Major controversies around sacked ministers

Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, a Nigerian lawyer, entrepreneur, politician, and film producer on topped the list of the major casualties of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s first cabinet reshuffle.

The now sacked minister of women affairs was involved in four major scandals. First was her threat to sue the United Nations over funds she alleged was mismanaged.

In August, the former Minister of Women Affairs disrupted two separate events organised “without her permission” in Abuja.

She also suggested that children should be employed in producing everyday items like toothpicks, matchboxes, cotton buds, and sanitary pads to expedite urban development. She was consequently accused of endorsing child labour and violating the rights of children which she denied, saying she only meant to empower schoolgirls with vocational training.

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In May, Kennedy-Ohanenye filed a suit against the Speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly, Abdulmalik Sarkindaji, following his decision to marry off 100 orphans from his constituency.

The speaker had announced plans to marry off 100 orphans in his constituency as part of measures to alleviate their suffering. She later withdrew the suit, saying the ministry in collaboration with the speaker and traditional rulers from the state, were already investigating the ages of the girls to ascertain if they were within the stipulated age for marriage.

Prof Tahir Mamman

Prof. Mamman’s tenure was not without controversies. Reactions trailed his statement that the federal government was considering the adoption of 18 years as the entry age for admission into universities and other tertiary institutions of learning.

The development generated so much controversy that a 15-year-old Master Chinaemere Opara sued the Federal Ministry of Education, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the National Universities Commission (NUC) over the policy which seeks to limit admissions into Nigerian universities to applicants who attain the age of 18. Opara, a 15-year-old Senior Secondary School (SSS) Student, filed the suit through his guardian, Mr. Maxwell Opara, his father and a lawyer, at the Federal High Court in Abuja, yesterday.