Former Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun and his Housing and Urban Development counterpart, Ahmed Musa Dangiwa were not sacked, Presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, has clarified.
On Tuesday, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume announced that the two ministers had been relieved of their positions as members of the Federal Executive Council.
But in a reaction to the development, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said Edun “duly tendered his resignation from office, citing health reasons, before President Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced his replacement on Tuesday.
Onanuga also said Dangiwa on his part, similarly resigned and thanked the President for the opportunity given him to serve in the Federal Executive Council.
Onanuga’s statement partly said Edun, who clocked 70 on Monday, had “battled recent ill health, fittingly submitted his resignation letter on his birthday, thanking the President for the opportunity to serve Nigeria.
“It has been a pleasure and privilege to serve your administration and the Renewed Hope Agenda”, his letter read.
“Under your leadership, Nigeria has emerged stronger, more resilient and more internationally respected.
“I wish you and the administration every success in the future”, he wrote.
Onanuga further explained that on Tuesday, before the Office of the Secretary of the Government of the Federation announced his departure from the Cabinet, “Edun paid a valedictory visit to the President at the Villa.
“He held an hour-long discussion with the president and then left to focus on his private businesses.”
Dangiwa, an architect, previously served as the managing director of the Federal Mortgage Bank between 2015 and 2022, as well as Secretary to the Katsina State Government, before President Tinubu appointed him as housing minister in August 2023.
Edun, an economist and investment banker, served as Lagos State commissioner for finance between 1999 and 2004, during the tenure of then Governor Bola Tinubu.
Before then, he worked from 1980 to 1986 at Chase Merchant Bank (later Continental) in Lagos. He joined the World Bank in September 1986 through the elite Young Professionals programme, where he worked on economic and financial packages for several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, President Tinubu has urged the new Minister of Finance, Taiwo Oyedele, to consolidate ongoing reforms and advance the administration’s fiscal and economic objectives with renewed focus, discipline, and innovation.
The Presidential aide disclosed that President Tinubu will shortly send the ministerial nominee for housing, Muttaqha Rabe Darma, also from Katsina, like Dangiwa, to the Senate for confirmation.
