These ‘analogue’ ministers By Dele Agekameh

buhariFor four months, the anxiety was high. So also were expectations. And when the list of ministerial nominees was still not forthcoming, permutations took over. Even conmen were not left out in the emerging equation as they quickly moved in, telling desperate politicians that they have the necessary links to get their names on the final list of nominees. In the process, many unsuspecting Nigerians were fleeced of their hard-earned or fraudulently acquired money.

The newspapers too and the social media were not left out as they scrambled to undo one another with different “scoops” and “exclusives” on who and who will make the list. In other words, the rumour mill came alive and spilled out different names at different times. But all these came to an end last Tuesday when Bukola Saraki, the Senate President, formally read out the names of President Muhammadu Buhari’s nominees for ministerial positions. Since then, the debate has changed. Now that Nigerians have an idea of those who will form the new cabinet, the debate is now about whether the waiting game was worth it or whether those now penciled down are the best materials the country can produce at this time.

It has not been easy though. The list has attracted divergent views. While some people believe that most of the names on the list are made up of ‘analogue’ people or spent forces who have little or nothing to contribute, others believe that there is nothing in the list to suggest that the much-vaunted change under the current dispensation is on course. The reason is simple. Many people believe that some people who might have been tainted by corruption or with corruptive tendencies actually made the list of ministers as against the promise of putting in place, a new Nigeria, where all Nigerians will be proud of their country. Besides, in many states, people seem unhappy about the names of some nominees due to one complaint or the other.

The summary of the whole thing is that quite a good number of people are not happy with the final list for different reasons. A lot of people are in doubt if the list was the handiwork of just one man, the president himself, as being peddled around. They may be right. Looking at the list, it is obvious that the All Progressives’ Congress, APC, leadership had substantial influence on the list because majority of the nominees are APC members. This is a confirmation that the party machinery had inputs in the compilation of the list. In that case, the party leaders must have breath down the neck of the president to be able to get the names of the party members to be accommodated in the list as against what majority of Nigerians had expected.

Majority of Nigerians had expected a list that will feature names of renowned technocrats, professionals and others who have distinguished themselves in their fields of endeavour. Quite a lot of them are scattered across the ivory towers, blue chip companies and elsewhere in the country. Others are making waves in the Diaspora by contributing actively and significantly to the economic development of foreign countries. They are doing this at a time their fatherland is wallowing pitifully in a slough of ignorance, poverty and bondage. And it is so, because those who have constituted themselves into local champions and tin-gods in Nigeria will never allow them the opportunity to contribute their own quota to the development of the nation.

From what I was able to piece together, Buhari had wanted to go it all alone by picking his ministers himself. It later turned out that most of the people he had his eyes on, were people he knew when he was in power many years ago both as President and Petroleum Minister at different times. Some of the people are now in their late 70s or early 80s. In fact, some of them have suffered stroke or one form of infirmity or another, a situation that made the president to beat a retreat. It is believed that it was at this point that the party seized the initiative and started bringing all manner of people for consideration as ministers. Certainly, this cannot be Nigeria’s first eleven.

As emphasized by Francis Alimikhena, the 8th National Assembly Senate Minority Leader and Senator representing Edo North in an interview he granted to a popular Television Station at the lobby of the National Assembly shortly after the list was made public last Tuesday, there is no doubt that the list contains the names of those who are well known in the country. Yes, the would-be ministers are people who are well known but how does that guarantee their competence to make things happen? Some of them have been in the corridors of power for so long that they may have become spent bullets. The law of diminishing returns may have also caught up with them.

For instance, at the advent of the Second Republic in 1979, as the then Senate leader, the late Senator Olusola Saraki, the father of Bukola Saraki, the incumbent Senate President, played a significant role when Audu Ogbeh appeared on the floor of the Senate at Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos as he was being considered for ministerial position. That was more than 35 years ago. Today, the same Audu Ogbeh, who has had the designation of being a federal minister several times as well as being a one-time chairman of a national political party to his credit, is yet again warming up to stand before the younger Saraki, as the Senate President, to be interviewed as a minster. It might interest readers to know that in 1979, Bukola Saraki was a little less than 18 years old.

Today, people like Audu Ogbeh have become a symbol of the recycled leaders Nigerians are now contending with willy-nilly. Although, age is not on the president’s side too, but Nigerians don’t doubt his integrity, sincerity of purpose and passion to lead the country out of the present political and economic quagmire in which it is enmeshed. These are the qualities that can possibly turn things around in the country at the moment. But he needs to complement all these qualities with the energy and vibrancy of dedicated and tested young minds roaring to put their rich arsenal of experience into national service.

Inasmuch as the president may have his reasons for fielding Audu Ogbeh and others of his ilk, I believe that what the president could have done is to inject some younger hands into the machinery of government to compliment the efforts of his old brigade. That would have been totally different from the situation we have now where the same people who have been involved in politics in Nigeria from the time corruption and fraudulent practices were sowed and then nurtured into the monster and cankerworm we now detest, are still being paraded in government under this change mantra.

Look at a person like Ibe Kachukwu, who was brought from the private sector to come and reorganize the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. Even though the real reorganization of the department has not actually started, his body language alone has had a tremendous impact on the operations of the corporation and the attitude of the workers to their jobs. The president should have taken a cue from this to bring more technocrats and professionals into his government. I mean professionals, with the right mindset and passion to make things work in the new Nigeria of our dreams.

At any rate, let us wait and see the composition of the president’s economic team. It is only then we can conclude whether Nigeria is on the right track or we are doomed!

PREMIUM TIMES

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