Why Youth Devt Minister was
sacked on august 27, 2013 at 10:15 am
in news By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor,
North & Caleb Ayansina President Goodluck Jonathan,
yesterday, sacked the Minister
of Youth Development, Inuwa
Abdulkadir, from his cabinet. A statement from the Office of
the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation,
Senator Pius Anyim, did not
give reasons for the sudden
termination of Abdulkadir’s appointment. The statement, signed by Mr.
Sam Nwaobasi, Special
Assistant on Media to the SGF,
directed him to hand over to
the Permanent Secretary in his
office with immediate effect. It said: “President Goodluck
Jonathan has relieved Inuwa
Abdulkadir of his appointment
as Minister of Youth
Development with effect from
August 26. “The former Minister is to hand
over to the Permanent
Secretary of the Federal
Ministry of Youth Development. *Inuwa Abdulkadir “Mr. President expresses
appreciation to the former
Minister for the time he put in
the services of the nation and
wishes him success in his
future endeavours.” Likely reason Vanguard learnt from reliable
government sources that the
sack of the minister, while on
an official assignment in
Calabar, the Cross River State
capital, took him and his staff unawares. It was learnt that the
relationship between Jonathan
and the sacked minister went
sour shortly after the
controversial election of the
National Youth Council of Nigeria, NYCN, which produced
one Yakubu Shendam, against
the wish of majority of the
members. After the election in May, many
groups, sympathetic to
President Jonathan’s re-
election in 2015, reported
Abdulkadir to the President,
accusing him of imposing a candidate of his choice on
them. In spite of the protest by pro-
Jonathan groups, the minister
was said to have stood his
grounds that Shendam remains
the new leader of NYCN. In defiance of the protest,
Abdulkadir on May 28 formally
received Shendam and some
members of the council in his
office as the newly-elected
executives of the council. Benue meeting Consequently, other aggrieved
youth groups met in Benue and
called for his removal for
allegedly causing crisis rocking
the council. It was alleged that the
minister’s role in the council’s
crisis strongly indicated that
Abdulkadir had been an
‘infiltrator’ in President
Jonathan’s cabinet. The youths said: “With this
action, the Minister has shown
the entire world that he lacks
the integrity to still continue as
the Youth Minister in a
government that preaches adherence to the rule of law
and prides itself as government
of transformation. “The action of the minister was
an aberration and a deliberate
attempt to incite the entire
Nigerian youths against the
government of President
Goodluck Jonathan, having considered the challenging
security situation in Nigeria. “We have refused to be
provoked and to go on the
street as civilised youths of this
great nation. “We humbly appeal that
President Goodluck Jonathan
should, with immediate effect,
relieve the minister of his
position since he has been
disconnected from the president’s Transformation
Agenda in the management
and administration of youth
development activities in
Nigeria.” National Assembly’s angle Apart from falling out of favour
with the youths, the sacked
minister is reported to have
lost touch with members of the
National Assembly Committee
on Youth Development shortly after being appointed into the
cabinet. Vanguard investigation also
revealed that the minister did
not enjoy a smooth working
relationship with the member
of the National Assembly. He frequently clashed with
members over the
implementation of projects
earmarked for the ministry. For instance, the Senate
Committee Chairman on
Women Affairs, Social and
Youth Development, Senator
Helen Esuene, alongside other
members of her committee, discovered some discrepancies
between figures got from the
office of the Accountant-
General of the Federation and
those submitted to it by the
ministry in connection with the funds released to the ministry
for the 2012 budget. The committee noted with
displeasure that the figures
said to have been released and
spent by the ministry was not
commensurate with the level
of work on the grounds and asked the ministry to justify it. Esuene said: “If out of 42 youth
centres budgeted for, we have
at least 10 to 15 of them
completed, it would have been
a better result to present. But
none has been completed and so the youths are not being
trained.”

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