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Former Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu, has said that having a cabinet of 50 ministers would not be too much for the country, considering the population and the workload of some of the ministries.
Shittu stated this on Thursday evening when he was featured as a guest on Channels Television Politics Today.
PUNCH Online reports that President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday dismissed five ministers from his cabinet.
This was contained in a statement by the special adviser to the President on Social Media, Dada Olusegun.
The affected ministers include the Minister of Women Affairs, Uju-Ken Ohanenye; Minister of Tourism, Lola Ade-John; Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman; Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development, Abdullahi Muhammad Gwarzo; and Minister of Youth Development, Dr. Jamila Bio Ibrahim.
Tinubu also appointed seven new ministers to his cabinet.
Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu was appointed Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, while Jumoke Oduwole was named Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment replacing Doris Uzoka-Anite who has been reassigned as the Minister of State Finance.
Shittu also argued that a situation where the country appointed fewer ministers to save cost, would be counterproductive, noting that the content of governance was ever-expanding.
“There is no point saving a kobo, and in the process, you lose so much naira. Nigeria is made up of 200 million people. Ministers appointed are supposed to come and serve these 200 million people, and you would agree with me that the content of governance is ever-expanding. Government is thinking ahead to bring in new ministries, new subject matters, and so on. So, for me, a situation where we do penny wise, pound foolish, at the end of the day would be counterproductive. So, as far as I’m concerned, having 50 ministers is not too many for this country”, he said.
Shittu also stated that there was the need to have more ministries and ministers, considering the responsibilities of the ministries and the agencies under them, adding that a single minister may not be able to adequately handle both the affairs of the ministries and the agencies.
“For instance, if you take the Ministry of Agric, it is one of the largest ministries we have. The agencies under the Federal Ministry and the agencies under the Ministry of Education are certainly more than 50 in each case. So, if you have 50 agencies under a ministry, you expect one person to be able to adequately take care of the core content of the ministry itself and also be able to take care in a supervisory role, of the more than 50 agencies under them? That will certainly be too unwieldy”.
“And that is why in some respect, in some countries, you have a separate ministry of primary education, you also have a ministry of higher education, and so on and so forth. There is a need for us to be realistic to look for people who can adequately take of these ministries, both the real content of the ministry and the agencies under them. So to the best of my knowledge, having 50 ministers is not too many for a huge county like Nigeria for the enormous responsibilities that many of these ministries have to undertake”, he stated.
