The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has the prerogative to fire any Nigerian minister who fails to meet his administration’s performance benchmark in the first year in office.
APC Publicity Secretary Felix Morka disclosed this on Thursday in an interview with Channels Television.
Morka was reacting to calls by some Nigerians for Tinubu to sack non-performing ministers.
Eze Onyekpere, the Director of the Centre for Social Justice, during a Channels Interview on Wednesday, had said Power, Agriculture, Works, Blue Economy, and Water ministers should be sacked.
“I must speak to the power that Ministers of Power, Agriculture, Water Resources, Works, Blue Economy should be sacked due to their non-performance in the last year”, he stated.
However, Morka said Nigerians should allow the performance evaluation process set up by Tinubu to work.
“The government did create a performance evaluation system, where Ministers are obliged to report their performance. It is the first time we have seen that. I think we should allow that process to work. Any minister who has not allowed themselves to reach the benchmark of the scorecard set by President Tinubu, the President alone has the prerogative to evaluate the performance of his ministers”, he said.
This development comes as Nigerians continue to grapple with economic hardship in the last 365 days.
Rising prices of food, increased energy costs, and infrastructural deficits have been the fulcrum of the hardship for the majority of Nigerians.
In April 2024, headline and food inflation increased to 33.69 per cent and 40.53 per cent respectively. In the 365 days, electricity tariff, cost of fuel and diesel rose by over 100 per cent as the economic hardship bites harder on Nigerians.
While assuring that Tinubu is doing his best to take Nigeria out of the woods, Morka said part of the problem the country faces is citizens’ cynicism.
“Cynicism is a huge part of the problem we have in the country. It is understandable because the cynicism was somewhat constructed by the historical unfolding of the government in Nigeria. But we must realize that extreme cynicism is a clear threat to our economic development. The government alone cannot do it. The people at some level should believe in the government”, he said.
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