By Matthias Ogbagah

Ex-Niger Delta Militant Gen.Eshanakpe Israel, a.k.a Akpodoro, the Mayor of Urhoboland, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to sack five nonperforming ministers who he said preponderate his cabinet, chasing clouts rather than adding value to the realization of the Renewed Hope Agenda of the current administration.

Akpodoro, who is the National President of the National Coalition of Niger Delta Ex-Agitators, NCNDE-A, made the call in Abuja during a critical stakeholders meeting of NCNDE-A held to review the achievements or otherwise of the All Progressives Congress, APC-led Federal Government.

The meeting, according to the Mayor, who sits on the head of the Association of Family Mayoral Crown as incorporated, was hugely successful as matters of urgent national importance were discussed by the echelon of Urhobo youths and persons of the Niger Delta region.

Speaking to Rainbow Newspaper, he said the Coalition called on the President to immediately rejig his cabinet without further delay to pave the way for a more robust interaction between the government and the citizens, noting that currently, most ministers are inactive in their respective positions of authority.

Notably among them, Akpodoro said, is the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Minister of Power and Energy, Minister of Education, Minister of Commerce and Industry, and Minister of Youths and Sports, among others, including the agencies under their supervision.

He added that unless the ministers are sacked and new ones appointed, the achievements of Tinubu’s administration will perpetually remain unnoticed.

Mayor Akpodoro noted that the current administration had recorded so much progress in all facets of the economy but for the deliberate silence of his appointees who keep mute without interacting with members of the public, giving room for damaging rumors of all shades against the government and making it seemingly unpopular because they lack information.

Expressing his worries he noted;

“They won’t work and won’t allow public-spirited individuals to support the government. Call to make inquiries from them, no Nigerian minister would ever pick up your calls. They are too proud to take calls, not even with serious issues on their hands.

“They will never respond, not even text messages on their phones. They are not loyal and patriotic to the government and should be sacked to pave the way for those with reformative and innovative ideas and the capacity for interactions with the people to take center stage.

“The achievements of this government for eighteen months running cut across every segment of our national life, but the political system is grossly disjointed and dysfunctional. There’s no accurate feedback from the citizens, just as the citizens are starved of information by agents of the administration, and this trend must change.

“How can you have an information ministry that does not keep the citizens abreast of information? Its agency – NOA, is also dereliction in its service to the nation.

“Nigerians hardly know the names of their Ministers due to dormancy and cluelessness. We are at a loss on what the SGF and the Chief of Staff are coordinating, and the duo are equally guilty like the ministers.

“A protest is rumored to be scheduled for October 1; till now, our NOA is deeply asleep and not knowing what to tell Nigerians due to gross ineptitude and laxity.

“All agencies of the federal government are quiet until a few hours before the planned protest. You will hear them make scanty statements here and there. The budget of their offices is forbidden to be spent on public relations but for frivolities and empty clout chasing. The President must sack them all.

“For those of us who spend our hard-earned resources to enlighten, educate, and inform the people on the positives of the policies and programs of this administration, nobody supports us or even commends us.

“It is a duty that national solidarity and patriotism brought upon our shoulders. Our love and passion for this administration have turned us into the evangelists of Renewed Hope Agenda due to our implicit confidence in President Tinubu’s government”.

He stressed that the recent outburst by the presidency of its intention to relieve some ministers of their duties vindicates Akpodoro’s earlier call for the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris Malagi to be sacked for not marketing the administration but sleeping on duty