Why I cannot reduce cabinet members – Tinubu

Why I cannot reduce cabiet members – Tinubu  

President Bola Tinubu has said it will be difficult to prune his cabinet, saying having 47 ministers reflects the diversity of roles required to run an efficient government.

“If you combine too many ministries because you want to save money, you will have a future of non-performance and no results,” Tinubu said when he received a delegation of the CAN, led by its President, Daniel Okoh, at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, revealed this in a statement he signed on Monday titled, ‘President Tinubu to CAN leadership: we will continue to fight corruption; Nigeria is ours to fix.

Tinubu acknowledged criticisms over his heavily-staffed cabinet. However, he said merging portfolios would only heap some officials with more burdens than they can bear.

Former Presidents Muhammadu Buhari, Goodluck Jonathan, Umaru Yar’Adua, and Olusegun Obasanjo had maintained relatively smaller cabinets. In his first and second tenure, Buhari appointed 36 and 42 ministers respectively.

In 2011, his predecessor, Jonathan, named 33 ministerial-nominees, retaining nine persons from the Yar’Adua administration.

In 2007, Yar’Adua appointed 39 persons into his cabinet. Obasanjo initially named 42 ministers in 1999 but later shed two roles. He also reduced the number of ministries to 20 before the end of his tenure in 2007.

President Tinubu named 48 ministers, the highest in Nigeria’s 24-year return to democracy.

Justifying this move, he said, “I have had a number of criticisms, including the rationale behind the size of my cabinet. If you want efficient, mobile, and resourceful people, we have to give people a load they can carry.

“If you combine too many ministries because you want to save money, you will have a future of non-performance and no results.

“Nigeria needs to turn the corner to grow, and we must give people challenges they can manage, and that is what we are doing,” the President added.

President Tinubu also called on Christian leaders to support the administration’s ongoing fight against corruption by encouraging Nigerians to have a change of mindset on money-related matters.