Yar’Adua Moves To Take Charge Of PDP - Plans To Reshuffle Cabinet

By Wale Adele - 01.03.2008

The favourable judgment from the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal on Tuesday seems to have galvanised President Umar Yar’Adua to take full charge of government and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.

Consequently, unlike before the judgment, the president has shown interest in the forthcoming national convention of the PDP and is also planning to reshuffle his cabinet.

Impeccable sources in The Presidency confided in Saturday Tribune that the president’s resolve to take full control of his government and the PDP is borne out of his conviction that his men should occupy key positions in the national leadership of the ruling PDP and in his government.

Sources told Saturday Tribune that the president had his mind on a former lawmaker to emerge as PDP’s new national chairman at the March 8 convention of the party, and that he had instructed his foot soldiers – including some members of the National Assembly and some governors – to work for the candidate.

Though the president has not come out openly to endorse any candidate for the party’s chairmanship position, it was learnt that he had told his loyalists in the party whom to work for.

It was also learnt that the president is planning to reposition his cabinet.

For example, a new minister is being proposed for the Energy Ministry. It was learnt that the minister is familiar with the energy sector and that is the principal reason he is being drafted to the Energy Ministry.

President Yar’Adua is also said to be interested in the Transport Ministry and may move the incumbent minister to another ministry, since the present government had said it was ready to revive the rail system and turn around the fortune of the entire system, owing to the central role of the sector in the government’s seven-point agenda to revamp the economy.

It will be recalled that the president had set up a committee, which he headed himself, to appraise the performance of the ministers.

The source said the imminent cabinet reshuffle would reflect the recommendation of that committee, which had advised the president to put the right pegs in the right holes in order to move the government fast and on the right track.

While it was learnt that no minister may be dropped at the first instance, but those considered not to have performed to expectation may eventually get the boot if they refuse to buckle up.

According to the source, the performance rating submitted on some ministers was below average, a situation which sources said unsettled the president.

Another source in the National Assembly disclosed that the president could not stand aloof on the matter of who becomes the next national chairman of the party.

“Many of the Katsina lawmakers who had worked with the president in Katsina State while he was governor, are now rooting for a particular candidate, an indication that it must be the president’s choice,” the source said.

As against former governor Sam Egwu of Ebonyi State whose candidature is being facilitated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, many of the Northern state governors are rooting for former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, and speculation is rife that the northern governors are carrying out the instruction of President Umar Yar’Adua.