President Goodluck Jonathan was on the offensive yesterday. His axe fell on nine ministers. They were booted out of the Federal Executive Council (FEC). It was sudden. The affected ministers received the news with shock. Party insiders confided that they were the first casualties of the protracted ‘civil war ‘ in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). More board chairmen, special assistants and ambassadors may follow in few days.
The ministers may not have been sacked in the national interest. There was no evidence that they were relieved of their appointments for incompetence. Also, the intention of the curious cabinet reshuffle was not to foster good governance. It was not informed by the patriotic desire for effective implementation of the moribund transformation agenda for better results. The sliding economy, dilapidated infrastructure, chaos in the education and health sectors, soaring corruption, growing employment and unmitigated poverty rocking the nation have cast doubt on the claim that the president assembled a cabinet of talents.
Opinion is divided on the earthquake in the executive arm. To observers, it smacked of divide and rule, with-hunting, blackmail and victimisation of perceived foes. Therefore, it is not conciliatory. But sources close to the president think otherwise. Pro-Jonathan politicians have rationalised the sack, saying that it may be risky for the president to harbour ministers and special advisers who are not personally loyal to him at this critical time when the ruling party is in disarray. They contended that the president was trying to strengthen his base against further onslaughts by the Kawu Baraje’s faction of the PDP. Thus, the sack, which is a punishment for rebellion and disloyalty, is critical to the president’s survival. Since ministerial position is perceived as a means of empowering party chieftains, the thinking is that their removal may cripple the faction’s access to resources to prosecute its war against the mainstream PDP.
Basically, the president has the constitutional right to hire and fire. A minister of government has no fixed tenure of office. During the Obasanjo Administration, ministers were even made to sign their resignation letters before being sworn-in. Even, some loyal ministers were hit by the blows of fate. Therefore, the sacking of ministers is not new.
However, the removal of the ministers may aggravate the PDP crisis. For the national party leader and the spinster group, the die is cast. Reconciliation may now become much more difficult, if not forestalled. The sack may create more aggrieved people in the party. The condition for a truce may now include the reinstatement of the sacked ministers.
Sources said the affected ministers were asked to leave, because of their position on the ‘family feud’. They were accused of loyalty to the seven ‘rebellious’ governors, key members of the Baraje group and other PDP leaders who are fighting the president by proxy. Those who sold the idea to the president believed that the strategy will weaken the internal opposition base in the divided party.
It is not likely that the affected ministers will seal their lips over their un-ceremonial exit . They will have partisan tales to tell. The politicians among them may describe their tragedy as “sack by labelling”. The sacked Foreign Affairs Minister Gbenga Ashiru is close to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is not trusted by Jonathan. Although the former PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman is leading a reconciliation team in the party, the effort is not enjoying the Presidency’s confidence.
The ex-Minister of State for Defense, Mrs. Olusola Obada, is a close associate of Gen. Olagunsoye Oyinlola, the National Secretary of the Baraje faction. She was the Osun State deputy governor under Oyinlola. Her offence was her fanatical loyalty to her former boss and the Osun State leader of the PDP. Last week, the former governor held a rally at Okuku, his native town, denouncing the president and the embattled PDP national chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.
The ministers from the North also enjoy intimacy with the seven governors. Sources said the President could not trust them because of their perceived support and solidarity for the cause of power shift to the region being championed by the factional party leaders. The sacked Education Minister, Prof. Ruqqayatu Rufai, was recommended by Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, who was allegedly endorsed for the Presidency by Obasanjo. But why the National Planning Minister, Alhaji Shamsudeen Usman, was sacked was a surprise. In May, President Jonathan showered encomium on him in Abuja when rendering his mid-term report. He said he had lived up to expectation.
The sack has created some vacancies in the FEC. Predictably, the choice of new ministers may now be dictated by the pattern of loyalty and allegiance in the PDP. The scramble for ministerial power will still be intense in the Tukur’s faction. Associates and relatives of the “rebels” will be automatically disqualified. Merit and competence may cease to be the criteria for the critical appointment. The federal cabinet may now become an assemblage of lackeys, praise-singers and surrogates. Panic may continue to grip the cabinet over threats of sack to whip discordant tones to line. The move may also promote hypocrisy in government as ministers may now be afraid to be frank with the President to prevent being labeled traitors.
But the sack may not be the end of the matter. Since a new list of ministerial nominees will be forwarded to the Senate, the battle between the Tukur and Baraje’s factions may shift to the parliament. The screening of new ministers may become more partisan and problematic. The pro-Jonathan and anti-Jonathan senators may carry their acrimony to the exercise.
The divide-and-rule tactics of the President may not box him into a position of strength, in the long run. He may have inadvertently made more enemies in the ruling party. Historically, the strategy of exclusion has always backfired. In the First Republic, when there was a split in the Action Group (AG), the Premier of the Western Region, the late Chief Ladoke Akintola, moved swiftly to consolidate his hold in the ruling party at the head of government. He removed the ministers that were loyal to the party leader, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Despite gaining the upper hand, his government was full of tension, until the military drew the curtains on that political dispensation.
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