Ahead of the anticipated cabinet reshuffle by President Goodluck Jonathan, ministers are now hurriedly tidying up on-going projects to improve their score cards in a bid to retain their seats.
Also, some who control strategic ministries, are re-assigning their aides to agencies under their control, to entrench themselves in the system and have a grip on power in the event they are ousted.
Speculation of an imminent cabinet reshuffle has been rife mid-term
into the president’s tenure and it is getting more strident with the conclusion of the performance appraisal of some ministers, in line with the August 2012 performance bond which they signed with the president.
The anticipated move by the president is aimed at bringing in fresh brains in some ministries where the cabinet members have performed below the mark.
The cabinet reshuffle is expected to be announced between end of April and May, 2013 to mark the end of the first half of President Jonathan’s administration and the beginning of the second and most crucial half.
As a result, some ministers are in a frenzy to complete on-going projects and tidy their tables.
For instance, in the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Ama Pepple has given a timeline to contractors handling a housing project in the Kuje area council of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The project is being built under the public, private partnership (PPP) arrangement. BusinessDay was told that the contractor handling the project had been told to scale down the project and complete part for commissioning.
Under the new arrangements, 22 of the 100 original units are to be completed between now and the end of May for commissioning, so that it could be listed among her achievements in office. The remaining 78 units are expected to be completed at a later date.
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Water Resources Minister, Sarah Ochekpe, has also hurried up the ministry’s “Water Road map”, and Water Week” ahead of the May 29 Democracy Day celebration.
At the Mines and Steel Development ministry, the minister, Mohammed Sanda, is also designing strategies for the solid minerals sector development. The sector is said to have gotten appreciable support under this administration, and part of efforts to woo communities to support government investment and encourage more mining and foreign investors into the sector is the minister’s proposal for increasing the 13 percent derivation principle for owners of solid minerals.
The Ministry of Niger-Delta Development, where Godsday Orubebe holds sway as the minister, has come under severe criticism for the performance which sources say has been considered below par.
Orubebe is perceived to have been unable to transform the region and show appreciable impact on the region. This is said to be posing a strong challenge to the President in the run up to 2015 polls.
Only recently, the minister undertook a tour of projects, especially the East-West road being supervised by the ministry, where he announced that certain details were left out when the contract was being awarded.
An aide to President Jonathan, who prefers to remain anonymous, told BuinessDay that the President is determined to inject fresh hands into his cabinet to “add more vigour and drive the process to ensure that Nigerians see more appreciable results in governance.”
Cabinet members and their agencies have been under scrutiny since August 2012 when they signed performance bonds with the President, providing records of their performance on a weekly basis.
It will be recalled that the president had in August 2012, set standards for measuring performance, when the President signed a freely negotiated performance contracts with ministers, which were expected to be reviewed every six months.
The performance indicators were part of efforts to monitor performance of MDAs relating to transparency and accountability in the conduct of government activities.
