Nigeria fires secretaries in sign new Cabinet will be small

Buhari on Tuesday ordered mass retirements of Permanent Secretaries 24 hours ahead of inauguration of his maiden cabinet.

“Adeosun’s seeming endorsement of current FX policy choices during her senate testimony will disappoint investors who had been hoping for more rapid liberalisation of Nigeria’s FX market”, Razia Khan, chief Africa economist at Standard Chartered Bank. told Financial Times.

“Ogun state, what you had there were bandits, it was a complete shambles and she straightened it out and made it credible”, said analyst Bismarck Rewane of Lagos-based Financial Derivatives Consultancy. Ms. Adeosun previously worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in London and Nigerian investment bank Chapel Hill Denham Ltd., according to her LinkedIn… The president has said he’s taking his time to put the right people in place to help in the fight against corruption and inequality.

The head of the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Ibe Kachikwu, will be his deputy and responsible for overseeing the day-to-day running of the sector.

Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer, pumping more than two million barrels per day, and exports provide the bulk of the federal government’s revenue. “We’re probably just going to be hearing platitudes and rhetoric from them until February”.

Below are 6 notable quotes from Buhari’s address to the ministers.

Nigeria on Wednesday finally got a new government after more than five months of waiting, as 36 ministers and junior ministers swore the oath of allegiance and were assigned formal roles.

Also, the deployed permanent secretaries to the merged federal ministries are: Dr. Shehu Ahmad, Agric & Rural Development; Arch Sunday Echono, Communications; Alhaji Sabiu Zakari, Transportation, Mrs. Ayotunde Adesugba, Information & Culture; Amb.