A former Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, has charged President Bola Tinubu not to trust the ministerial recommendations of some of “his right hand men.”
News About Nigeria reports that Shittu spoke as a guest during an interview on Politics Today, a programme on Channels Television on Thursday night.
Shittu’s warning comes on the heels of the presidency plan to reshuffle his cabinet.
On Wednesday, Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to the president on information and strategy, told State House correspondents that “the president has expressed his desire to reshuffle his cabinet and he will do it”.
“I don’t know whether he wants to do it before October 1, but he will surely do it. That is what I will say. But he has not given us any timeline,” Onanuga added.
The spokesperson also said the president has asked his ministers to “actively” communicate the milestones and achievements of the administration.
Speaking during the show, the ex-minister said some members of the President’s kitchen cabinet who should be on the lookout for technocrats to be appointed ministers have vested interests and would only recommend their persons.
“You cannot trust anybody, even if you are talking of kitchen cabinet,” he said.
“This will be the first time he (Tinubu) would be recruiting people from all parts of the country most of whom he may never have met in life. But he may just be riding on the recommendation, perhaps, of interested power blocs within the party who would give information and sell their candidate for one reason or the other.
“Mr President has an opportunity to decide what he wants. If you are not there and if he does not tell you exactly what he wants, it would be very difficult but I think one failing in our system in this country is that when people are appointed, or about to be appointed, we don’t have a kind of orientation exercise which perhaps will take a week or two weeks to school those to be given jobs to understand the priorities of their employer.”
