President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday,
sacked the Minister of Youth Development,
Inuwa Abdulkadir, from his cabinet. A statement from the Office of the Secretary
to the Government of the Federation, Senator
Pius Anyim, did not give reasons for the sudden
termination of Abdulkadir’s appointment. The statement, signed by Mr. Sam Nwaobasi,
Special Assistant on Media to the SGF, directed
him to hand over to the Permanent Secretary in
his office with immediate effect. It said: “President Goodluck Jonathan has
relieved Inuwa Abdulkadir of his appointment
as Minister of Youth Development with effect
from August 26. “The former Minister is to hand over to the
Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of
Youth Development. “Mr. President expresses appreciation to the
former Minister for the time he put in the
services of the nation and wishes him success
in his future endeavours.” Likely reason Vanguard learnt from reliable government
sources that the sack of the minister, while on
an official assignment in Calabar, the Cross
River State capital, took him and his staff
unawares. It was learnt that the relationship between
Jonathan and the sacked minister went sour
shortly after the controversial election of the
National Youth Council of Nigeria, NYCN, which
produced one Yakubu Shendam, against the
wish of majority of the members. After the election in May, many groups,
sympathetic to President Jonathan’s re-
election in 2015, reported Abdulkadir to the
President, accusing him of imposing a
candidate of his choice on them. In spite of the protest by pro-Jonathan groups,
the minister was said to have stood his grounds
that Shendam remains the new leader of NYCN. In defiance of the protest, Abdulkadir on May
28 formally received Shendam and some
members of the council in his office as the
newly-elected executives of the council. Benue meeting Consequently, other aggrieved youth groups
met in Benue and called for his removal for
allegedly causing crisis rocking the council. It was alleged that the minister’s role in the
council’s crisis strongly indicated that
Abdulkadir had been an ‘infiltrator’ in President
Jonathan’s cabinet. The youths said: “With this action, the Minister
has shown the entire world that he lacks the
integrity to still continue as the Youth Minister
in a government that preaches adherence to
the rule of law and prides itself as government
of transformation. “The action of the minister was an aberration
and a deliberate attempt to incite the entire
Nigerian youths against the government of
President Goodluck Jonathan, having
considered the challenging security situation in
Nigeria. “We have refused to be provoked and to go on
the street as civilised youths of this great
nation. “We humbly appeal that President Goodluck
Jonathan should, with immediate effect, relieve
the minister of his position since he has been
disconnected from the president’s
Transformation Agenda in the management and
administration of youth development activities in Nigeria.” National Assembly’s angle Apart from falling out of favour with the
youths, the sacked minister is reported to have
lost touch with members of the National
Assembly Committee on Youth Development
shortly after being appointed into the cabinet. Vanguard investigation also revealed that the
minister did not enjoy a smooth working
relationship with the member of the National
Assembly. He frequently clashed with members over the
implementation of projects earmarked for the
ministry.
For instance, the Senate Committee Chairman
on Women Affairs, Social and Youth
Development, Senator Helen Esuene, alongside other members of her committee, discovered
some discrepancies between figures got from
the office of the Accountant-General of the
Federation and those submitted to it by the
ministry in connection with the funds released
to the ministry for the 2012 budget. The committee noted with displeasure that the
figures said to have been released and spent by
the ministry was not commensurate with the
level of work on the grounds and asked the
ministry to justify it. Esuene said: “If out of 42 youth centres
budgeted for, we have at least 10 to 15 of them
completed, it would have been a better result
to present. But none has been completed and
so the youths are not being trained.”
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