A prominent figure in the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Buba Galadima, has dismissed President Bola Tinubu’s anticipated cabinet reshuffle as lacking urgency in the face of pressing national issues.
Last week, the presidency announced that Tinubu is set to reshuffle his cabinet, though Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga did not specify a timeline for the changes.
“I don’t have any timeline. The President has expressed his desire to reshuffle his cabinet and will do it. I don’t know whether he wants to do it before October 1, but he will surely do it,” Onanuga stated during a briefing with State House correspondents in Abuja.
Despite this announcement, Galadima criticized the timing of the reshuffle, emphasizing that Nigerians are grappling with more significant challenges that require immediate attention.
He asserted that the focus should be on addressing pressing issues rather than shifting cabinet members.
Galadima said, “That [planned cabinet reshuffle] has nothing to do with me or any Nigerian. What is of importance to all of us is bringing down the harsh conditions of living and the buck stops only on the table of one man,” the NNPP chieftain said on Friday’s edition of Channels Television’s current affairs show Politics Today.
“That is President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. No amount of reshuffling can make a difference. As far as that team is only ‘job for the boys,’ nothing will come out of it.”
There have been claims of underperformance by some ministers with critics saying the development is behind Tinubu’s plan to rejig the cabinet.
That argument, however, does not hold water with Galadima who said Tinubu should be held responsible for his ministers’ performances.
He said, Tinubu, like “Anybody that calls himself president or governor” is responsible for their cabinet’s performance.
The former member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) accused Tinubu’s appointees of working for their “pockets”.
“He should be told that some of his appointees are more interested in their pockets than service delivery,” Galadima said.
According to him, while he expected much from Tinubu upon his assumption of office, the Nigerian president has not done better.
“I expected him to do better than this; and to hit the ground running,” the NNPP stalwart said and called on Tinubu to seek a solution to the country’s foreign exchange crisis which has seen the naira performing abysmally.
