Nigeria Dissolves
Executive Cabinet
Aliyu Othman, Abuja
The
Acting President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has dissolved the
Federal Executive Council comprising of forty four ministers.
The decision to dissolve the cabinet was reached at the weekly
Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday, in Abuja,
presided over by the Acting President.
The out-going Minister of Information and Communications,
Professor Dora Akunyili told newsmen at the end of the meeting
that the executive council members were expected to hand over to
Permanent Secretaries in their various ministries.
Professor Akunyili said that the acting president did not give
any reason for the dissolution.
In her words, ’’ Today the acting president of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, dissolved the
Federal Executive Council, the acting president did not give us
any reason for dissolving the council and therefore I cannot
give you any reason.’’
Statutory change of baton
She did not confirm how soon a new cabinet would be constituted
by the acting president.
Asked if the secretary to the government of the federation and
the special advisers were affected by the dissolution, Akunyili
said that if they were statutory members of the council, they
were affected.
Akunyili said that in accordance with the law: ’’ Outgoing
ministers are expected to handover to the permanent secretaries
of their respective ministries…The permanent secretaries will be
in charge of the ministries. Tomorrow morning, I will hand over
to the permanent secretary in the ministry of information and
communications and I believe other ministers will hand over to
their permanent secretaries tomorrow morning because that is the
usual practice,’’ she said.
Vigour to governance
A statement by Mr. Ima Niboro, the Special Assistant to the
Acting President, explained that the dissolution of the federal
cabinet was aimed ‘at injecting fresh blood and bring even
greater vigour to governance’.
’’ It is part of the larger strategy to frontally confront the
core challenges that face the nation at this critical moment of
our history,’’ the statement added.
With additional reports from NAN/Williams/Yinka
