The Senate, last week, cleared the 43 ministerial nominees submitted to it by President Muhammadu Buhari. With the clearance of the ministers-designate after a three-day screening exercise at the Senate, the stage is now set for the president to inaugurate his cabinet with the hope that they would help him fulfil his next level mantra in his second term. Of the 43 ministers-designate, 13 were reappointed by the president.
They served in his first term cabinet while the remaining 30 are new faces in the saddle. Those confirmed included Dr. Uche Ogah (Abia), Mohammed Musa Bello (Adamawa), Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Dr. Chris Ngige (Anambra), Sharon Ikeazor (Anambra), Adamu Adamu (Bauchi), Maryam Katagum (Bauchi), Timipre Sylva (Bayelsa), George Akume (Benue) and Mustapha Baba Shehuri (Borno). Others are Goddy Jedy-Agba (Cross River), Festus Keyamo (Delta), Ogbonnaya Onu (Ebonyi), Osagie Ehinare (Edo), Clement Agba (Edo), Adeniyi Adebayo (Ekiti), Geoffrey Onyeama (Enugu), Ali Pantami (Gombe), and Emeka Nwajuba (Imo). Also included are Sulaiman Adamu (Jigawa), Zainab Ahmed (Kaduna), Dr. Muhammad Mahmud (Kaduna), Hadi Sirika (Katsina), Abubakar Malami (Kebbi), Sabo Nanono (Kano), Maj-Gen. Bashir Saleh (Kano), Ramatu Tijani (Kogi), Lai Mohammed (Kwara) and Gbemisola Saraki (Kwara).
There are also on the list Adeleke Mamora (Lagos), Babatunde Fashola (Lagos), Zubairu Dada (Niger), Olamilekan Adegbite (Ogun), Tayo Alasoadura (Ondo), Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Sunday Dare (Oyo), Paulen Tallen (Plateau), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Mohammed Maigeri Dengaji (Sokoto), Saleh Momoh (Taraba), Abubakar Aliyu (Yobe) and Sadiya Umar Farouk (Zamfara). While announcing the confirmation of the ministerial nominees, President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, had charged them to hit the ground running. Lawan said it was important that they move fast on assumption of office in order to fast-track the process of revamping the country’s ailing economy. It was expected that Buhari would inaugurate his ministers last week following the confirmation and assign them portfolios. But that did not happen.
It is being anticipated that the president would swear in the ministers and assign them with portfolios either this week or next. But that is just the beginning of a long journey towards making what remains of the Buhari presidency a memorable one for Nigerians. In the last four years, the president and his cabinet members have engaged in so much motion without movement, puffing and huffing, blaming the past governments of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the woes of the nation and the apparent failure of the Buhari administration to lift off the ground. Nigeria is today faced with the same problems it was battling when the president assumed office in 2015.
Having spent four years in the saddle, Nigerians do not expect the president and his ministers to still dwell on the misdeeds of PDP for 16 years. Rather, Nigerians expect a new vigour, seriousness and speed at resolving the problems of the country. The problems are legion. They range from the general insecurity in the land to poor infrastructure, poor electricity, bad economy to waning trust in government, widening ethnic divide and the general state of hopelessness across the country. There is also the low confidence of investors, religious intolerance and similar issues.
There is no doubt that Nigeria is badly divided along ethnic and religious lines today than ever before. These are issues that require the attention of ministers, as the president cannot tackle them alone. For instance, the new minister of interior would need to look at the influx of aliens into the country through the porous borders.
He would also need to check the leaky borders that are giving room to banditry, mass murders, cattle rustling and all sorts of violence that have not been witnessed in the country before. The new minister of defence may also need to look at the security architecture of the country with a view to curtailing the general insecurity in the country. For nearly five years now, Buhari has worked with the same service chiefs across all the military set up. Are their methods still effective? Is there any need for change? What new methods would need to be introduced to make the country safe for everyone? What of infrastructure – the roads, rails, airports and similar issues? Today, Nigerians groan under the weight of bad roads across the country.
The rails are almost non-existent. The airports are not in the best of shapes. These are areas that require urgent attention outside the perfunctory attendance of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meetings. We have pointed out that the problems are many. There are also the issues of strike by various unions across all strata of the country. Much as we acknowledge that four years is not enough to address all the problems of the country, we also know that if things remain the way they are at the end of President Buhari’s second term, his government would be rated as performing below average.
That is why whoever he assigns any portfolio would do well helping him at the speed of light to realize some of his plans. We do not believe that the current government does not have plans for the betterment of the country. It is the implementation that is the main issue. The ministers are meant to implement his vision to achieve the set goals. Nigerians are waiting.
