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See 10 New Ministries Tinubu Created, Modified

Published

2 years ago

August 17, 2023

President Bola Tinubu allocated portfolios to the 45 ministerial nominees on Wednesday, nine days after they were screened and confirmed by the Senate.

Recall that the allotted portfolios were announced to journalists by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale.

As Nigerians begin to react to who got what in Tinubu’s cabinet, Vanguard noted about 10 newly-created or modified ministries by the President.

Here are the portfolios that are created or modified in Tinubu’s cabinet:

1. Marine and Blue Economy

This is one of the new ministries created by Tinubu with Bunmi Tunji-Ojo as Minister. The marine and blue economy involves the economic activities associated with the oceans and seas.

The World Bank defines the blue economy as the “sustainable use of ocean resources to benefit economies, livelihoods, and ocean ecosystem health.”

The scope includes biotechnology, undersea cabling, coastal tourism, and renewable energy, among others.

Tunji-Ojo, the minister-designate in charge of the ministry, studied Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and studied Electronics and Communication Engineering at the University of North London, now London Metropolitan University.

He was a former member of the House of Representatives. He worked in committees such as National Security and Intelligence, Local Content, Gas Resources, North East Development Commission (NEDC), Housing, FCT Area Council and Ancillary Matters, Solid Minerals, and Pilgrims Affairs.

2. Tourism

Another newly-created ministry is Tourism. The President appointed Lola Ade-John as the minister. Tourism is one of the biggest economic activities in the world today. It involves the pursuit of recreation, relaxation, and pleasure while making use of the commercial provision of services.

Ade-John is a banking and tech expert. She studied Computer Science at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Ade-John is currently the Principal Consultant at Novateur Business Technology Consultants, a company she founded in 2014, having served in many capacities in the banking and tech sectors.

3. Art, Culture and the Creative Economy

This ministry combines three aspects. The culture sector was merged with information in the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, with Lai Mohammed as minister.

Tinubu, however, has brought art and the creative economy to blend with the culture to be headed by Hannatu Musawa.

Arts deal with the application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.

Also, culture has branches of the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society. And the creative economy includes advertising, architecture, crafts, design, fashion, film, video, photography, music, performing arts, publishing, research and development, software, and computer games, electronic publishing, and television and radio activities.

Musawa has the task of managing all these to the advantage of the country, as Nigeria’s creative economy has become a big market already.

She holds a degree in Law from the University of Buckingham, the United Kingdom, and took a Postgraduate Master’s in the Legal Aspects of Marine Affairs from the University of Cardiff, Wales. She also has a Postgraduate Master’s Degree in Oil and Gas Law from the University of Aberdeen.

Musawa worked as the Deputy Spokesperson and Deputy Director of Public Affairs at the All Progressives Congress, APC, Presidential Council Committee during the 2023 general elections and emerged as the Special Adviser to the President on Culture and Entertainment Economy.

4. Gas Resources

The Ministry of Gas Resources has been separated from Petroleum Resources. Nigeria is ranked 8th among countries with the biggest gas reserves, so there is a high expectation that the country will maximise it for its economic benefits.

Nigeria, according to a report, comes after the United Arab Emirates, UAE, with natural gas reserves of 5.85 trillion cubic meters.

Ekperikpe Ekpo has been appointed as the Minister of State for Gas Resources. He was a former Senatorial seat candidate and a career politician.

He is the Director General of the Akwa Ibom Democratic Forum (ADF). He is expected to work in the implementation of policies passed by the Tinubu administration that are directed at making Nigeria a gas-based country, by promoting industrialisation, power generation and distribution, clean cooking, and auto-use that are reliant on gas.

5. Steel Development

The steel development is another new ministry to be headed by Shuaibu Audu. The portfolio was carved out from Mines and Steel Development, which was headed by Olamilekan Adegbite under Buhari.

As Tinubu had pledged to complete the Ajaokuta Steel Company, which is expected to create thousands of jobs for Nigerians, the ministry will work on the improvement of all steel and metallic resources in the country for economic growth and development.

Shuaibu Audu, the son of the former governor of Kogi State, Abubakar Audu, has an impressive background as an executive director with Stanbic IBTC, holding an MBA from the University of Oxford and an MSC in international securities and investment banking from the ICMA Centre of Henley Business School, University of Reading.

6. Finance and Coordinating Economy

The portfolio of the coordinating minister was first created by former President Goodluck Jonathan, with the current Director-General, World Trade Organisation, WTO, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the Minister.

While it should be said that Buhari’s administration did not recognise such, Tinubu has re-created finance and coordinating economy and appointed his former commissioner, Wale Edun, to be in charge.

The finance and coordinating economy is aimed at setting guidelines for managing government financial risks, financial exposure with respect to all loans and instruments, borrowings and loans, and supervising all other finance-oriented parastatals and agencies, among others.

Edun has an impressive background in economics, public finance, international finance, merchant banking, and corporate finance at national and international levels.

He is the founder of Denham Management Limited and Chairman of Livewell Initiative, a health sector Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). Edun is also a Trustee of Sisters Unite for Children, an NGO dedicated to assisting needy children.

7. Health and Social Welfare

The President created social welfare and merged it with health to have an encompassing ministry.

Social welfare is catering to communities and people to survive, especially in remote areas. The social welfare assistance programmes offer food, shelter, and medical care that citizens cannot readily access.

Tinubu has allotted the portfolio to Professor Ali Pate, a physician and politician who is a Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard University.

Pate formerly served as the Global Director for Health, Nutrition, and Population and Director of the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF) at the World Bank Group. Pate is also the former Minister of State for Health.

8. Aviation and Aerospace Development

Aerospace development was created and merged with Aviation and the President has appointed Festus Keyamo to be the minister.

While aviation has to do with the operation of airline agencies within and outside the country, aerospace is the advancement of human technology that enables the travel and exploration of the earth’s atmosphere and the surrounding space, including the aerospace engineering field covering research and development, design and manufacturing.

Keyamo is a legal practitioner and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). He served as the Minister of State for Labour and Employment in Buhari’s administration.

9. Youth Development

In the previous administrations, Sports and Youth were operated as a single ministry, but Tinubu has brought out the Ministry of Youth from it to be manned by Abubakar Momoh.

The youth development ministry is expected to focus on the optimal utilisation of Nigerian youths for national pride across the globe. It is estimated that 60 percent of Nigeria’s population is under the age of 25, larger than any African country.

Abubakar Momoh has been appointed as the Minister of Youth. He is a civic engineer and politician who has served twice as a member of the House of Representatives, representing Etsako federal constituency Edo state.

10. Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation

The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs is to develop humanitarian policies and provide effective coordination of national and international humanitarian interventions. Poverty alleviation is a designed set of measures, both economic and humanitarian, intended to lift people out of poverty.

The new ministry was created from the Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development under Buhari’s government, which was headed by Sadiya Farouq.

President Tinubu has allotted the modified ministry of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation to Betta Edu, the former national women leader of APC.

Edu was Cross River State Commissioner for Health until her resignation in 2022. She was also the National Chairman of the Nigeria Health Commissioners Forum.

She has a Post-Graduate Diploma in Public Health for Developing Countries from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a master’s degree in Public Health in Developing Countries from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a Doctor of Public Health from Texila American University.

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N200b Agric Credit Dispute: Appeal Court Slams NAIC, Upholds First Bank Victory

Published

2 hours ago

November 29, 2025

Editor

The Court of Appeal, Abuja, has dismissed the appeal filed by the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) against First Bank of Nigeria in the long-running dispute over the disbursement of the Federal Government’s N200 billion Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme.

The decision was one of seven precedent-setting judgments delivered in six hours on Friday by Justice Okon Abang, underscoring his reputation as a hardworking, firm, and uncompromisingly principled jurist whose rulings continue to shape Nigeria’s legal landscape across criminal, human rights, banking, and civil litigation.

In 2013, the NAIC dragged First Bank before the Federal High Court via originating summons, alleging that the bank failed to deduct the mandatory 2.5 per cent premium under the agriculture credit scheme. First Bank promptly filed a counter-affidavit and written address, with both sides joining issues and exchanging further processes over the years.

But when the case was ripe for hearing, NAIC sought to suddenly withdraw its suit—claiming an unnamed Bankers’ Committee representative had approached it for an out-of-court settlement.

First Bank objected, insisting that once pleadings had been exchanged, withdrawal without consent should lead to dismissal, not a mere striking out. To strike out, the bank argued, would allow NAIC a second bite at the cherry—an abuse of process.

The Federal High Court agreed and dismissed the suit, prompting NAIC to head to the Court of Appeal.

Delivering the unanimous judgment of the Court of Appeal, Justice Abang held that NAIC’s appeal was “grossly misconceived” and that, having seen the bank’s defence, NAIC attempted to retreat and re-strategise, “only being smart, believing that it could cunningly manipulate judicial proceedings to save a suit that appears weak and manifestly unsupported.”

He stressed that, once a defendant’s counter-affidavit has been served, any withdrawal by the claimant must naturally lead to dismissal, not striking out, to avoid overreaching the respondent.

Justice Abang agreed with the trial court that, “Since issues have been joined and the matter has previously been adjourned on several occasions, the proper order to make on the application of the plaintiff is to dismiss the suit.”

The Court of Appeal also questioned NAIC’s reliance on an alleged intervention by the Bankers’ Committee—a non-party that had earlier resisted being joined in the matter.

The appellate court concluded that NAIC, having sighted the bank’s counter-affidavit, simply lost confidence in its case and sought a “soft landing” to refile later.

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Nigeria Records One Of Africa’s Widest Gaps In Policy Reputation Index

Published

3 hours ago

November 29, 2025

Editor

Nigeria has been identified as one of the African nations suffering the largest disconnect between policy delivery and citizen trust, a finding described as the “defining governance crisis” across the continent, according to the inaugural RPI African Policy Index 2025 released by Reputation Poll International (RPI).

The comprehensive Index, which evaluates governance and policy performance across all 54 African countries, places Nigeria in the middle tier of “Strugglers” with an overall score of 52.3. This category reflects nations that achieve partial policy results but fail to earn public confidence.

Drawing from hard data on policy implementation and perception surveys involving over 25,000 Africans, the report shows that Nigeria records one of the continent’s widest Trust Gaps, sometimes exceeding 25 points between objective performance and citizen confidence.

The report flags Nigeria alongside South Africa, Angola, Egypt, and Zimbabwe as countries with the most severe mismatches.

In Nigeria, anti-corruption laws and other initiatives score reasonably well on paper but fail to inspire public trust due to perceived elite impunity and inconsistent enforcement.

Similar patterns exist across these nations, where oil wealth, infrastructure spending, and progressive legislation do not convince ordinary citizens that governments genuinely serve their interests. This trust deficit is highlighted as Africa’s core governance challenge.

The Index emphasises that without deliberate measures to close the gap—through transparent data, citizen audits, and visible accountability—policy ambitions alone cannot produce stable or legitimate outcomes.

By contrast, a small group of nations scoring above 70 demonstrate that world-class governance is achievable when delivery is matched by citizen belief.

Mauritius leads with 78.9, followed by Seychelles at 76.4, Cabo Verde at 74.8, and Botswana at 73.2. These countries excel because strong economic management, high vaccination rates, transparent institutions, and consistent progress in education and digital reforms are reinforced by equally high public trust.

Botswana and Mauritius succeed not because they are wealthy, but because they systematically include citizens in monitoring and feedback, narrowing the trust deficit to near zero.

Over half of Africa, however, remains far from this standard. The Strugglers tier (50–69.9) encompasses 30 countries, while 18 “Systemic Challengers” score below 50, from Sierra Leone at 49.2 to South Sudan at 28.4.

In these countries, structural breakdowns, chronic insecurity, and collapsed legitimacy produce average Trust Gaps of 35 points, undermining even modest policy efforts amid daily experiences of violence and exclusion.

Central Africa records the lowest regional average at 41.2, while Southern Africa dominates the top tier. West, East, and North Africa deliver mixed results.

For Nigerian leadership, the Index sends a clear message: policy formulation alone is no longer sufficient. As the country grapples with debt, youth unemployment, and climate pressures, bridging the Trust Gap through better communication, transparency, and inclusive monitoring has become essential to achieve sustained development and restore public confidence.

The RPI African Policy Index 2025 stands as both a warning and a roadmap: unless the trust deficit is addressed, Africa’s governance crisis will only deepen.
(GUARDIAN)