Presidency: Cabinet Reshuffle Imminent, Move Will be Hinged on Ministers’ Performance

•Says new economic stabilisation bill to bolster naira against dollar value

•Vows not to intervene in NNPC/Dangote petrol price war

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

The presidency yesterday confirmed that President Bola Tinubu will soon reshuffle his 47-man cabinet, but explained that the exercise which may be carried out anytime from now, would be evidence-based.

Besides , the presidency stated that Tinubu would be aided in his decision by public opinion that have been empirically extracted.

Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, made this known while addressing newsmen at the State House, Abuja.

Onanuga, who was in the company with Senior Special Assistant to the President on Digital and New Media, O’tega Ogra, said there was no timeline to when Tinubu would reshuffle his cabinet which was inaugurated in August, 2023.

He disclosed that the president had indicated his plan to reshuffle his cabinet, but said he could not be categorical about when he will do it.

He said: “I don’t have any timeline. The president has expressed his desire to reshuffle his cabinet and he will do it. I don’t know whether he’s going to do it before October 1, but he will surely do it. So that’s what I will say. He has not given us any timeline he’ll do it, but he will to do it. He has expressed his plan he wants to do it.”

Shedding more light on the planned cabinet shake-up, Ogra explained that the president would be guided by an empirical process, making reference to the performance indicator, which is being coordinated by Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination and head of the Central Delivery Coordination Unit,  Hadiza Bala Usman.

He added: “We also need to realise that the president’s decision to reshuffle is also based on empirical evidence. He said it during the retreat for the ministers that they were going to have periodic reviews, and the decisions that are extracted from these reviews will be used to make that final decision.

“I know he’s got a couple of reports, and as Mr. Onanuga said, when he’s ready to do that, I believe he will.”

He further disclosed that the president has also instructed his ministers to actively promote the accomplishments of his administration.

“The president has given an order to all his ministers at the last Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting to go out there and speak about the activities of his administration.

“Some of them have been media shy, television shy, radio shy, and he wants them to overcome all that and go out there and speak about what they have been doing.

“Because the feeling out there is that government is not doing enough and the government has been doing a lot. It is up to them to go out there and blow their own trumpet. They should go out there and talk about what their ministries have been doing,” he added.

The federal government also washed its hands off the petrol pump pricing face-off between the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and private refinery, Dangote Refinery, saying both parties are at liberty to determine market price of the product for consumers.

Onanuga, who also made the government’s position known to newsmen, explained that since the petroleum market had been deregulated, both Dangote and NNPC, as oil refiners and marketers, are allowed to operate according to economic market forces and set their prices for petrol.

Such a scenario, he stated, would be beneficial to Nigerian consumers in the end as competitive alternatives and pricing war tend to force prices down.

According to Onanuga: “The petrol price regime has been deregulated. Dangote is a private company. NNPC should not forget it’s a limited liability company.

“Whatever controversy both of them are having is their own problem. Even if you go by the terms of Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), NNPC is on its own. Even though it’s owned by the federal government, the state government and local councils and everything, it is operating as a limited liability company.

“You can see that the private marketers have said that they find the NNPC or Dangote price too much for them, and they may resort to importing fuel.

“It is the consumers who benefit if a price war starts. If NNPC fuel is too much, the public market can go to the market and bring in their own fuel and sell at the price that they think is very reasonable and profitable for them.

“So, government is not dabbling into this controversy. Dangote is running a private company working on his own, and NNPC is a limited liability company that has the right to fix the price of its own product,” he added.

Meanwhile, the federal government has said it will continue to bolster the naira against dollar which is part of the amendment to Economic Stabilisation Bill already submitted to the National Assembly to guide the operations and ensure that payment of all accrued revenues by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) are henceforth collected in naira.

Onanuga stated that the bill when approved will also guide the operations of the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) away from solely collecting all fees, charges, levies and fines in dollars to an applicable exchange rate in naira.

“The second one is the operation laws that guide NIMASA and NPA, now that amendment is also on economic stabilisation bill and that will enable all their fee charges, levies, fines and other long list  accruals to those agencies to be paid in naira at the applicable exchange rate and then those agencies that were hitherto charging in dollars can now collect in naira,” he pointed out.

He added that this further affirmed government’s efforts at strengthening national currency instead of ‘dollarising’ the Nigerian economy.

“This affirms that government wants to place emphasis on our national currency instead of it dollarising our economy, government is now saying pay in naira ,it doesn’t have to be in dollars”, Onanuga further said.

Also contained in the economic stabilisation bill was the amendment to the National Identity Commission Bill 2004. Onanuga said the bill as proposed for amendment before the National Assembly was to provide all Nigerians earning income in Nigeria including foreigners, a registered National Identification Number (NIN) and create opportunity for them to be enlisted on Nigeria’s tax structure.

His words: “The economic stabilisation bill comprises many bills that they have brought together. some areas of interest includes the plan to amend the National identity commission bill 2024, they call it national identity management commission bill 2024, it will amend what was made some years ago and now provides.

“ If the NASS passes the bill, for everyone living in Nigeria including foreigners all of them will now be registered and be given NIN once you are based here and you earn income you will be registered and be given NIN, so that you can be taxed by  name and this will give you tax identity and you will come under our tax structure.

“That is one of the bills to amend the National identity management commission, that is the law that set it up initially.”  the presidential aide said.

The federal government also disclosed  that Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) will now set aside 30 per cent of its initial allocation from the Federation Account to support the disbursement of loans by the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) to students.

Onanuga stressed that the amendment to the TETFUND 2011 Act as contained in the economic stabilisation fund was an important element that affects the Nigerian students.

He said: “The other one is Tertiary Education Trust Fund Amendment Bill 2024, why it is important is that it has an element there that affects the Nigeria student loan education fund. Some of us have been wondering how we are going to fund the NELFUND, the government has an answer most of the funding will come from the money going to TETFUND.

“So there is an amendment to the TETFUND 2011 Act, that now says the fund shall fund disbursement of NELFUND, this means that Tetfund before it disburses the amount in its fund, it shall set aside initial one third of the amount to be transferred to the Nigeria Education Loan Fund that is 30 per cent.

“ Whatever TETFUND gets from the Federation Account will now be passed on as ready made source of fund to NELFUND”.