A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State, Senator Yisa Braimoh has commended President Goodluck Jonathan for dropping nine ministers from his cabinet.
In a statement at the weekend, he described the President’s action as part of “strategic steps” towards reinvigorating government policy and programme formulation process, saying that it is a clear signal that he is in charge.
Senator Braimoh, a member of the Nigerian Senators’ Forum said, “The very timely and politically calculated sack of nine ministers is not only strategic, but sends a very clear message that Mr. President is in charge and in full control of the polity.
“I wish to use this medium to congratulate President Jonathan on the bold move and I call on him not to hesitate to weed out other ministers with questionable loyalty and replace them with loyal ministers in order to sustain the tempo of his transformation agenda.”
He also commended the President Jonathan and the leadership of the PDP, especially Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, to the current efforts at pacifying aggrieved governors and reconciling them with the party leadership.
However, Senator Braimoh said the President should not be bothered should the ongoing peace talks with rebel governors fail to yield positive results.
“President Jonathan should not lose sleep at all in the event the peace talks with the rebelling governor break down irredeemably. This is because a majority of the G-7 Governors and their states were totally irrelevant to the resounding success of the PDP in the presidential election of 2011.
“They have another opportunity to work in concert with the Federal Government and well meaning Nigerians in their respective states to ensure victory for Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election, or else victory will be achieved without them at the polls and this will not be good for them.
“In 2011, Governors Rabiu Kwankwanso of Kano, Sule Lamido of Jigawa, Magatakarda Wammako of Sokoto and Babangida Aliyu of Niger State could not deliver their states to the PDP in the presidential election. I wonder what noise they are making. Their threat should be discountenanced. What more can they probably do this time round that was not done in 2011?
“The good thing this time is that President Jonathan’s government has done well in the building of road infrastructure, resuscitation of the rail transportation, giving a facelift to the nation’s airports, boosting the agriculture sector and building the administrative cum technical infrastructure for bolstering power generation, transmission and distribution, et al.
“These and others are the tangible achievements that well meaning Nigerians will look at when the time comes to revalidate the president’s mandate and not the campaign of calumny by some disgruntled politicians who are being propelled by selfish rather than national interests,” the former Senator said.
He also enjoined the National Chairman of the PDP, Bamanga Tukur,to immediately give all known supporters or members of the so-called new PDP who are holding political offices or appointments a week ultimatum to resign such appointments or face dismissal.
