After over five months of tortuous delay, President Muhammadu Buhari finally inaugurated the Federal Executive Council. The unduly long nomination and screening process was unnecessarily politicized, but the expectation of Nigerians is understandably high. Before last Wednesday’s cabinet inauguration, Buhari had been described as clueless, having only integrity without grit; some even said he was an unrepentant northern irredentist who will give the important ministerial positions to northerners just as others deconstructed him as another provincialist from Katsina who would not know anyone beyond the Northwest and Northeast. Detractors branded him as procrastinator-in-chief for the long delay in naming his cabinet. But Buhari confounded his critics, who apparently had been unaware of how the president’s mind works. Attention has now shifted from sentiments to analysis of Buhari’s politics.
Predictably, questions are being asked why Buhari gave the so-called super ministries to southerners. He empowered the “Golden Boy of Lagos” Babatunde Fashola to head the Power, Works and Housing Ministry. Pundits have also wondered why the president put governance above politics and religion in his choice of Rotimi Amaechi, former Rivers State governor to head the high-spending Transportation ministry. And why the other member of the troika, Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti) was put in charge of Solid Minerals. And also, why Buhari unexpectedly chose a young southern lady, Kemi Adeosun (Ogun) as Finance minister and why he took Education away from professors, preferring an accountant turned journalist Adamu Adamu (Bauchi) -as Education minister.
Many critics have argued that appointing Kemi Adeosun; a young graduate from an East London University; not Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, or the London School of Economics to manage Africa’s largest economy was a disaster waiting to happen. She certainly does not have the intimidating pedigree of her predecessor, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, but the former Ogun state Finance commissioner, is an economist and a chartered accountant, and has training in public finance. She can build her own CV by doing an excellent job as finance minister. She has the toughest job though; managing the economy at a time of falling oil prices, forex crunch and monumental debts is not going to be a cakewalk.
Secondly, the charge that appointing former Vice Chancellor, Prof. Anthony Onwuka as Minister of State, Education, to assist Adamu Adamu, amounted to putting the cart in front of the horse is baseless and entirely without merit. Buhari has a clear understanding of why the education sector has failed Nigeria, and concluded that the best man for the job is not a professor. Buhari sees Adamu in himself; a man with integrity, passion and commitment and someone who can do the job for God and country.
Obviously Buhari wants to change Nigeria’s decrepit infrastructure, especially transportation, power, roads and housing. Fashola is an infrastructure junkie. Putting him in charge was a masterstroke. Power is more of an oversight function since the sector is privatized. No surprise Buhari collapsed the ministry. The real challenge for Fashola will be Works and Housing. The Jonathan administration constructed 30,000 km of roads and Fashola must deliver more. Fashola must improve on the Nigerian Mortgage Refinancing Company to simplify mortgages and deliver quality affordable housing to Nigerians. In Fashola, Buhari saw a clinical finisher who would not just wear Agbada or designer suits to the office, but would sleep in the office and work weekends to deliver Nigeria from shame of underdevelopment.
The Transportation portfolio is essentially railways, maritime and aviation. Jonathan laid a solid foundation with the railway network and it only makes sense to take it to the next level. Buhari wanted someone with an eye for quality, who would fix the chaos called the Nigerian Ports in Lagos and find solutions to the national disgrace called airports. Amaechi is result-driven and should be angry enough about the state of infrastructure in Nigeria. Fortunately, results in transportation are easily measurable and those who opposed his nomination will be watching closely.
Amid declining oil prices, solid minerals could earn Nigeria a whopping $50 billion yearly. Kayode Fayemi was generally believed to be headed to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, but Buhari believes a strong foreign policy is anchored on a strong economy and domestic policy. The President is counting on Fayemi to open new revenue streams from this grossly underdeveloped sector. Fayemi is highly cerebral and can function anywhere, so he must take the ministry to higher levels.
The Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation has become controversial because of issues of rule of law. Buhari has already committed many “due process” blunders, and it will be the duty of Abubakar Malami, to minimize them. One contentious issue is the prisons, which have more inmates awaiting trials than serving jail sentences. This situation must change. Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazzau, former chief of army staff, was speculated to be all things; first as national security adviser and later as defence minister. But Buhari finally appointed him Interior Minister. It is a security job, albeit internal, and that makes it a tough one. Dambazzau is going to be constantly in the public eye.
Other ministers who will also be in the public eye include: Mohammed Bello – will he be the new Nasir el-Rufai in FCT? Udoma Udoma – now that budget is under national planning, how well will he set realistic national development goals? Audu Ogbeh – given his age, can he keep pace with modern thinking in agriculture? Isaac Adewole – will he take healthcare to the next level beyond conquering Polio? Amina Mohammed, in charge of the environment, will have to mainstream issues such as alternative energy and scale up the fight against pollution and flooding. Ogbonnaya Onu is a product of engineering and has promised to be the best minister from his position at science and technology.
In the final analysis, the President has chosen people he knows well and trusts. If Buhari had followed the pundits’ logic, he himself ought to have had a PhD in Public Administration or Political Science; the Minister of Budget would have been an Ijebu; Finance would have been an Igbo, while the Secretary to the Government of the Federation must hold a degree in Secretarial Duties. Likewise, Labor must be an experienced truck pusher; Trade must come from Alaba; Transportation must be an experienced driver. This is utterly ridiculous; the president cannot be involved in the daily workings of his administration, so he has done a good job at putting the right people in charge. It is now incumbent on the ministers to deliver on the president’s promise of change.
It was great to hear the President warn, at the two-day retreat for the cabinet, that he expects the incoming ministers to “make the running of government at all levels as lean as possible, avoid waste and conserve resources. As ministers, you must be the vehicle that will administer the change.” Nigerians will hold the administration to these promises. With the downturn in the economy; collapsed public infrastructure; crisis of unemployment and insecurity the new ministers have their work well cut out for them. They must take the promised change beyond empty campaign sloganeering.
For Fashola, there can be no more federal government to blame for the eyesore that is the MMIA road or the lockdown that is the Mile 2-Apapa motorway. For Fayemi, there would be no PDP to excoriate for the national embarrassment called the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. For Amaechi, there would be no more Jonathan to blame for the deplorable state of the East-West road. And for the troika, there would be no PDP and Jonathan to accuse of illegally taking money from the federation account to make fuel subsidy payments. Amaechi, Fashola and Fayemi are now close associates of Buhari; for whom there should be no more excuses and blame games. Buhari was elected to implement his change agenda and not make excuses; the buck stops at his desk. Nigerians are waiting and watching to see how far the change team would walk their talk.
