Immediate-Past Communications Minister Adebayo Shittu has said that his exclusion from President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministerial list was shocking.
Shittu who told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja he did not expect that he would not be reappointed, said as a Muslim.
“I took it the way it came.”
The 43-member Federal Executive Council (FEC) was inaugurated by the President in Abuja on August 21.
The cabinet is made up of 14 former ministers, 29 new ones and seven females. Eighteen former ministers did not make the list.
The former minister told NAN: “Of course, I expected that I will be reappointed (as minister) but when it didn’t happen, as a Muslim, it didn’t take me five minutes before I accepted that what has come, it’s the will of God.
“And I have also found comfort in a Quranic verse when God promised that what is to come later is better than what is with you now.
“So for me, it says we must accept that there is always something better with God which he gives to his beloved.
“I see myself as a beloved of God.
“I have come a long way and I have served at the state and national levels and the experience that I have garnered over the last three and half years cannot be purchased from the stores or from the market.”
He said that as public officer, one must always have it in one’s mind that “whatever has a beginning will necessarily have an end.
“And it is not how long one stays in public office but how well you are able to distinguished yourself,” he said.
Shittu, who is a lawyer, said he had decided to return to his profession.
He said: “I want to thank God that I am one politician who has a second address in the sense that, if I am not a minister, I will be doing some other productive things which will also contribute to national development.
“Of course, I would have wished that I have other opportunities to serve.”
I believe the chapter of my public service is not closed.
“By the grace of God, I will continue to be relevant in national development.
“As a lawyer of about 40 years, I now have my chambers opened in Abuja. So, I am back in practice,” he said.
Shittu, who thanked God for the opportunity to serve as minister, also thanked the President for the appointment.
He said: “I have been a local politician for almost 40 years before the opportunity to serve at the national level. I really appreciate it and I want to say that I am eternally grateful to Mr. President.
“So, for me to have been in office for three and half years, I think it is a rear privilege for which I will continue to thank God and to continue to thank Mr President.”
Shittu, who was the youngest lawmaker at the age of 26 to be elected into the Oyo State House of Assembly in 1979, aspired to run for Oyo State governor under the All Progressives Party (APC).
He was disqualified by the APC leadership for skipping the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
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