Reconstruction of Buhari’s Cabinet
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e have to tell ourselves the home
truth. Either we address the factors that are responsible for our problems once and for all or we leave
the factors and allow the problems to overwhelm us. To mention but few from the
factors; they are misuse of official position, regionalism, tribal bias,
neglect of society, imbalance political structure, weak institutions,
misinterpretation of our laws, etc. The continual segmental discontent,
agitation, criminality, endemic corruption, insecurity, etc. which today confront
us emanate from the manifestation of the main. All of these are in the midst of
our comparatively plenty of money, materials, human resources and world class
skills.
President Buhari was voted for as
the man to spear head a progressive Government that shall liberate Nigeria from
her problems or at least reduce them to ineffectiveness. From what have so far
transpired even before day break in his Government, Buhari is not nationally
assertive much as expected of him. Buhari should not continue to alienate the
South. We are aware that the North is no longer in short supply of relevant
educated people. Yet vision, creativity, competitiveness, productivity, etc.
vary among a group of people who together obtained first class in their
university first degrees; quality differential. Corruption which is a matter of
style is not worse in one part of the country than the other. The brains that
are required to address our problems are today proportionally available in each
part of the country only if we can appoint proportionately and sincerely.
The regressive status quo must not
be re-branded for the same or new objectives. Buhari’s open northernisation of
key and strategic positions in the country should be jettisoned. We have the
principles of Federal Character with which to adhere. For example, if you have
two key official national positions to be filled, one should go to any of the
State Government areas in the South and the other to any of the State
Government areas in the North. This equilibrium would be maintained at each
stage in all the available appointments or positions that are being filled. If
the Minister of Defence is from the North, the Minister of Interior should be
from the South. If the Chief Justice of the Federation is from the North, the
Attorney General of the Federation should be from the South, vice versa. Until
we address the factors that are responsible for our problems and solve the
originating problems from them we are not moving anywhere as a country.
Ministerial positions belong only to
the politicians. They know where the shoes of the state pinch. They have the
political audacity and charisma to make things happen expeditiously and
efficiently. They do not have to be expert in the Ministries they are appointed
to control and supervise. Like the ways the commercial banks appoint their
chief executives on the primary ground of goodwill they can bring to their
banks also Cabinet Ministers are supposed to be appointed first on their
political goodwill before any other considerations. Had Buhari observed these
he would have appointed his Cabinet of Ministers as far back as June 2015 from
All Progressive Congress (APC) members that are suitable for ministerial
appointments.
In ministerial appointments of
technocrats, expertise or professionals who are non-politicians; the notion of
a round peg in a round hole is merely theoretical and theatrical. The
technocrats, expertise or professionals who are non-politicians, in their
ministerial offices, are only there but locked up in corporate boundaries.
Although Ministers are only as good as the President that appoints them, the
previous People Democratic Party (PDP) Federal Governments demonstrated that
technocrats, expertise or professionals who are non-politicians cannot provide
the magic wands, add value, improve any Government performance, efficiency and
solve corruption, which they even become the principals. They are preoccupied
in their ministerial appointments only as to how to officially convert public
sector fund to private sector fund.
A Cabinet of Ministers of the
Federal Government needs political catalysts. All the Buhari’s Ministers should
have been composed of the seasoned APC politicians. Ministerial appointment is
not all about individual Minister’s personal skill as he/she will not be on the
desk to doing the job. In effect, a Federal Minister should be able to control
his/her Ministry; be on ground to see what happen in every department; that
things are done accordingly; what need to be done are being done; contracts are
being performed and fully executed. If non politicians are to be appointed at
all they should be appointed as Ministers of State (junior or assistant
ministers).
Ministries and Cabinet positions are
of different ranks. Although all the Ministries are there to serve the country
yet some are more critical than the others. In the normal Cabinet positions
ranking, the Minister of Finance ranks second behind the President. The
Minister of Interior ranks third. The other Ministers and their Ministries
depend on both the Minister and Ministry of Finance and Minister and Ministry
of Interior respectively. We need effective economy, finance and their
efficient management from the Minister and Ministry of Finance for other
departments of Government and society to function effectively. We need
effective security of the country from the Minister and Ministry of Interior
for other departments of Government and society to function effectively.
In these democratic settings, Buhari
should listen to especially the credible economic quarters within the country.
Upon all Buhari’s ministerial appointments, the Ministry of Finance is the weak
link. Budget department should not have been carved out of the Ministry of
Finance for the expanded Ministry of National Planning. It is the Ministry of
Finance that determines the economic direction and sources of fund in the
country upon which budget is prepared and managed. Budget is the guide to the
use of available fund, the fund we have and expected to have. The Ministry of
Finance can only successfully do these if it prepares the budget internally.
An outsider or a stranger cannot
just prepare the budget and ask the Minister and Ministry of Finance to find
the money. Budget is an integral part of the Ministry of Finance. Without
budget department and the related responsibility for the budget, the Ministry
of Finance is handicapped. Economic decisions, direction, financial and fund
management and budgetary are entwined. Buhari’s separation of budget department
from the Ministry of Finance is an abnormal and awkward system of control. He
should return budget department to the Ministry of Finance.
To make matter worse for the
Ministry of Finance Buhari appointed a relatively young, comparatively
inexperienced and a non-politician as the Minister of Finance. In our country, Nigeria,
age matters. Mrs Kemi Adeosun’s relevant education, professional training and
experience are not enough, as the number two person in the Cabinet. If it was
imperative for Buhari to have appointed the Minister of Finance from the South
West geo-political zone of the country, there are many other people in the zone
of the same educational and professional training with her but who are
progressive politicians, older and have more experience than her.
Security of a country starts from
effective Ministry of Interior with equivalent and effective strong Minister.
On paper, General Abdulrahman Dambazzau is not a wrong choice as the Minister
of Interior. But within the APC, there is a better alternative to him.
However, the Police, State Security
Services, Customs & Immigration and Prisons are generally the same and
should at this time be under the Ministry of Interior to enable well-co-ordinated
and successful law and order and security in the country. Buhari may have
already bought into this format. I hope he heeds the recommendation of the APC
Presidential Handover Committee on these. I have promulgated this format many
times over the years.
Here Buhari should appoint three
Ministers of State for the Ministry of Interior. One will be in charge of the
Police, the second will be in charge of Prisons and the third will be in charge
of Customs & Immigration. The substantive Minister of Interior himself will
be directly in charge of the State Security Services. The Ministry of Police
should now be a department at the Federal Ministry of Interior.
Buhari should ensure that the
Nigeria Police Force is decentralised. There should be several Independent
Police Commands in the country. This is where every head of each Independent
Command is accountable only in his area and responsible to the President. We
are not here talking about State or Regional Police forces. Moreover, the
number of Police personnel should be increase by at least half of the present
number (400,000 x 50%). This means for effective and adequate Police cover in
the country we should have not less than 600,000 Police personnel in the
country. The rest of the forces; Military, State Security Services and Customs
personnel should be increased by at least one quarter of their present numbers.
The personalisation and privatisation of our Police and Military must stop.
They must no longer be assigned to some private individuals as their domestic
servants and bodyguards.
Bola Tinubu and Patrick Utomi should
have been in Buhari’s Cabinet. Bola Tinubu should have been appointed as the
Minister of Interior. Bola Tinubu as the Minister of Interior would be able to
tame and contain those that cause trouble and insecurity in the country. He did
this successfully in Lagos State between 1999 and 2007 during his tenure as the
Governor.
Patrick Utomi should have been
appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. At these times, he is in a very
good position to present the image of the country to the international
community. For example, Patrick Utomi would be able to convince the
international community that the wrong issues which Nigeria has been held
hostage in foreign investments, tourism, etc. are things of the past
Governments. With the new APC Government, the wrong practices shall no longer
rear their heads. Remember that Patrick Utomi is a conservative. He would have
easily been a member of the PDP but because he vehemently detests corruption he
decided to pitch his political tent with the progressive.
These may not be what Bola Tinubu
and Patrick Utomi want but they are at these times better suited to serve the
APC and country in these Ministries. Their days at the trenches for democracy
for the country would be here handy. It is not relegation for what may be their
actual political ambition. The appointments are national assignment. You can
appoint more than one Cabinet Minister from a State Government area. We have to
look at the positive side of people and not dwell on the negative side that
could be neutralised while in public office. Politics is competition. Those who
cannot play politics with Bola Tinubu should not blame him.
Edo State produced the Chairman of
APC and the best Governor in the country, Governor Adam Oshiomhole of APC
extraction. Edo State is one of the States with highest literacy and higher
education rates in the country. Edo State home the first Monarchy in Nigeria.
It was only the Monarchy that resisted the British colonisation of Nigeria. The
Monarchy refused to be bribed by the British to pave way for them to colonise
the country but only to be defeated by the British superiority of the guns. To Buhari
Edo State does not rank among his first 24 State Government areas in the
country to appoint a Minister of Cabinet rank. Buhari is advised to revisit the
credentials of his Edo State nominee whom he made a junior Minister. If Buhari
does not know nor understand Edo State, he should ask the ex-heads of state.
The Senate President is the number
three person in the country. In the absence of the President and Vice President
the Senate President takes charge of the country. Today Bukola Saraki the
supposed Senate President appears not to meet the maturity for the office.
Bukola Saraki has turned the National Assembly into foreign social media;
facebook, twitter, etc. affairs. The National Assembly’s website is virtually
only about a quarter in operations with only Bukola Saraki and foreign social
media in evidence. The Assembly’s
emails, contact, etc. are turned off. Any emails you sent through the
Assembly’s known email addresses to the Legislature is returned to you
undelivered.
On the website Bukola Saraki tells
you to make contact through facebook, tweet, etc. Should we be conducting our
national affairs through any social media let alone foreign social media?
Bukola Saraki is free in his private capacity to use any social media he deemed
fit but not for our official matters and for him to forcing us to using social
media for our National Assembly official matters. Bukola Saraki needs to be
impeached for bringing the National Assembly and office of the Senate
President, invariably Nigeria, into disrepute, in fact for treasonable felony.
If the foreign social media are free, as he believed, in the first place, is there
any free lunch anywhere in the world?
Bukola Saraki cannot continue to play fast one on Nigerian public only
for wrong reasons to covering his wrong past and for him not to answer for the
wrongs. His National Assembly official social media affairs must be
stopped.
Buhari should not wobble in the
Treasury Single Account (TSA) he introduced. All the Federal establishments in
the country including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria National
Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC) etc. must pay their 100% turnover into the one
single, consolidated, account. There should not be partial or abridged payment
by some of the establishments. This is the only way the scheme can be fully
successful. With this the Government or any related establishments would not
have any reasons to borrow fund to finance and foremost not to pay staff’s
salaries regularly.
What Buhari should do in addition is
to establish the Ministry of Treasury. This is the Ministry Mrs Kemi Adeosun is
fully suitable to head as a Minister at this her stage. Basically, the Ministry
of Treasury is not going to be collecting the turnover from and for the
designated Federal establishments. It should be there to control the revenue
generated by the Federal establishments in order to ensure nothing is being
misappropriated or held back. And to see that the TSA contributing
establishments meet their budget and cash flow from the account. As with the
commercial bank depositors, as all the establishments will not be coming to
draw from the account at the same time, then there will always be sufficient
fund in the account to meet their demand. The State Governments should adopt
their internal TSA in order to meet their budget and cash flow and not to
borrowing fund, and cap in hand to the Federal Government. I have written on
this before under an article entitled, Financing
Nigeria’s Annual Budget, and in my various election manifestos on my
website.
From what we have written before,
the ‘trinity’ Minister Babatunde Fashola should actually have only the Ministry
of Power to run. By now the Federal Government should not be holding unto the
Ministry of Works and Housing. Works and Housing are local issues. The Ministry
should immediately be decentralised to the Local Governments. The Local
Governments are better disposed to carrying the Works and Social Housing needs
of their areas. The fund that is used to run the Federal Ministry of Works and
Housing should be added to the Federal allocation of the Local Governments.
Today any Federal Ministries that do not have the in house labour to carry out
certain works often contract such to the private sector. The Federal Ministry
of Works and Housing (colonial public works) is already federally redundant.
Babatunde Fashola should be able to
give us up to at least 80% capacity of our electricity need while Adebayo
Shittu his counterpart at the Ministry of Communication should be able to give
us 100% landline telephone we need. If we are to advance today in this new
technological age, we need sufficient electricity and landline telephone on
which modern, increase productivity and economy depend. It is for these reasons
we must not totally privatise the two industries. From experience since 1999,
our private sector is not yet strong enough, but individually greedy, to bear
significant privatisation for sustainable economy. I have already written on
this topic before under an article titled - For Adequate Electricity and Landline Telephone in Nigeria.
Today’s acute unemployment is caused
generally by unnecessary significant privatisation and use of new technology;
mechanised labour. The displaced labour force is not replaced at the same rate,
grade and quality in fresh employments. The unemployment situation is
aggravated by the additional school leavers and fresh university graduates who
yearly come into the shrinking labour market. New technology increase
productivity. This reduces unit cost. The reduction in unit cost is not passed
over in low sales price. Part of the increase profit is used to maintain and
finance new technology and the other part goes into the pockets of the
investors. The increased profit is not used to create enough new jobs. Today,
this is the reason why few people are getting richer and more people are
getting poorer.
This is the dilemma that confronts
the Government today and as to how to solve the puzzle of the unemployment
created by unnecessary significant privatisation and use of new technology.
Chris Ngige the Minister of Labour and Employment and Ogbonnaya Onu the Minister
of Science and Technology have got this puzzle to unravel, create jobs and
reduce unemployment.
The Ministry of Petroleum should be
merged with the Ministry of Solid Minerals and to be called Ministry of Natural
Resources. With a strong NNPC and capable chief executive on the saddle and the
TSA scheme, the Ministry of Petroleum is redundant. With this, President Buhari
the Minister of Petroleum is restricted to one portfolio, Minister of the
Nation.
The Ministry of Niger Delta should
be scrapped. The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) should also be
scrapped. There is not any genuine reason to have a Federal Ministry for any
segments of the country. The Niger Delta areas are not short of the amenities
which they agitate for more than any other part of the country. The areas have
got their State and Local Governments. The domestic development they need
should be carry out by their State and Local Governments. They already earn
huge derivations from crude oil drilling in their areas. The Federal Ministry
of Environment should be there to see that their land is not polluted from
crude oil drilling. If there is any pollution of their land the Federal
Ministry of Environment should spear head the clean up through the actual
polluting oil companies.
In all, as this APC Federal
Government first team is neither sufficient, proportionally nor politically,
skilfully representative; President Buhari needs to reshuffle and fine-tune the
Cabinet in order to meeting the national challenges ahead.
Alfred Aisedionlen (