I, as a lawyer, who has not had any training or any understanding of engineering, if I am to be posted to the works’ ministry, of course, it would take a lot of time to learn and Nigerians certainly don’t have too much time in such learning process.”