Former Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu, has said the only person he can vouch for among the seven new ministers President Bola Ahmed Tinubu appointed, is Jumoke Oduwole.
Oduwole was named Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment.
Speaking during an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today, on Thursday, Shittu said he did not feel that the five ministers who were sacked are inferior to the new ones.
“If you look at the changes we had yesterday (Wednesday), I doubt whether it is necessarily bringing in superior minds or better minds, in terms of governance, in terms of expectations, in terms of performance,” Shittu said.
“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.”
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When asked whether President Tinubu has the best kind of team he requires to deliver, he said, “It is wrong of me to prejudge. I’m not one to be judgemental, especially on those I don’t know.
“For example among the seven new members of the cabinet, I know Dr Jumoke, she worked under Buhari’s administration and she performed very excellently in the area of trade and investment and commerce and all of that.
“I am proud because she is one person that can deliver. All the other six, I don’t know any of them. It will be wrong of me to presume negativity on their part.”
Shittu said 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.”
