Again, Tinubu threatens to sack underperforming ministers

President Bola Tinubu has once again warned ministers in his cabinet that he would not hesitate to fire any of them who did not perform as expected.

The president who reiterated his position on Wednesday at the State House Conference Centre in Abuja, while opening a three-day 2023 Cabinet Retreat for Ministers, presidential aides, Permanent Secretaries, and top government functionaries, said ministers in his cabinet would only be allowed to keep their positions if they continue to perform well in line with the ‘Renewed Hope’ agenda of his administration.

He warned that ministers who do not deliver on their assignments and set targets would be sent packing from the cabinet.

“If you are performing, nothing to fear; if you miss the objective we review, if you don’t perform, you leave us… Don’t be a clog in the wheel of Nigeria’s progress,” the President told the ministers at the event.

This is the second time Tinubu would threaten his appointees with dismissal if they did not perform.

He had given a similar warning in August through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, who said President Tinubu would not permit any failure of any of the ministers, adding that Tinubu was not scared to sack any minister who is not effective.

While speaking on a Channels Television programmes, Sunrise Daily, Ngelale said Tinubu had established benchmarks for each of the sectors and expected the ministers to meet the set standards.

“The President has set the benchmarks. The question now is about enforcement and the President has shown, as he did during his time in Lagos State as governor, that he is not someone that is afraid to fire anybody,” Ngelale said.

“He is not somebody who is afraid to level quick sanctions to ensure that they get the results that he wants because, ultimately, if this administration fails, they will not say a minister failed or a set of ministers failed. They will say President Bola Tinubu failed, and he will not accept failure,” he opined.

“Every minister coming in absolutely knows what they have to achieve within the time frame that has been given to them by the President and that’s something in the history of Nigerian governance we’ve never seen before,” he added.

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