A media expert, Martins Oloja, has urged President Bola Tinubu to rejig his cabinet and remove non-performing ministers.

Oloja, the Managing Director of The Guardian Newspapers, was a guest on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television on Sunday.

“Sometimes, you use Google to look for the names of ministers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria because of their obscurity, non-performance, and lack of action.

“I believe that there is a need for a shake-up of the bureaucracy; he (Tinubu) needs to shake up his bureaucracy, including the presidential bureaucracy comprising the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Office of the Head of Civil Service, and Chairman, Civil Service Commission,” he said.

Oloja said there is no coordination in government affairs, and reforms are needed to prevent policy somersaults.

“They have taken the steam out of the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, which is written in the Constitution,” he stated, decrying that “the civil service itself is now filled with mediocrity. We celebrate mediocrity there”.

He said the civil service is filled with “some of the worst people”.

“After the election, there should be governance. You look for the brightest and the best. As it is now, I think the President should not be telling the world: ‘I have a strong team’; he should swallow some pride and own up, listen to what the people are saying at this time about how to rejig the administration. After all, he is the one to take the credit, he is the one to take the bull,” he said.

Tinubu, former Lagos governor, constituted his cabinet in August 2023, about three months after he was sworn in as president. Two of the 48 ministers inaugurated are out of the cabinet. Simon Lalong went to the Senate while Betta Edu was suspended. With the socio-economic challenges besetting Nigeria in the last year, there have been calls for the president to rejig his cabinet but that has not happened.