Again,strong hints have been emerging from political circles about the imminence of a cabinet shake up by President Good luck Jonathan.Newsdiaryonline.com sources said anytime from next week ,President Jonathan may in fact inject some fresh hands into his cabinet.The presidency a few months ago denied any such plans despite signals from the political circles then that moves were being made in that direction .
The issue of cabinet reshuffle has been the bone of contention between Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, chairman of Peoples Democratic Party ,PDP and President Jonathan.Tukur is believed to have suggested that there is the need to strengthen the cabinet with more capable hands as some the present set of ministers have grossly under performed .If nothing drastic is done, the electability of the ruling party will be further endangered, the party chairman reportedly reasoned.But President Jonathan as earlier reported by Newsdiaryonline.com disagreed with Tukur over a radical or mass sack of ministers.
Meanwhile,Abuja is once again swirling with reports that indeed the president may have become convinced about the need to shake up his cabinet. That is why it was learnt that some fevered lobbying has been going on by those seeking to be ministers.
Furthermore, one source told Newsdiaryonline.com that in fact the president would have announced the shakeup earlier but there is a slight delay because he is still shopping for the right person to occupy the post of Minister of Defence.Recently ,Jonathan sacked his defence minister,Haliru Below along with General Andrew Azazi, the national security adviser.Though Sambo Dasuki was immediately appointed as the new NSA,the choice of defence minister appears to have become a tricky issue.And the lobby is believed to be going on for that just as Jonathan is trying to avoid making the wrong choice.
Newsdiaryonline.com sources said stakeholders in the North East which is the home base of the dreaded Boko Haram feel thoroughly marginalized and some of them believe the zone should produce the next minister of defence.The North East is said to be angry because in Jonathan’s consideration of people to be appointed into key federal posts, preference has been given to the North West.The sacked defence minister is from Kebbi state in the north west,same with the new NSA who is from Sokoto state.The icing on the cake for the north west is the post of vice president which is occupied by Namadi Sambo from Kaduna state.”Now the north east people are saying silently that the north west alone does not constitute the entire north.There was even further disquiet when reports began to emerge shortly after the sack of the last defence minister that Jonathan’s regime was also thinking of General Aliyu Gusau (retired)also from Zamfara state in the north west as the new defence minister.Whether such reports are true or not, they really made some north east people wonder whether the North East also belongs to Nigeria”,a source said.
