Newscenter Media News Adebayo Shittu, Nigeria’s former Minister of Communication, has defended the Nigerian Government by suggesting that having 50 ministers in the cabinet is justified, considering the country’s vast population and the workload of various ministries.
Shittu made this assertion during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday evening.
President Bola Tinubu recently dismissed five ministers, including Uju-Ken Ohanenye (Women Affairs), Lola Ade-John (Tourism), Prof. Tahir Mamman (Education), Abdullahi Muhammad Gwarzo (Housing and Urban Development), and Dr. Jamila Bio Ibrahim (Youth Development).
Conversely, seven new ministers were appointed, with notable assignments including Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Jumoke Oduwole as Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment.
Shittu argued that reducing the number of ministers to save costs would be counterproductive, citing the ever-expanding nature of governance. “There is no point saving a kobo, and in the process, you lose so much naira. Nigeria is made up of 200 million people. Ministers appointed are supposed to come and serve these 200 million people, and you would agree with me that the content of governance is ever-expanding.”
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He emphasized, “Government is thinking ahead to bring in new ministries, new subject matters, and so on. So, for me, a situation where we do penny wise, pound foolish, at the end of the day would be counterproductive.”
Shittu highlighted the substantial workload of ministries like Agriculture and Education, each overseeing over 50 agencies. “If you take the Ministry of Agric, it is one of the largest ministries we have. The agencies under the Federal Ministry and the agencies under the Ministry of Education are certainly more than 50 in each case.”
He questioned, “So, if you have 50 agencies under a ministry, you expect one person to be able to adequately take care of the core content of the ministry itself and also be able to take care in a supervisory role, of the more than 50 agencies under them? That will certainly be too unwieldy.”
Shittu pointed to international examples where separate ministries are established for primary and higher education. “And that is why in some respect, in some countries, you have a separate ministry of primary education, you also have a ministry of higher education, and so on and so forth.”
Shittu reaffirmed, “There is a need for us to be realistic to look for people who can adequately take care of these ministries, both the real content of the ministry and the agencies under them. So to the best of my knowledge, having 50 ministers is not too many for a huge country like Nigeria for the enormous responsibilities that many of these ministries have to undertake.”
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