RESIGN IN FEBRUARY - JONATHAN DIRECTS MINISTERS WITH POLITICAL AMBITION President Goodluck Jonathan may have given ministers who have political ambitions to resign voluntarily latest by first week of February. It was gathered from a very competent source in Abuja on Monday, that most of those affected are ministers who plan to contest governorship elections in their states. The source, who added that Jonathan was mulling a cabinet shake-up in February, however, said the minister had not resigned because they were not sure that they would get the governorship tickets in their states. He said, “The President cannot wait endlessly for them. That is why he has given them the directive to resign voluntarily between now and February. Definitely, there will be further changes in the cabinet.” The source, who asked not to be named, did not say when the President ordered the ministers with political ambitions to quit. The Minister of Police Affairs, Navy-Cpt. Caleb Olubolade (retd.) is eyeing the Peoples Democratic Party ticket for the Ekiti State governorship election in June this year. Others who are eyeing governorship seats are the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku (Nasarawa); the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Godsday Orubebe (Delta), and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Mohammed (Bauchi). Our source explained that the impending cabinet shake-up would see some of the current ministers dropped. The PUNCH gathered on Monday that the exercise would take place after the ministerial nominees would have resumed work after being cleared by the Senate. Their screening begins this week. The Presidency source explained that the ministerial nominees would fill existing vacancies in the cabinet. He said, “The cabinet shake-up will definitely be in two phases. One was the one we witnessed in September 2013. The list before the Senate is meant to fill the current vacancies in the cabinet. “What is clear is that by the time those ones are cleared and they resume work, more ministers will still be asked to leave.” When asked if the embattled Minister of Aviation, Ms Stella Oduah, would be dropped, our source replied, “What I don’t know for now is those that will be affected in the imminent purge but it is certain that some will go. “It is also almost certain that some of the ministers who will still be part of the new cabinet will be redeployed.”
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 12:31:04 +0000
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