No square pegs in round holes
Last week, in his first major cabinet shake-up since his inauguration on May 29, 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan sacked nine ministers.
Those affected were Ruqayyatu Rufai (Education), Okon Ewa-Bassey (Science and Technology), Olugbenga Ashiru (Foreign Affairs), Hadiza Mailafia (Environment), Shamsudeen Usman (National Planning), and Ama Pepple (Housing, Lands and Urban Development).
Others were Olusola Obada (Defence), and her counterparts in the Agriculture Ministry, Bukar Tijani, and Power, Zainab Kuchi. The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, who conveyed the message explained that the exercise had no political undercurrent, but part of efforts to re-adjust programmes to enable the President achieve his Transformation Agenda.
A few days to the cabinet reshuffle, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had come close to implosion as a faction staged a walkout during the party’s special convention at Eagle Square, Abuja. The splinter group going by the name, New PDP (nPDP), is made up of seven state governors, all of whom are second timers, and other highly placed politicians, including Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president.
The development has since rattled Aso Rock, causing the president and the highest echelon of the party to engage in consultations and endless meetings to ensure the aggrieved members are brought back to the fold.
The sacking of some of the ministers has since been alleged to be a fallout of the political impasse in the party. Some of the ministers, it was alleged, were suspected by the Presidency to be paying more allegiance to their state governors or the godfathers who nominated them ab initio than they were doing to President Jonathan.
While we are not very much interested in the politics of hiring and firing as we believe it is purely the President’s prerogative to do so within the prism of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, we are only concerned about the qualities of those who manage our collective resources at the centre. Our fear in all of this is that the politicking may further affect Education, Defence and National Planning ministries, even though much was not really achieved in these ministries.
We recall that since the sack, sometime ago, of the substantive minister of Defence, Haliru Mohammed Bello, the ministry had been under a minister of state. It is indeed very disturbing that a country with serious security challenges is playing the ostrich with its Defence ministry. The same goes for the Education ministry, which can at best be said to be comatose even under the watch of two ministers.
In all of the entire cabinet of Mr. President, those who appear to understand their briefs or are willing to work in tandem with the administration’s agenda are not more than five. The relevance of others is really questionable. And our current realities require visionary and performing ministers who will take the country to desired lofty heights. We are sad that under the watch of ministers, oil theft continues un-checked, unemployment is worsening; the ASUU strike remains unresolved and the nation’s public universities inactive, regular electricity supply still elusive and life generally is tough for most Nigerians.
Against the backdrop of reports that the president has asked his party to compile a list of nominees, we advise that the nominees must not be swallowed “hook, line and sinker”. The presidency must ensure that the good of the country is not sacrificed on the altar of politics. What the President does now in this all-important task of replacing the sacked ministers will go a long way to either endear him to the citizens or harden their hearts against him. If he chooses, he may accept square pegs in round holes or people of questionable integrity and aspirations. Nigerians are watching.
By: BusinessDay