By Mark Lenu
Some residents of Rivers State have asked President Bola Tinubu to include the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike among the ministers he recently sacked.
While reshuffling his cabinet, the president on Wednesday approved the re-assignment of 10 ministers to new portfolios, discharged five, and nominated seven new others for onward transmission to the Senate for confirmation.
This came as the president renamed the Ministry of Niger Delta Development to the Ministry of Regional Development, scrapped the Ministry of Sports Development, and merged the Ministries of Tourism and Arts and Culture to become the Federal Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy.
The decision was made during the 19th meeting of the Federal Executive Council at the State House, Abuja. The Presidency revealed details of the reshuffle in a statement titled, “Statement on the Restructuring of Ministries and Ministerial Portfolios.”
The ministers who were relieved of their duties are the Ministers of Women Affairs, Uju-Kennedy-Ohanenye; Tourism, Lola Ade-John; Education, Tahir Mamman; Youth Development, Dr Jamila Bio Ibrahim and State for Housing and Urban Development, Abdullahi Gwarzo.
A cross section of residents in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, told our correspondent that the cabinet reshuffle was necessary because a lot of ministers were not performing including Wike.
They said, “The only obvious performance of Wike is to instigate political crisis in Rivers State, other than that, he is not performing as FCT Minister.
“We welcome the cabinet shake-up, but it would have been more okay if Wike was affected. The only thing Wike is doing as FCT Minister is to cause trouble in Rivers State.
“Let’s hope that other ministers not yet sacked will learn from it and start performing while the incoming ministers prioritize governance above politics.
“We also urge the president to stop making appointments based on friendship and politics and start appointing only those who can do the job,” they said.
