Breaking News: Nigerian Education Minister, others sacked

President Goodluck Jonathan has reshuffled his cabinet, dropping nine ministers. The ministers affected are Ruqayat Rufai (Education); Zainab Kuchi (Power, [state]); Buka Tijani (Agriculture [state]), Shamsudeen Usman (National Planning; Ita Okon (Science and Technology);  Olugbenga Ashiru (Foreign Affairs); Ama Pepple (Lands) and Hadiza Mailafia (Environment). Nigerians had long expected President Jonathan to sack members of his cabinet who had largely failed to deliver services to the Nigerian people. But while the expectation mounted, Mr. Jonathan repeatedly  dispelled speculation that he had plans to fire non-performing ministers. Last August, he unveiled a rating procedure known as Performance Contract Agreement for ministers but said he would not use the result of the assessment in considering who to fire.  Mr. Jonathan said the assessment would only appraise his administration’s performance and delivery of targets to Nigerians. “I read all kinds of things in the media, that the President wants to assess the ministers so that he would know who would go and who would stay. That is not the purpose of this. “We would have done it probably in the first week when we came on board, but the key thing is that we have given ourselves points that we think we will get at, we believe that if we get at those points or even if we achieve 70 per cent of that, at least it will be better off for our own country,” the President said. According to the President, the exercise was to ensure enhanced performance, transparency and accountability in governance, adding that it was not a witch-hunting exercise. “I want to assure every one of you who has taken part in the exercise that this is not a witch-hunt targeted at anybody,” the President said in his remarks after the signing ceremony. Nine of those who signed that contract have now been sacked, although it is not clear what criteria the President adopted in deciding those he fired.