Sacked Ministers Cry Over Dismissal

Some of the sacked Ministers yesterday shed tears in the Federal Executive meeting chamber as their names were reeled out.

The sacking announced by the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, shocked the Federal Executive Council members, most of whom had arrived the Council Chambers in the Presidential Villa  in high spirits  exchanging banter.

Before they left, deafening silence enveloped the Council Chambers as the President reeled out the names of the affected ministers. Some of the sacked and retained ministers betrayed their emotions as they shed tears.

The Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, announced the cabinet shake-up after the weekly FEC  meeting  in Abuja.

The sacked ministers are  Prof.  Ruqayyatu Rufai (Education);   Okon Ewa-Bassey (Science and Techology);  Olugbenga Ashiru (Foreign Affairs);   Hadiza Mailafia (Environment);  Shamsudeen Usman, (National Planning); and  Ama  Pepple (Housing, Lands and Urban Development).

The Minister of State for Defence, Olusola Obada, and her counterparts in the  Agriculture Ministry,  Alhaji Bukar Tijani and  Power,  Zainab Kuchi,   were also affected.

It was gathered Jonathan was under pressure from his close aides  to sack some ministers and appoint those believed to have political value in their states.

The aides were said to have  argued that if the President decided to seek re-election in 2015, many ministers lacked  the required political clout to deliver their states.

A top Presidency source had said that Jonathan was advised  by the aides to constitute what they described as “election cabinet.”

Such a cabinet, according to a source, will comprise mostly people that would  be proud to defend Jonathan  whenever he  was being criticised.

But Maku explained that the dropping of the ministers had no political undertone.

Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the FEC meeting, Maku, said the cabinet shake-up was with immediate effect.

A source at the meeting said the President  caught the ministers unawares.

He quoted Jonathan as saying,   “Some of you will not be with us at the next Federal Executive Council meeting. It is not because you didn’t do well, but that is the ingredients of democracy. You will hear the details from the SGF.”