President Goodluck Jonathan has reshuffled his cabinet, dropping nine ministers including Prof. Ita Okon Bassey Ewa, formerly of Science and Technology ministry.
Others affected are Ruqayat Rufai (Education); Zainab Kunchi (Power, [state]); Buka Tijani (Agriculture [state]), Shamsudeen Usman (National Planning; Olugbenga Ashiru (Foreign Affairs); Ama Pepple (Lands); and Hadiza Mailafia (Environment).
Nigerians had long expected President Jonathan to rejig his lackluster cabinet which has largely failed to deliver services to the Nigerian people.
Prof. Ewa’s performance at the ministry Science and Technology was below par.
At one point the ministry’s site was redundant for more than 10 months meaning that either the ministry was idle or lack the expertise to upload its activities in nearly one year.
Such important ministry in this modern age operated in fits and starts under Ewa’s watch.
Stakeholders in the sector had doubt if the former minister of Science and Technology understood the increasing role of science as a currency for international diplomacy.
Chuks Arubaleze, a public affairs commentator and ICT lawyer said “if indeed that website has been redundant, then something is wrong somewhere.”
He said that the ministry along with communications technology should be mirror of the country showing progresses made in the science and technology space.
The ministry claimed that global economic landscape is experiencing rapid changes.
According to the information on the ministry’s website “Globalisation, especially is creating considerable new opportunities and new challenges.
Its impact on national economies is driven by significant progress in S&T as exemplified by a plethora of breakthroughs in Biotechnology, Space Research, Energy Development among others. It is therefore obvious that if Nigeria, given its natural endowments, is to successfully transform its economy and take her rightful place in the comity of nations, S&T and its integration in national socio-economic development processes must be accorded the highest priority”