Two weeks after he dropped four ministers, indications are that President Goodluck Jonathan may soon offload five more ministers from his cabinet, according to a report this morning in Daily Sun.

The paper quoted unnamed sources as saying that in the quest to “rejuvenate his cabinet ahead of the 2015 general elections,” the President is considering a further tinkering with the cabinet.

“The action would be on two flanks: the first is the need to convince Nigerians that the Jonathan administration is serious about fighting corruption and the other is that Nigerians should still trust the PDP government to deliver democracy dividends,” the report said, adding:

“Some of the ministers to be off-loaded have been with this administration since 2010 while two others joined in 2011. Out of the five ministers, three are big-wigs in the administration from the South as they head Grade A ministries while the other two are from the North.

“One of the ministers was said to have performed ‘below expectation such that the sensitive ministry has not been able to come to grips with how to deliver democracy dividends to Nigerians…’

“Others were simply said to have ‘no electoral value and their hands have been caught in the pie, more often than not…’ In another instance, one of the ministers reportedly embarrassed the Federal Government with his conduct with international investors, who were approached through a third party for bribe.

“The matter reportedly got to the attention of the President, who was persuaded not to take immediate action as it might have a negative effect on the government.

“Others simply failed the performance evaluation set by the President for them last year while some were also regarded as ‘controversial.’ ”

Daily Sun quoted one of its sources as saying: “A number of the affected ministers have been piling up pressure on some influential Nigerians who have the ears of the President. These ministers have even formed the habit of tracing them to their homes, all in a bid to save their jobs.”

The paper said that one of the affected ministers recently met with a statesman, regarded as a staunch ally of Mr. President to survive the impending hammer but the statesman simply retorted: “Please, minister, I cannot help you,” and urged him to “clear yourself of any charge before the President who is your employer…”

•Photo shows President Jonathan.

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