Jonathan to forward Nnaji, Bello’s replacements to N’Assembly

Posted by admin Goodluck Jonathan (2010-present), Presidency Thursday, September 6th, 2012

President Goodluck Jonathan will forward to the Senate the names of two ministerial nominees immediately after the lawmakers resume from their vacation later in the month.

There are currently two vacancies in the cabinet following the sacking of Dr. Haliru Bello as the Minister of Defence in June and last Tuesday’s resignation of Prof. Barth Nnaji as the Minister of Power.

Jonathan made his intention known during the inauguration of two committees – the Presidential Action Committee on Power and the Presidential Taskforce on Power – saddled with the responsibility of improving power supply in the country.

While he would personally chair the PAC with Vice President Namadi Sambo as his deputy, Jonathan named Mr. Beks Dagogo-Jack as the chairman of the presidential taskforce.

He inaugurated the committees during the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council on Wednesday.

“Definitely, immediately the National Assembly comes back, especially the Senate, we will clear the two vacancies (ministerial slots) that we have. They (the ministerial nominees) will get cleared and we will place people accordingly so that the Minister of Power will come up. But, in the interim, the Minister of State for Power is holding on to that,” he said.

Jonathan said with or without a Minister of Power, he decided to reconstitute the two teams because Nigerians would not be happy if the success so far recorded in power stability in the country relapsed.

“Whether the Minister of Power comes or not, we want to reconstitute the two teams because Nigerians will not be happy if we relapse and I believe that as we progress from now till December, if Nigerians can go home in December and do their parties without generators and can drive to their states without gutters on our roads stopping them, I think the rating of government will improve. So we must work hard to get to this level,” the President said.

While naming members of the two teams, Jonathan warned that he would not hesitate to sack whoever he discovered did not fit into the system.

He said, “We have done it (the reconstitution of the teams) this way because the other time when Nnaji was the Chairman, his Secretary was my SA, so there were a lot of conflicts between two of them because they say two captains cannot drive a ship.

“This time around, we just want one captain and others will work with him.

“When we look at the team, anybody that does not fit in, we will begin to weed off. The team is already working but we are only formalising it today so that everybody knows the leadership.

“If they continue to work very hard and when the minister joins them, I believe that we will continue to improve and Nigeria will know that we will not relapse.”

via Punchwp_posts