STRONG indications have emerged that President Bola Tinubu has completed the list containing the names and designations of those who will serve in his reshuffled cabinet.
Multiple sources in the Presidency, who confided in this newspaper, said Tinubu had concluded the list of ministers to drop and those to retain and was expected to release it on Thursday night, a day after he arrived in the United Kingdom for his two-week annual leave.
Following the biting economic hardship and the nationwide protests last August, President Tinubu has been facing increasing pressure from within and outside his party, the All Progressives Congress, to sack underperforming ministers.
While the president periodically warned against underperformance, his cabinet remained mostly unchanged, except for suspending the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, in January 2024.
At a three-day retreat for cabinet members and presidential aides last November, Tinubu announced that a Central Delivery Coordination Unit headed by his Special Adviser on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala-Usman, would measure the performance of ministers and other top government officials.
These periodic performance reports would determine who would leave or remain in the cabinet, Tinubu stated.
“If you are performing, nothing to fear. If you miss the objective, we’ll review it. If no performance, you leave us. No one is an island and the buck stops on my desk,” the President told participants.
One year after Tinubu inaugurated his cabinet in August, this newspaper reported that a reshuffle was imminent. However, officials who spoke to our correspondent could not tell when.
Nonetheless, it was gathered that the shakeup would transcend portfolio swaps. Instead, some portfolios and ministries, such as the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, would be scrapped, while others would be split and merged.
Officials, who spoke on Friday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk about the matter, said Tinubu was expected to release the list on Thursday but decided to “sleep on it” for a little while.
“We are just waiting for the go ahead. All I know is that we are waiting for him to send the new names of those he wants to drop and those he wants to appoint.
“We have been expecting them since yesterday (Thursday). I am not sure of any specifics regarding names for now.
“The last I know, he (the President) said he wants to sleep over the list again before he releases it. Maybe he still wants to change his mind about some names,” a source said.
Another source, who asked not to be named, said, “I’m surprised the list did not come out yesterday (Thursday). That thing is almost finalised already.”
Similarly, another official debunked reports that lobbyists crowded the President’s residence in the UK.
“That’s not true. You know there would be speculations all over the place. Do they know where he is? Even if they know where he is, can they access him?
“Some say lobbyists are just visiting him from left, right and centre. But on this trip, he will likely undergo medicals, too. The way he is resting now, no one can see him just like that. They won’t allow people to access him like that. I can guarantee that,” said the source.
On September 25, 2024, the Presidency confirmed that Tinubu would soon rejig his cabinet.
However, it said the exercise would be based on the performance data from reports the Central Delivery Coordination Unit submitted to the president in the past months.
Tinubu’s working leave in the UK began on October 2 and will end on October 16.