Abaribe: Cabinet reshuffle won’t solve fundamental problems

Enyinnaya Abaribe, senator representing Abia south senatorial district, says the recent rejig of the federal cabinet would not solve Nigeria’s fundamental problems.

On Wednesday, President Bola Tinubu implemented a cabinet reshuffle, which led to the sack of five ministers.

Seven more were hired, with 10 ministers assigned fresh portfolios.

Speaking in an interview with Arise Television on Thursday, Abaribe said the president has not addressed fundamental issues.

The senator opined that the hardship in the country can be traced to not dealing with the root of the malaise.

“I do not think that the problem is the cabinet. My own view is that there are fundamentals that the president ought to have taken into consideration even before you constitute your cabinet and you decide this is your economic direction,” he said.

“Failure to deal with those fundamentals is why we are here. So it doesn’t matter who you put there. Put an Einstein there and he will still fail.

“What are the fundamentals? First, we are a very poor country with a massive debt overhang. What do you do when you are poor? The first thing you do is to cut your coat according to your size.”

Abaribe said the expansion of the cabinet has increased cost of governance. He added that Nigerians expected a prudent administration and not one that splurges on the purchase of a presidential jet for instance.

“What does the man on the street see? He sees you living in extravagance, enjoying and you are telling him things are getting rougher. He is seeing inflation rise and the cost of fuel and electricity rise. So, what you will get on the street is mass anger,” he said.

The senator questioned why the president spared Heineken Lokpobiri, minister of state for petroleum resources (oil).

“The second fundamental… so the president is firing every minister but didn’t fire the minister of petroleum? Why?” Abaribe asked.

“Because what is the fundamental thing that we use to have foreign exchange? It is just how much oil we can produce. That should have been your very first focus to say ‘how do we increase oil production?’

“We pay off all the debts that have been borrowed by the previous government. By the way, this previous government was also an APC government that brought us to this point.

“And then we have another APC government coming and that APC government is pretending that that was not part of its history.”