Darlington Nwauju, a Rivers State All Progressives Congress chieftain, has praised President Bola Tinubu’s decision to reorganise his cabinet, calling it long overdue.

In line with the Steve Oronsaye report on reorganising government departments to cut expenses and improve efficiency, Nwauju has continuously called for a cabinet reshuffle that would include the Ministry of Police Affairs and the Ministry of Interior being combined.

He acknowledged Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo’s revolutionary leadership and accomplishments inside the Ministry and commended the President for listening to Nigerians’ pleas to keep him as Interior Minister.

Nwauju emphasised that there has been a change from punitive methods to complete rehabilitation, with correctional facilities around the country seeing notable gains in inmate well-being and aesthetics.

He stated, “The push to reform our criminal justice system is strongly demonstrated by the August 2024 achievement of a 50% increase in daily feeding allowance per inmate across the 254 correctional centres nationwide and the coordination of the clearance of fines and compensations worth N585 million for 4,068 inmates.”

“His Ministry made substantial commitments to collaborations with the Nigeria Correctional Services, which resulted in the completion of a state-of-the-art furniture factory in Borno State and a clothing and shoe factory in Abia State.

By guaranteeing the advancement of more than 60,000 senior and junior officers throughout the Immigration, Civil Defence, and Immigration Services, the Interior Ministry has also put a stop to years of stagnation in the paramilitary services under its control. In order to harmonise paramilitary pay with those of the Nigeria Police Force, or NPF, a functioning Pensions Board has also been formed.

He added, “Nwauju also notes that, under the supervision of the Interior Ministry, a backlog of 204,333 passports at the Nigeria Immigration Services (NIS) was cleared off the desk; the installation of E-gates at several airports across the country has been achieved; and the state-of-the-art Data Centre and Command and Control Centre at the NIS headquarters has been completed for ease of visa/passport application.”