FEATURE ARTICLE

Alfred AisedionlenThursday, November 26, 2015
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London, UK

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A RECONSTRUCTION OF BUHARI’S CABINET

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e have to tell ourselves the home truth. Either we address the factors that are responsible for our problems once and for all or we leave the factors and allow the problems to overwhelm us. To mention but few from the factors; they are misuse of official position, regionalism, tribal bias, neglect of society, imbalance political structure, weak institutions, misinterpretation of our laws, etc. The continual segmental discontent, agitation, criminality, endemic corruption, insecurity, etc. which today confront us emanate from the manifestation of the main. All of these are in the midst of our comparatively plenty of money, materials, human resources and world class skills.

President Buhari was voted for as the man to spear head a progressive Government that shall liberate Nigeria for her problems or at least reduce them to ineffectiveness. From what have so far transpired even before day break in his Government, Buhari is not nationally assertive much as expected of him. Buhari should not continue to alienate the South. We are aware that the North is no longer in short supply of relevant educated people. Yet vision, creativity, competitiveness, productivity, etc. vary among a group of people who together obtained first class in their university first degrees; quality differential. Corruption which is a matter of style is not worse in one part of the country than the other. The brains that are required to address our problems are today proportionally available in each part of the country only if we can appoint proportionately and sincerely.

The regressive status quo must not be re-branded for the same or new objectives. Buhari’s open northernisation of key and strategic positions in the country should be jettisoned. We have the principles of Federal Character with which to adhere. For example, if you have two key official national positions to be filled, one should go to any of the State Government areas in the South and the other to any of the State Government areas in the North. This equilibrium would be maintained at each stage in all the available appointments or positions that are being filled. If the Minister of Defence is from the North, the Minister of Interior should be from the South. If the Chief Justice of the Federation is from the North, the Attorney General of the Federation should be from the South, vice versa. Until we address the factors that are responsible for our problems and solve the originating problems from them we are not moving anywhere as a country.

Ministerial positions belong only to the politicians. They know where the shoes of the state pinch. They have the political audacity and charisma to make things happen expeditiously and efficiently. They do not have to be expert in the Ministries they are appointed to control and supervise. Like the ways the commercial banks appoint their chief executives on the primary ground of goodwill they can bring to their banks also Cabinet Ministers are supposed to be appointed first on their political goodwill before any other considerations. Had Buhari observed these he would have appointed his Cabinet of Ministers as far back as June 2015 from All Progressive Congress (APC) members that are suitable for ministerial appointments.

In ministerial appointments of technocrats, expertise or professionals who are non politicians; the notion of a round peg in a round hole is merely theoretical and theatrical. The technocrats, expertise or professionals who are non politicians, in their ministerial offices, are only there but locked up in corporate boundaries. Although Ministers are only as good as the President that appoints them, the previous People Democratic Party (PDP) Federal Governments demonstrated that technocrats, expertise or professionals who are non politicians cannot provide the magic wands, add value, improve any Government performance, efficiency and solve corruption, which they even become the principals. They are preoccupied in their ministerial appointments only as to how to officially convert public sector fund to private sector.

A Cabinet of Ministers of the Federal Government needs political catalysts. All the Buhari’s Ministers should have been composed of the seasoned APC politicians. Ministerial appointment is not all about individual Minister’s personal skill as he/she will not be on the desk to doing the job. In effect, a Federal Minister should be able to control his/her Ministry; be on ground to see what happen in every department; that things are done accordingly; what need to be done are being done; contracts are being performed and fully executed. If non politicians are to be appointed at all they should be appointed as Ministers of State (junior or assistant ministers).

Ministries and Cabinet positions are of different ranks. Although all the Ministries are there to serve the country yet some are more critical than the others. In the normal Cabinet positions ranking, the Minister of Finance ranks second behind the President. The Minister of Interior ranks third. The other Ministers and their Ministries depend on both the Minister and Ministry of Finance and Minister and Ministry of Interior respectively. We need effective economy, finance and their efficient management from the Minister and Ministry of Finance for other departments of Government and society to function effectively. We need effective security of the country from the Minister and Ministry of Interior for other departments of Government and society to function effectively.

In these democratic settings, Buhari should listen to especially the credible economic quarters within the country. Upon all Buhari’s ministerial appointments, the Ministry of Finance is the weak link. Budget department should not have been carved out of the Ministry of Finance for the expanded Ministry of National Planning. It is the Ministry of Finance that determines the economic direction and sources of fund in the country upon which budget is prepared and managed. Budget is the guide to the use of available fund, the fund we have and expected to have. The Ministry of Finance can only successfully do these if it prepares the budget internally.

An outsider or a stranger cannot just prepare the budget and ask the Minister and Ministry of Finance to find the money. Budget is an integral part of the Ministry of Finance. Without budget department and the related responsibility for the budget, the Ministry of Finance is handicapped. Economic decisions, direction, financial and fund management and budgetary are entwined. Buhari’s separation of budget department from the Ministry of Finance is an abnormal and awkward system of control. He should return budget department to the Ministry of Finance.

To make matter worse for the Ministry of Finance Buhari appointed a relative young, comparatively inexperienced and a non politician as the Minister of Finance. In our country, Nigeria, age matters. Mrs Kemi Adeosun’s relevant education, professional training and experience are not enough, as the number two person in the Cabinet. If it was imperative for Buhari to have appointed the Minister of Finance from the South West geo-political zone of the country, there are many other people in the zone of the same educational and professional training with her but who are progressive politicians, older and have more experience than her.

Security of a country starts from effective Ministry of Interior with equivalent and effective strong Minister. On paper, General Abdulrahman Dambazzau is not a wrong choice as the Minister of Interior. But within the APC, there is better alternative to him.

However, the Police, State Security Services, Customs & Immigration and Prisons are generally the same and should at this time be under the Ministry of Interior to enable well co-ordinated and successful law and order and security in the country. Buhari may have already bought into this format. I hope he heeds the recommendation of the APC Presidential Handover Committee on these. I have promulgated this format many times over the years.

Here Buhari should appoint three Ministers of State for the Ministry of Interior. One will be in charge of the Police, the second will be in charge of Prisons and the third will be in charge of Customs & Immigration. The substantive Minister of Interior himself will be directly in charge of the State Security Services. The Ministry of Police should now be a department at the Federal Ministry of Interior.

Buhari should ensure that the Nigeria Police Force is decentralised. There should be several Independent Police Commands in the country. This is where every head of each Independent Command is accountable only in his area and responsible to the President. We are not here talking about State or Regional Police forces. Moreover, the number of Police personnel should be increase by at least half of the present number (400,000 x 50%). This means for effective and adequate Police cover in the country we should have not less than 600,000 Police personnel in the country. The rest of the forces; Military, State Security Services and Customs personnel should be increased by at least one quarter of their present numbers. The personalisation and privatisation of our Police and Military must stop. They must no longer be assigned to some private individuals as their domestic servants and bodyguards.

Bola Tinubu and Patrick Utomi should have been in Buhari’s Cabinet. Bola Tinubu should have been appointed as the Minister of Interior. Bola Tinubu as the Minister of Interior would be able to tame and contain those that cause trouble and insecurity in the country. He did this successfully in Lagos State between 1999 and 2007 during his tenure as the Governor.

Patrick Utomi should have been appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. At these times, he is in a very good position to present the image of the country to the international community. For example, Patrick Utomi would be able to convince the international community that the wrong issues which Nigeria has been held hostage in foreign investments, tourism, etc. are things of the past Governments. With the new APC Government the wrong practices shall no longer rear their heads. Remember that Patrick Utomi is a conservative. He would have easily been a member of the PDP but because he vehemently detests corruption he decided to pitch his political tent with the progressive.

These may not be what Bola Tinubu and Patrick Utomi want but they are at these times better suited to serve the APC and country in these Ministries. Their days at the trenches for democracy for the country would be here handy. It is not relegation for what may be their actual political ambition. The appointments are national assignment. You can appoint more than one Cabinet Minister from a State Government area. We have to look at the positive side of people and not dwell on the negative side that could be neutralised while in public office. Politics is competition. Those who cannot play politics with Bola Tinubu should not blame him.

Edo State produced the Chairman of APC and the best Governor in the country, Governor Adam Oshiomhole of APC extraction. Edo State is one of the States with highest literacy and higher education rates in the country. Edo State home the first Monarchy in Nigeria. It was only the Monarchy that resisted the British colonisation of Nigeria. The Monarchy refused to be bribed by the British to pave way for them to colonise the country but only to be defeated by the British superiority of the guns. To Buhari Edo State does not rank among his first 24 State Government areas in the country to appoint a Minister of Cabinet rank. Buhari is advised to revisit the credentials of his Edo State nominee whom he made a junior Minister. If Buhari does not know nor understand Edo State he should ask the ex-heads of state.

The Senate President is the number three person in the country. In the absence of the President and Vice President the Senate President takes charge of the country. Today Bukola Saraki the supposed Senate President appears not to meet the maturity for the office. Bukola Saraki has turned the National Assembly into foreign social media; facebook, twitter, etc. affairs. The National Assembly’s website is virtually only about a quarter in operations with only Bukola Saraki and foreign social media in evidence. The Assembly’s emails, contact, etc. are turned off. Any emails you sent through the Assembly’s known email addresses to the Legislature is returned to you undelivered.

On the website Bukola Saraki tells you to make contact through facebook, tweet, etc. Should we be conducting our national affairs through any social media let alone foreign social media? Bukola Saraki is free in his private capacity to use any social media he deemed fit but not for our official matters and for him to forcing us to using social media for our National Assembly official matters. Bukola Saraki needs to be impeached for bringing the National Assembly and office of the Senate President, invariably Nigeria, into disrepute, in fact for treasonable felony. If the foreign social media are free, as he believed, in the first place, is their any free lunch anywhere in the world? Bukola Saraki cannot continue to play fast one on Nigerian public only for wrong reasons to covering his wrong past and for him not to answer for the wrongs. His National Assembly official social media affairs must be stopped.

Buhari should not wobble in the Treasury Single Account (TSA) he introduced. All the Federal establishments in the country including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC) etc must pay their 100% turnover into the one single, consolidated, account. There should not be partial or abridged payment by some of the establishments. This is the only way the scheme can be fully successful. With this the Government or any related establishments would not have any reasons to borrow fund to finance and foremost not to pay staff’s salaries regularly.

What Buhari should do in addition is to establish the Ministry of Treasury. This is the Ministry Mrs Kemi Adeosun is fully suitable to head as a Minister at this her stage. Basically, the Ministry of Treasury is not going to be collecting the turnover from and for the designated Federal establishments. It should be there to control the revenue generated by the Federal establishments in order to ensure nothing is being misappropriated or held back. And to see that the TSA contributing establishments meet their budget and cash flow from the account. As with the commercial bank depositors, as all the establishments will not be coming to draw from the account at the same time, then there will always be sufficient fund in the account to meet their demand. The State Governments should adopt their internal TSA in order to meet their budget and cash flow and not to borrowing fund, and cap in hand to the Federal Government. I have written on this before under an article entitled, Financing Nigeria’s Annual Budget, and in my various election manifestos on my website.

From what we have written before, the ‘trinity’ Minister Babatunde Fashola should actually have only the Ministry of Power to run. By now the Federal Government should not be holding unto the Ministry of Works and Housing. Works and Housing are local issues. The Ministry should immediately be decentralised to the Local Governments. The Local Governments are better disposed to carrying the Works and Social Housing needs of their areas. The fund that is used to run the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing should be added to the Federal allocation of the Local Governments. Today any Federal Ministries that do not have the in house labour to carry out certain works often contract such to the private sector. The Federal Ministry of Works and Housing (colonial public works) is already federally redundant.

Babatunde Fashola should be able to give us up to at least 80% capacity of our electricity need while Adebayo Shittu his counterpart at the Ministry of Communication should be able to give us 100% landline telephone we need. If we are to advance today in this new technological age, we need sufficient electricity and landline telephone on which modern, increase productivity and economy depend. It is for these reasons we must not totally privatise the two industries. From experience since 1999, our private sector is not yet strong enough, but individually greedy, to bear significant privatisation for sustainable economy. I have already written on this topic before under an article titled - For Adequate Electricity and Landline Telephone in Nigeria.

Today’s acute unemployment is caused generally by unnecessary significant privatisation and use of new technology; mechanised labour. The displaced labour force is not replaced at the same rate, grade and quality in fresh employments. The unemployment situation is aggravated by the additional school leavers and fresh university graduates who yearly come into the shrinking labour market. New technology increase productivity. This reduces unit cost. The reduction in unit cost is not passed over in low sales price. Part of the increase profit is used to maintain and finance new technology and the other part goes into the pockets of the investors. The increased profit is not used to create enough new jobs. Today, this is the reason why few people are getting richer and more people are getting poorer.

This is the dilemma that confronts the Government today and as to how to solve the puzzle of the unemployment created by unnecessary significant privatisation and use of new technology. Chris Ngige the Minister of Labour and Employment and Ogbonnaya Onu the Minister of Science and Technology have got this puzzle to unravel, create jobs and reduce unemployment.

The Ministry of Petroleum should be merged with the Ministry of Solid Minerals and to be called Ministry of Natural Resources. With a strong NNPC and capable chief executive on the saddle and the TSA scheme, the Ministry of Petroleum is redundant. With this, President Buhari the Minister of Petroleum is restricted to one portfolio, Minister of the Nation.

The Ministry of Niger Delta should be scrapped. The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) should also be scrapped. There is not any genuine reason to have a Federal Ministry for any segments of the country. The Niger Delta areas are not short of the amenities which they agitate for more than any other part of the country. The areas have got their State and Local Governments. The domestic development they need should be carry out by their State and Local Governments. They already earn huge derivations from crude oil drilling in their areas. The Federal Ministry of Environment should be there to see that their land is not polluted from crude oil drilling. If there is any pollution of their land the Federal Ministry of Environment should spear head the clean up through the actual polluting oil companies.

In all, as this APC Federal Government first team is neither sufficient, proportionally nor politically, skilfully representative; President Buhari needs to reshuffle and fine-tune the Cabinet in order to meeting the national challenges ahead.

To know more about this author; read his forty pages Presidential manifestos for the 2015 general election from his website; apiainternational.co.uk, and his previous articles that were published here on this column. He did not release the manifesto before the election nor participate in the election for certain reasons.

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