President Tinubu at the meeting
November 2, 2023
A former Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, says President Bola Tinubu administration should learn from the past government and do better in terms of the coordination and supervision of his ministers as former President Muhammadu Buhari “rarely supervised” cabinet members.
Shittu, who spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme however lauded Tinubu for putting his cabinet members on pressure to deliver. The ex-minister said the President should not hesitate to sack ineffective members of his cabinet.
Tinubu, on Wednesday, while declaring open, a three-day Cabinet Retreat at the State House Conference Centre in Abuja, challenged his 48 ministers to deliver on their responsibilities or get sacked.
Shittu, who was minister from November 2015 to May 2019, said sacking a minister is not a difficult task in as much as a replacement will be provided from the same state as the dismissed official.
Reminiscing about his time as minister during the first term of the Buhari administration, Shittu said, “Buhari did not give anybody any threat as such. As I said, Buhari is not Tinubu and Tinubu is not Buhari.
“What I do know of Buhari, with all due respect to him, is that he is a more reserved person. He’s one person who gives you job (with due respect to him) and he rarely ask how you are going about it. It’s unfortunate but I have to say this in national interest so that government coming after him will learn lessons. Once you are there, you are there.
“In Buhari’s government, if you don’t go and meet him, for the next four years, he probably would not ask of you.
“In his statement, that is a sign that he (Tinubu) wants to do things differently. What I think he needs to add to it is to create transparent, quantifiable milestones for each ministry.”
