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Ministers That Should Not Make Buhari’s New Cabinet

Published

7 years ago

June 15, 2019

Eric

By: Promise Oshewa

Months after he won his second term and weeks after his swearing in, Nigerians are still waiting for President Muhammadu Buhari is yet to name his cabinet.

From all indications, Mr President is not going to hit the ground running and all Nigerians want now is if the cabinet is eventually named, they will be first-rate Nigerians.

The former cabinet members have played their part in the last administration and we have gone to town to find out which of these Ministers they do not want to return.

While some where described as inconspicuous, others had strong name recognition but failed in terms of the assignments given.

It shocked many that some of these Ministers were not shown the door in the last four years.

The power to appoint a minister no doubt is constitutionally vested in Mr. President and the crucial responsibilities of a minister are also well stipulated in Section 148 of the 1999 Constitution but what Nigerians are saying is that he must choose the right team to help take Nigeria to the next level.

Here is a list of Ministers who from our findings performed below par and Nigerians would not want them back.

Minister of Defence -Mansur Dan-Ali

A retired General, Mansur Dan-Ali in his heart of hearts knows that he has not been outstanding as the Minister of Defence l.

If there was one thing that many Nigerians believed the Buhari government will do, it was that Nigeria will be very secure.

Unfortunately this has not been the case as there has been lapses in almost all par5s parts of the country.

If it is not Herdsmen clashing with farmers, it is bandits raiding villages or kidnappers taling over major highways like Kaduna-Abuja, Ife-Ibadan and so on.

Even the Boko Haram that the government has done a great job of dealing with are still spreading sorrow, tears and blood with their terrorist

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice -Abubakar Malami

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice should not be returned to office. He has been held responsible for the cases of disobedience of court orders by the government especially in the case of Sheikh El Zaky Zakky and Col Sambo Dasuki (Rtd).

He has also been lambasted for holding on to case files and even stopping some cases which has not gone down with many.

Adebayo Shittu (Minister for Communication)

Mr Adebayo Shittu his controversies apart has not performed in his role as Minister well.

Right from his Ministerial screening at the floor of the Senate, it was obvious that he was not going to shine.

Shittu was at sea during the MTN fine saga and hasn’t articulated a single policy to improve the sector.

Solomon Dalung (Minister of Youth and Sports)

This beret-loving Minister got one of the lowest scores in our survey.

He promised grassroots development and failed, he was busy fighting the sports associations and even became a Minister of Football with his attempt to oust NFF President Amaju Pinnick

Mr Dalung’s tenure will be remebered for bringing the country to shame with the issue of the $135,000 over payment that he refused to return giving outlandish excuses.

Proper organisation and policy formulation weren’t his thing.

Usani Usani Uguru (Minister of Niger Delta)

He’s in pole position to win the most anonymous Minister award alongside several others in Buhari’s team. Sometimes, you wonder if Usani understands the demands of his office.

Instead of facing his work which is so enormous considering the development challenges of the Niger Delta Region, he was busy playing local politics in his home state of Cross River.

His meddlesome attitude was so bad that he was suspended by the ruling APC.

Abdulrahman Dambazau (Minister of Interior):

Like his counterpart in Defence, he has not performed well despite being a former General. The security situation has been his greatest albatross and it seems he has run out of ideas.

He is one of those Ministers that needed to lose weight, apologies to Mr President

Udoma Udo Udoma (Minister of Budget and National Planning):

Despite his sterling resume, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma seems to have punched above his weight with this portfolio.

There’s a feeling that Udoma was at fault for the mess that the 2016 budget became—the mangled numbers and the padding happened on his watch. In saner climes, he should have tendered his resignation after the budget fiasco.

He has not changed the budgeting process in four years and there is a thinking that he should have been given a different role in the cabinet

Mohammed Bello (FCT Minister):

Muhammed Musa Bello is only visible on the tarmac of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja,each time the President is on his way in or out of the country.

FCT residents still remember Nasir El-Rufai’sdays as Minister of the capital city with nostalgia—an indication that Bello has been a ghost Minister.

Around Abuja, no one has really felt his impact and they would wish that he steps aside

Chief Audu Ogbe

Chief Audu Ogbe if you compare him to his predecessor, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina has not done us any good.

His acclaimed revolution in agriculture has only been in the books not in reality. The elder statesman has not increased the exports of our products as he promised and even the Yam export is hindered by an Export Prohibitive Act that he should have worked with the National Assembly with to abolish.

Mallam Adamu Adamu

Mallam Adamu Adamu, the Education Minister is one of the ministers who may likely be retained in the cabinet but Nigerians are begging Mr President to resist temptation.

The Bauchi State born politician was a columnist before he joined the cabinet and has been a close associate of the President right from the Petroleum Task Fund, PTF but has failed woefully as a minster.

The public secondary and tertiary institutions have not improved under his watch. He has added nothing to the Ministry in terms of innovation.

Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu

Dr. Onu who is the current Minister of Science and Technology who has not done well.

By now with the right direction, we should be on the way to competing with the rest of the world but this Minister seem to just be marking time

Hadi Sarika

Hadi Sirika is the Minister of State for Aviation. He has received commendations for some remarkable achievements but the state of the flagship airport, Murtala Muhammed International Airport has dented his CV big time.

If he cannot upgrade the MMIA in four years he has no business in the ministry, one angry passenger told us.

DR Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour

The Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige has been one of those good men who have fallen flat. Under him, there has been too many spats with labour unions and if not for the election would have had the longest labour shutdown in recent memory.

Dr Isaac Adewole

Minister of health is one of those Ministers who has failed to live up to expectations.Just a walk to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital is enough to send him packing.

He has not done anything significant despite being a stakeholder.

Hon. Heineken Loikpobiri: Minister of State, Agriculture

Like the other ministers of State, he was just there without any achievement or ideas to affect the sector.

Featured

Strategy and Sovereignty: Inside Adenuga’s Oil Deal of the Decade

Published

2 days ago

January 11, 2026

Eric

By Michael Abimboye

In global energy circles, the most consequential deals are often not the loudest. They unfold quietly, reshape portfolios, recalibrate value, and only later reveal their full significance.

The recent strategic transaction between Conoil Producing Limited and TotalEnergies belongs firmly in that category. A deal whose implications stretch beyond balance sheets into Nigeria’s long-troubled oil production narrative.

For Mike Adenuga, named The Boss of the Year 2025 by The Boss Newspapers, the agreement is more than a corporate milestone. It is the culmination of a long-term upstream strategy that is now translating into hard value barrels, cash flow, and renewed confidence in indigenous capacity.

At the heart of the transaction is a portfolio rebalancing agreement that sees TotalEnergies deepen its interest in an offshore asset while Conoil consolidates full ownership of a producing block critical to its medium-term growth trajectory. The parties have not publicly disclosed the monetary value, industry analysts place similar offshore and shallow-water asset transfers in the high hundreds of millions of dollars, depending on reserve certification and development timelines. What is indisputable, however, is the deal’s structural clarity: each partner exits with assets aligned to its strategic strengths.

For Conoil, the transaction represents something more profound than asset shuffling. It is the validation of an indigenous oil company’s ability to operate, produce, and partner at scale. That validation was already underway in 2024, when Conoil achieved a landmark breakthrough: the successful production and export of Obodo crude, a new Nigerian crude blend from its onshore acreage.

In a country where new crude streams have become rare, Obodo’s emergence signalled operational maturity. More importantly, it shifted Conoil from being perceived primarily as a downstream and marginal upstream player into a full-spectrum producer with export-grade assets.

The commercial impact was immediate. Obodo crude enhanced Conoil’s revenue profile, strengthened cash flows, and materially improved the company’s asset valuation.

For Mike Adenuga, Obodo represented something else entirely: oil income with scale and durability. Producing crude shifts wealth from theoretical to realised. It is the difference between potential and proof.

That momentum was reinforced by Conoil’s acquisition of a new drilling rig, a move that underscored its intent to control not just resources, but execution. In an industry where rig availability often dictates production timelines, owning modern drilling capacity gives Conoil a strategic advantage lowering costs, reducing dependency, and accelerating development cycles. It also enhances the company’s bargaining power in partnerships such as the one with TotalEnergies.

Taken together, the Obodo crude success, the rig acquisition, and the TotalEnergies transaction, these moves materially expand Conoil’s enterprise value. While private company valuations remain opaque, upstream assets with proven production, infrastructure control, and international partnerships typically command significant multiple expansion. For Adenuga, all of these represents a stabilising and appreciating pillar of wealth.

As The Boss Newspapers honours Mike Adenuga as Boss of the Year 2025, the recognition lands at a moment when his oil ambitions are no longer peripheral to his legacy. They are central. In Obodo crude, in steel rigs, and in carefully negotiated partnerships, Adenuga is shaping a version of Nigerian capitalism that privileges patience, scale, and execution over spectacle.

In the end, the most powerful statement of wealth is not net worth rankings or headlines. It is the ability to convert strategy into assets, assets into production, and production into national relevance. On that score, the Conoil–TotalEnergies deal may well stand as one of the most consequential chapters in Mike Adenuga’s business story and in Nigeria’s evolving oil future.

Featured

Peter Obi, Only Life in ADC, Says Fayose

Published

3 days ago

January 10, 2026

Eric

Former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, says the former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, is the only life in the African Democratic Congress, ADC.

Fayose made this statement on Friday while fielding questions in an interview on ‘Politics Today’, a programme on Channels Television.

He also said that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is technically no more, adding that it is dead.

The former governor equally said that Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, should not be dragged into the woes of the PDP.

He said: “Obi is the only life in ADC; all other people in ADC are semi-existent. If Obi had remained in Labour Party or has gone to Accord Party, he is the only life there. All the other people there, they are not existing. They are old-forces.

“Openly, I supported Tinubu in 2023. I didn’t hide it. Till now I’m still there. I don’t jump. I have said it to you I’m not a member of APC and I will never be.”

DailyPost

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More Troubles for Ahmed Farouk: Dangote Drags Ex-NMDPRA Boss to EFCC over Corruption Claims

Published

4 days ago

January 9, 2026

Eric

The Chairman of Dangote Industries, Aliko Dangote, through his legal representative, has filed a formal corruption petition against the former Managing Director of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed, at the headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

This was disclosed in a statement made available to our correspondent by the Dangote Group media team on Friday.

Recall that Dangote had earlier petitioned the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to investigate Ahmed for allegedly spending $5 million on his children’s secondary education in Switzerland. He withdrew the petition a few days ago, even as the ICPC vowed to continue with its investigation.

The statement on Friday said Dangote’s petition to the EFCC followed “The withdrawal of the same petition from the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, a strategic decision aimed at accelerating the prosecution process.”

In the petition, signed by Lead Counsel Dr O.J. Onoja, Dangote urged the EFCC to investigate allegations of abuse of office and corrupt enrichment against Ahmed, and to prosecute him if found culpable.

The petition further stated that Dangote would provide evidence to substantiate claims of financial misconduct and impunity.

“We make bold to state that the commission is strategically positioned, along with sister agencies, to prosecute financial crimes and corruption-related offences, and upon establishing a prima facie case, the courts do not hesitate to punish offenders. See Lawan v. F.R.N (2024) 12 NWLR (Pt. 1953) 501 and Shema v. F.R.N. (2018) 9 NWLR (Pt.1624) 337,” the petition read.

Onoja further urged the commission, under the leadership of Mr Olanipekun Olukoyede, “To investigate the complaint of abuse of office and corruption against Engr. Farouk Ahmed and to accordingly prosecute him if found wanting.”