The Insight by Lateef Adewole
One seriously anticipated news for the past weeks has been the announcement of portfolios for the minister-designates, who were already confirmed by the national assembly last week. Everyone is looking forward to who will man what ministry, and if there will be rearrangements of ministries and how. This eventually happened on Wednesday, with the assignment of ministries to the ministers.
Before then, “The List” were the buzzwords. This was the list of ministerial nominees which President Tinubu was preparing since taking over. It took 59 days after inuaguration, almost exhausting the 60 day constitutional provision window that the president had to do so, in accordance with Section 42 of the 1999 constitution (as amended) that states that “the nomination of any person to the office of a minister for confirmation by the senate shall be done within sixty days after the date the president has taken the oath of office”. This made many to criticise him as ‘not prepared’ for the office to have taken that long. That’s Nigeria for you. People are ready to criticise any action of government, no matter how unreasonable they sound.
So, when ‘the list’ eventually came with initial 28 names and later, additional 20 names, making it 48 in all, it was shocking. Why? Because, at a time like this when reducing the cost of governance, harmonising and realignment of MDAs, etc, are being preached, how could 48 people be nominated as ministers again? Personally, I wasn’t expecting that much. I am an advocate of a leaner government, for obvious reasons. Only 45 were confirmed so far.
Although, I have always acknowledged the constitutional constraint of the minimum that any president could go, with the provisions that each state must produce a minister. That’s already 36. Then, one can come from each geopolitical zone. That’s additional 6, making a total of 42. If he had limited it to this, there could have been justification, but to add another 6. That was a no-no. But, I always cut leaders some slacks as being the persons who wear the shoes, they are more likely to have their reasons for certain decisions they often make, which are unpopular.
Then, the ‘ritual’ of the screening by the senate followed. I really wasn’t looking forward to it except that it should be gotten over with to enable the president forms his cabinet so that full governance can start. I often see it as a big joke. This might not be entirely the faults of the senators as such screening exercise was like groping in the dark. They were expected to interview candidates without knowing which jobs the candidates were applying for. That’s tough.
However, they too, sometimes, do a bad job of it, with too many exceptions, free passes and lack of drilling of the nominees because of “paddy-paddy”. We saw where few attempts were made to ask some critical and difficult questions which destabilised nominees who were not fully prepared. Some senators somewhere were always quick to come to their rescue and shield them from further scrutiny. Therefore, much was not expected from it beyond fulfilling constitutional provision.
The first reaction of a very good friend of mine and a supporter of Tinubu, when the portfolios were released was that; “This is uninspiring. Tinubu has missed it”. On probing further what he meant, he explained that he was not expecting the allocation of portfolios like that. He mentioned some who were given some ministries and asked what their jobs were in such ministries. I asked that he needs to take his time before jumping into conclusions and almost wanting to give up already.
The roles and responsibilities of ministers are leadership, administrative and managerial. This shows that any competent person with these capacities can fit into any ministry. However, this is easier said than done. The truth of the matter is, it is much easier for someone to assume a role in an area of their expertise. It makes the jobs easier to adjust to and gives them the advantage of grasping the whole operations within the office very quickly. This is my opinion largely.
To be fair to the president and the appointees, majority of the people appointed came with reasonably good educational qualifications in one field or another. All of them also have substantial experience in management of organisations, whether in private or public sector. Some of them have been in government for years, elected or appointed, held one office or another, where they performed reasonably well. So, as individuals, their qualifications and competence cannot be questioned. The only issue is how relevant their fields of competence are to the jobs given to them.
From the time the list was out and screening took place, my worry has been how they will be distributed into various ministries based on my observations. I observed that among them, there are many people sharing similar professions. The highest should be medical and health profession. Many are doctors by training. Few of them have veered into other professions like Doris Anite from Imo state, though a medical doctor, has been in banking and finance, and held many posts in that. She was a Commissioner for Finance in Imo State, before her appointment.
Another common professional calling is finance and accounting. There are some in that. Then, ICT. There are some too. Media, Academics, and so on. My point is, when you have diverse ministries requiring different expertise to be filled, but you make multiple appointments of people with same or similar professional callings, how do you fill up these posts, even if they require more of leadership, administrative and managerial skills? This was what seemed to be the problem that my friend had with the allocation of portfolios. I have the same concern.
It is not something new. It is just that we expected President Tinubu to get experts in required fields, even if they are politicians, to man some critical ministries that are important to the Renewed Hope transformational agenda. I will look at some of these instances.
By the way, this does not negate my opinion that politicians deserve their places in any government they helped bring to power. Before some readers begin to use me as excuse to attack the appointments. I still maintained that you cannot claim to be a ‘technocrat’, see politics as ‘dirty’ and distance yourself from participating, be in your cosy office in private sector in Nigeria or having a life of your own abroad, but expect to be called upon to come and take up appointment, after those you denigrated as politicians have suffered in the field during campaigns and elections, won and later form government. That is immoral and injustice.
This is why I advocate that all of us, technocrats or otherwise, should get involve, no matter how peripheral. We all don’t have to throw our hats in the ring. We can join one party, sponsor and support aspirants/ candidates, and so on. By this, our efforts will be seen as genuinely wanting to contribute to the developments of our fatherland. Not to sit somewhere, criticising those doing the hard work but expecting to be rewarded for doing nothing. It doesn’t and shouldn’t work that way.
Back to the portfolios. The most applauded portfolios are Wale Edun as the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Prof. Ali Pate and Dr. Tunji Alausa, two renowned medical experts as Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare and Minister of State, Health and Social Welfare, respectively. Dr. Betta Edu as Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation is a good one. She has been involved in humanitarian works before. We hope she won’t be like Sadiyya who messed that important ministry up, despite huge yearly allocations to it.
All the five ministers from South East could be said to be well suited for the positions they were given. Engr. David Umahi in Works. At least, he is an Engineer, not a ‘lawyer’. Professor Tahir Mamman as the Minister of Education is well deserved. He was former Vice Chancellor of Baze University, Abuja, after many other public offices he previously held. He is a legal luminary. This is better than having someone who had no clue about the ministry before he was appointed as we saw previously.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Muhamed Idris, is a journalist and a PR expert. He is well qualified but least expected to be the one to man that ministry. Even me, I could beat my chest earlier that it would go to Dele Alake. His appointment as the Minister of Solid Minerals Development is the most shocking. How is journalism related to such highly technical office that requires a level of scientific understanding of solid minerals? That was how Dr. Kayode Fayemi, an International Relation and Diplomacy expert, was appointed to the same office, only to struggle for the period he held forth like a fish out of water, until he returned to office as governor of Ekiti State. By the way, Dele Alake is also from Ekiti State (winks).
Another appointment that got serious knocks is that of Festus Keyamo (SAN), as the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development. Was that a joke? This is a highly professional field, specifically separated from the Ministry of Transportation for better management. Although, it is not a given that being a professional means that the person will deliver. We all saw the mess that Hadi Sirika created with his ‘invisible’ Nigerian Airways. He started well but ended with such a disappointment.
Bosun Tijani is an Economist and ICT expert. Having to take charge of Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy is a huge task. He is relatively young at 46 and hope he will bring the vibrancy of still being young into the ministry. Moreso, that is the turf where many youths and young people operate, we can only hope he represents them well and creates that enabling environment they crave to ‘fly’. He must have learnt his lessons on how to be discretionary in one’s public communications, particularly about one’s country that borderlines patriotism, irrespective of the level of provocation and or frustration by the Nigerian system.
Another very critical one is the newly created Ministry of Marines and Blue Economy. For many years, such ministry has been clamoured for by experts in the field. A report published by an online media, SPADE NIGERIA, on August 17, 2023, wrote this about the ‘Blue Economy” as being proposed by Tinubu: The World Bank defines the Blue Economy as the “sustainable use of ocean resources to benefit economies, livelihoods and ocean ecosystem health”.
“Blue Economy activities: Maritime shipping, Fishing & aquaculture, Coastal tourism, Renewable energy, Water desalination, Undersea cabling, Seabed extractive industries & deep sea mining, Marine genetic resources and Biotechnology. The Blue Economy is estimated to be worth more than $1.5 trillion per year globally. It provides over 30 million jobs and supplies”.
However, Bunmi Tunji-Ojo is the new minister in charge. A very brilliant Digital Communication and IT expert. He studied Electrical and Electronics Engineering with interest in ICT. I doubt he has any experience in Marines and Blue Economy. Such a new and critical ministry should not have been given to inexperienced hand in that sector.
Adegboyega Oyetola, Minister of Transportation is a good choice, being a seasoned administrator and excellent manager of resources, especially finance and human capital. His shrewd management of Osun state meagre resources made the state to survive till he left office as governor and kept it afloat all through his tenure. Bringing such invaluable experience to bear on the parastatals under him will yield positive results. There is need to complete ongoing rail projects to link up Nigeria. Such mass transportation has become more desired in the face of biting effect of petrol subsidy removal.
The appointments of Muhammed Badaru and Bello Matawalle were shocking. However, with the array of nominees present, who could have been? It was not as if there were retired generals among them. At least, they are people whose region is most ravaged by terrorism and banditry. But, what has being a retired general as the Minister of Defence contributed to the security situation in Nigeria in the last 8 years? The situation got terribly worse under them. In defence, the quality of the service chiefs seems to be more important. And so far, those appointed have been acknowledged to be the best available.
As an Engineer myself, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, with interest in Power, I found it repulsive that the an all important Engineering ministry is given to an accountant cum banker. This is one of the most technical ministry. That is why even brilliant lawyers like Babatunde Fashola and late Chief Bola Ige failed in it. I have always criticised such non-professional appointments. So far, in my opinion, Berth Nnaji, a Professor of Robotics Engineering, who is a practitioner in power sector, with his Geometric Power Limited, remained the best power minister we have ever had in Nigeria. I can only wish Adebayo Adelabu well.
President Tinubu seems to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors by making himself the Minister for Petroleum Resources. Is he qualified to hold that office? With a background in Oil and Gas, he could have reasonable relevant experience. Moreover, the sector requires more business acumen to navigate and expand it, being the cash cow of the country. Tinubu wants to see what’s going on in it by himself, I supposed. But, will he have the time to give the attention that the sector requires? Time will tell.
Let me not start with those with missing WAEC or only two passes, those who started primary at age 2, those who have one case or another to answer, the truth is, no one is perfect.
Overall, what are most important requirements at such level of ministers are leadership and management capabilities. There are ‘technocrats’ working in various ministries already, who are expected to provide all the necessary supports to the appointed ministers, irrespective of their backgrounds. The engine of the government is the civil service. So, it must be made to run efficiently and effectively to deliver quality service to the citizens.
Hopefully, majority of them will perform well, largely because of the earlier points of being well educated and experienced in various fields. Moreover, they will be working under the leadership of President Tinubu, the man who is a workaholic himself, who does not tolerate indolence as we were used to in recent times. As the Tinubu administration kickstarts governance with full cabinet, we need to begin to see actions driving towards the Renewed Hope. Nigerians are impatient. We are in a hurry to see results. While miracle is not expected, laxity will not be condoned as well. Ministers must hit the ground running.
It is also important that President Tinubu clearly spell out the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for all his appointees and milestones to be attained at different times. These will help guide them to focused destinations. It will make it easier for performance appraisal of each appointee. Where non-performance is seen due to lack of capacity or incompetence of appointee, the president should not hesitate to wield the big stick. He should not be like Buhari who condoned gross incompetence and terrible performances from his appointees all through his tenure. Well, “egbe eye l’eye n wo to”. You can’t give what you don’t have.
Congratulations to all the new ministers and other appointees. We wish you success as you serve your fatherland.
May God continue to protect us and guide us aright.
God Bless Nigeria.
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August 19, 2023.