Breaking News: #CABINET RESHUFFLE: Groups Want Competent Persons Appointed# Following the cabinet reshuffle which led to the dropping of nine ministers by President Jonathan on Wednesday, a caucus, Young Elites, in Osun State chapter of the party, have commended the president for taking the decisive action to drop some ministers, which they argued portrayed him as a responsive leader. The Young Elites, In a statement issued in Osogbo and signed by its Chairman, Mr. Babarinde Funso, said it had nothing personal against the dropped ministers, but, however, remarked that the cabinet reshuffle was long overdue, given the lack of cohesion in many states’ chapters of PDP, which was as a result of the non-challant attitude of many of the dropped ministers to party affairs in their home states. The group further added that the shake-up that saw the former Minister of State for Defence, Olusola Obada, being dropped from the federal cabinet would give the president, the opportunity to pick politicians with the requisite capacity to unite aggrieved PDP members in the state and mobilise support for the party, its candidate for next year’s governorship polls in the state and the 2015 general election. While urging the president to be mindful of those, who would replace the dropped minister, the group maintained that only politicians with requisite qualities such as competence, political relevance and capacity to mobilise and unite members should be considered for appointment into the federal cabinet. It urged Jonathan not to distance himself from the state, especially as it concerns the post of the chairman of Federal Road maintenance Agency (FERMA), since speculations were rife that the present chairman of the agency, Mr. Jide Adeniji, may be made a minister, as well as consider for appointments the same senatorial district that produced Obada. The statement reads: “We want to urge Mr. President to be wary of lobbysts, who will, as from this moment, inundate his office with several false stories about, who he should appoint as minister from Osun State. “As a major stakeholder in Osun PDP, we implore Dr. Jonathan not to bow to pressure by these leaders without followers, who may want their stooges picked as minister,regardless of what that portend for the party. “In the interest of justice and to ensure our party have a good outing next year and 2015, we advise Mr. President to appoint another politician as minister from Osun West senatorial district, where Obada hails from because the area has qualified people with potentials to unite PDP in the state and comfortably win the state for President Jonathan should he choose to run in 2015. “We assure President Jonathan of our full support and loyalty and encourage him not be dettered by challenges facing the country now, but to pursue all his programmes with renewed vigour for more positive results to be achieved. While we welcome back home Obada, we wish her all the best in her future engagement.”
Posted on: Sat, 14 Sep 2013 18:06:23 +0000