Jonathan picks Shekarau as Education minister

Jonathan picks Shekarau as Education minister

President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday swore in four ministers and allocated portfolio to each of them.

Those sworn in before the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting included Ibrahim Shekarau (Kano), Abu Bulama (Yobe State), Stephen Oru (Delta State) and Adedayo Adeyeye (Ekiti).

Their appointments were last week Wednesday confirmed by the Senate.

The President assigned Shekarau as Minister of Education, Stephen Oru as Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Abu Bulama as Minister of Science and Technology and Adedayo Adeyeye as Minister of State for Works.

Bashir Yuguda, who was the substantive Minister of State for Works, has now been moved to Minister of State for Finance and to continue to supervise the National Planning Commission.

Jonathan tasked them to put in their best in the new assignments as there is no time to sleep on the job.

He said: “Let me congratulate you for this appointment, but it is not an enviable appointment because in football match when you get to the injury time and a player is brought in you expect goals from the player.”

“This government has less than a year to go and you have been brought in this time, so you know the reason why you have been brought in. You have no time to sleep, unfortunately for you because first you have to learn how to climb the ropes, because maybe it is a different setting, no matter how experienced you are, if you go to something different you will need sometime to adjust.”

“But from your background we know that all of you are eminently qualified to be here and we know that it will not take you too many hours to settle down. We believe that you will perform not just to satisfy Mr. President but to satisfy Nigerians. You are not just serving the President as a principal aide, but you are serving our motherland and in this we will expect the best from you especially at this time when there is global competition