Laolu Akande, an ex-aide to former Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, has asked President Bola Tinubu to clarify which minister is in charge of innovation.
The President had assigned Uche Nnaji as the minister of science, technology and innovation and Bosun Tijani as the minister of communications, innovation and digital economy—making innovation appear in two different ministries.
Akande while appearing on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, on Friday, said the President need to make the clarification to avoid duplication of roles by the ministers.
According to him, both the ministries of Science and Technology and communications assumed that innovation was under their mandate during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
“An important thing we may have to look at is, if you look at the list of the ministries, there are two important questions the federal government has to answer, I think the president has to answer this,” he said.
“Number one, where is innovation? We have the minister of science, technology and innovation and we also have the minister of communication, innovation and digital economy, which has to be sorted out.
“I think it is important for the president to clarify where innovation is.”
The former Osinbajo’s spokesperson added that there is also ambiguity around the roles of the coordinating minister of the economy and minister of state for health and social welfare.
“Is social welfare what we used to have under social development which was in humanitarian affairs but no longer there?” he asked.
“So, that has been changed from humanitarian affairs, social welfare and disaster management to humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation, but social welfare is now taken to health.
“Now, is social welfare the same thing as social development?”
