A chieftain of the All Progressive Congress APC, Senator Jimor Ibrahim has opined that some of the ministers that have been accused of corruption should be dropped.
A member of the Appropriation Committee in the Senate, Jimoh Ibrahim, has asked President Bola Tinubu to dissolve his cabinet and drop some ministers describing the present administration as dry.
He said:
“You have to dissolve the cabinet. You have to come up with knowledgeable people. The cabinet is too cold,” he said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday.
Ibrahim, who represents Ondo South Senatorial District, regretted that the current crop of ministers don’t fall within the country’s “Grade A” and are not the best for the country as seen so far in the economic situation of the country in about a year since the inauguration of the President.
Nigeria is grappling with hydra-headed socio-economic challenges triggered by the new administration’s twin policies of petrol subsidy removal and unification of the foreign exchange windows. Energy costs have tripled, sparking a high cost of living crisis as food inflation soared in an unprecedented manner.
Despite assurances by the new government, there seemed to be no reprieve for the people with fresh policies like electricity tariff hikes, and cybersecurity levies on electronic transactions, amongst others, which have been flayed by labour unions, pro-democracy activists and civil society groups.
Tinubu, alongside his deputy, Kashim Shettima, came into office last May with promises to reform the country’s economy and deliver the dividends of democracy to over 200 million Nigerians. Tinubu constituted his cabinet made up of 48 ministers last August, about three months after he took over from his party man, ex-President Muhammadu Buhari.
Ibrahim opined that some of the ministers that have been accused of corruption should be dropped. “If you fail to do that, you will be carrying their burdens and that will be terrible for our country,” he warned the President.
Ibrahim said the President has a “fantastic strategy” with a faulty structure. He lamented that the inefficient structure has “arrested” the strategy. “Do you think the current system can carry the strategy?” he asked rhetorically.