by Moyo Salvador

The Minister of Youth Development, Inuwa Abdulkadir, was yesterday sacked from President Goodluck Jonathan’s cabinet with immediate effect.

A statement issued from the office of Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, relayed the news of the termination of Abdulkadir’s appointment. No official reason was given for Abdulkadir’s sack.

However, according to reports from government sources, the relationship between Jonathan and the sacked minister went sour shortly after the controversial election of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, NYCN, which produced one Yakubu Shendam, against the wish of majority of the members.

After the election in May, many groups, sympathetic to President Jonathan’s re-election in 2015, reported Abdulkadir to the President, accusing him of imposing a candidate of his choice on them.

In spite of the protest by pro-Jonathan groups, the minister was said to have stood his grounds that Shendam remains the new leader of NYCN.

In defiance of the protest, Abdulkadir on May 28 formally received Shendam and some members of the council in his office as the newly-elected executives of the council.

Consequently, other aggrieved youth groups met in Benue and called for his removal for allegedly causing crisis rocking the council.

It was alleged that the minister’s role in the council’s crisis strongly indicated that Abdulkadir had been an ‘infiltrator’ in President Jonathan’s cabinet.

The youths said:

“We humbly appeal that President Goodluck Jonathan should, with immediate effect, relieve the minister of his position since he has been disconnected from the president’s Transformation Agenda in the management and administration of youth development activities in Nigeria.”