Ministers, Political Appointees Seek Acting President’s Favour

There are indications that Ministers and other top political appointees in the Presidency have intensified moves to get into the good books of Acting President Gooluck Jonathan.

 This is sequel to growing conviction that the Acting President would carry-out his earlier threat to remove officials who mischievously advance their personal interest.

 According to The Tide’s source, their worry is based on the belief that Dr. Jonathan is awere of the roles they played in the wake of the constitutional crisis that arose following the prolonged absence of ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua.

 It would be recalled that President Yar’Adua had been hospitalised at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia since November 23, 2009 when he left the shores of Nigeria.

  The Tide’s source gathered that currently, subtle lobbying for the Acting President’s attention is rising, particularly, since he redeployed the former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mike Aondoakaa to the Ministry of Special Duties.

 The Ministers and top government functionaries are also worried over the incessant calls from various quarters for the Acting President to dissolve the Cabinet if he wants to make any meaningful improvement in governance.

 Some political parties, notably the Action Congress (AC) and Chief Edwin Clerk, a fron line Niger Delta advocate, have advised Dr. Jonathan to drop ministers noted to be underperforming.

 Such calls and seeming regrets over their earlier attitude towards Dr. Jonathan while Yar’Adua was in charge have made them feel insecure in the present dispensation.

 Some of the ministers had in the early period of Yar’Adua’s departure engaged in actions that had undermined Vice President Jonathan to the point that he had called them to order.

 Vice President Jonathan, it would be recalled, had on January 16 warned that ministers and other heads of ministries, departments and agencies who engaged in causing acrimony in the party may do so at the expence of losing their jobs.

 Jonathan’s spokesman, Mr. Ima Niboro, said the then Vice President had warned against “efforts by some well-placed individuals within and outside the administration” to take advantage of the President’s absence to cause mischief.

Currently, these set of ministers and political appointees are eargerly adopting every available means to mend fences with the Acting President through his aids.