The much awaited list of ministerial nominees to form the Federal Executive Council that will work with President Bola Tinubu was unveiled last Thursday by President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio.
The list that was presented by former Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chief of Staff to the president, Femi Gbajabiamila contained 28 nominees, leaving about 11 states with no representation in what is believed to be the first batch.
The list of four former governors, one governorship candidate of an opposition party has been generating varied reactions from the public.
From Nigerians, who expected to see many technocrats as against fulltime politicians, the list that would coalesce into the Tinubu cabinet left a sour taste in the mouth.
Those who were fascinated by Tinubu’s last March proclamation after his victory that politics would take backstage for competence in forming his entire cabinet almost had their joy turned into ashes in their mouth.
Sunday Tribune checks revealed that Tinubu in a statement entitled, “Nigeria: At the Cusp of Renewed Hope,” had vowed that competence and character would determine who will make it to his cabinet.
He had declared two months to his formal inauguration that it was time for politics to take backstage for governance and noted that only those who share his vision of good governance would make his blueprint for the nation attainable.
He said: “As your incoming president, I accept the task before me. There has been talk of a government of national unity. My aim is higher than that. I seek a government of national competence. In selecting my government, I shall not be weighed down by considerations extraneous to ability and performance.
“The day for political gamesmanship is long gone. I shall assemble competent men and women and young people from across Nigeria to build a safer, more prosperous and just Nigeria. There shall be young people. Women shall be prominent. Whether your faith leads you to pray in a church or mosque will not determine your place in government. Character and competence will.
“To secure our nation and to make it prosperous must be our top priorities. We cannot sacrifice these goals for political expediencies. The whims of politics must take a backseat to the imperatives of governance.”
Tinubu anxious to secure his second term in his first tenure —APC chieftain
Checks revealed that three former governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress and one of the main opposition party made the list: Mallam Nasir El- Rufai, Abubakar Badaru, David Umahi and Nyesom Wike, former governors of Kaduna, Jigawa, Ebonyi and Rivers State.
The former Kaduna State governor who had served as Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, former Minister of Federal Capital Territory under the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo administration was the arrow head of the agitation for zoning of 2023 presidential ticket of the APC to the Southern part of the country.
On the eve of the party’s presidential convention won by Tinubu as standard bearer, the APC Northern Governors passed a resolution conceding the ticket to the southern part of the country. It was a development that ensured that the former Jigawa State governor, Abubakar Badaru, who also made the list of ministerial nominees, to withdraw from the race as presidential aspirant.
Another governor who also stepped down on the eve of the Convention was serving Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello.
As serving governor, Senator Umahi, now representing Ebonyi South along with his counterpart in Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinnma also worked relentlessly to secure support for Tinubu amidst hostility towards the APC in the South-East region.
Further checks revealed that the former Rivers State governor who lost the Peoples Democratic Party presidential ticket to former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar abandoned the latter for his main rival and APC candidate, Bola Tinubu.
As arrow head of the opposition flank against in the PDP, Wike and his team left Atiku politically stranded as they openly romanced the APC standard bearer.
While Tinubu won convincingly in Rivers State, scoring 231, 591, the PDP candidate who was his main rival secured 88,468 in a South-South state under the grip of his party.
Responding to accusation that the list fell short of public expectations and assurance from Tinubu that technocrats who would help him assist his vision of economic rejuvenation would work with him, a chieftain of the ruling party dismissed the anger trailing the list as misplaced.
While he insisted that some technocrats are on the list of 28 nominees, the APC chieftain who did not want his name in print argued that President Tinubu was bound to reward those who worked for his victory at the APC presidential convention to emerge as standard bearer and ultimately as president elect in the general elections.
He said: “What you saw as likely Ministers of the Federal Republic is expected. Despite his assurance that politics will take backstage for governance, the politician took the better part of him while putting his list together.
“Some of the former governors you saw there, ordinary Nigerians may not like their faces, but they delivered the votes. The president must find a way to reward them. They are gatekeepers. Tinubu knows that he must make them relevant. That’s how to secure his second term in his first tenure.”
The source also revealed that former Kano State governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, could have made the list but was removed at the last minute.
“He has been penciled in for the leadership of the party. Forget the noise over zoning of national chairman to the North-Central. Ganduje will be rewarded with the office of national chairman on Thursday at the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting”, Sunday Tribune source offered.
It is an assemblage of those that have undermined Nigeria and Nigerians —LP
Also speaking with Sunday Tribune, National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Obiorah Ifoh, claimed that Tinubu has only succeeded in gathering failed politicians, while assuring Nigerians that he would headhunt for technocrats.
He said: “Our response is that you can’t get to be president and don’t know how to select ministers 50 days after.
“It has become the tradition of APC leaders just like every other thing that this administration has done in the last few months.
“This isn’t the best that Nigeria can offer. This country has well equipped individuals, technocrats that can tackle the problems facing this nation.
“This set of politicians will make his administration worse off. These are men that have sabotaged this system and make the country worse off.”
The list reeks of political settlement —CISLAC/TI-Nigeria
A Civil Society Organisation, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) also faulted the list.
Its Executive Director, Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani), said the list revealed political settlement with little or no consideration for technocrats “who are seriously required in the restoration process of the nation’s ailing socio-economic and financial activities.”
He also expressed concern that 11 states are yet to be captured.
He said:” Basically, appointments into ministerial positions are expected to take into consideration the Federal Character principles, potential individuals’ experience, capacity, track record and unquestionable background as related to the past positions, however, a critical observation at composition of the proposed Ministerial list as disclosed by the National Assembly has revealed little consideration for selection of technocrats, who are seriously required in the restoration process of the nation’s ailing socio-economic and financial activities.
“We observed the usual drive towards partisanship and political settlement that had led to the inefficiency and poor performance recorded in the past administrations. The predominant nominees on the list are past governors, lawmakers, some serving lawmakers and political allies. This demonstrates lack of readiness to revamp the country.
“While the constitution enjoins the president to ensure that at least one minister is appointed from each state of the federation to ensure that the federal character principles of Nigeria is reflected in the appointment of ministers, we are worried that 11 states are still left out in the list.
“As against the principle of gender inclusion promised by the president in his campaigns, of the 28 nominees, only seven are women. We hope more women will be appointed to breach the gender gap and ensure women inclusion in the political processes in Nigeria.
“We call on the National Assembly to deploy thorough scrutiny and objectivity in the confirmation process by maintaining independent, credible and verifiable position on each candidate nominated to ensure democratic values and good governance prevail in Nigeria. “
Senate will be through screening —Senator Adaramodu
Amidst the discontent, Senator representing Ekiti South and Chairman Senate Committee on Media and Publicity, Yemi Adaramodu, has assured Nigerians that the Red Chamber will be thorough in its screening of the nominees.
Ahead of the screening which will commence on Monday, the Senate spokesperson said the lawmakers would examine the characters, the personalities, the experiences, the background of every nominee before confirmation.
He maintained that the usual patronising gesture of “bow and go” to massage the ego of the Executive will be discountenanced.
He said: “Expectations of Nigerians are high. The screening this time around is going to be very thorough. It isn’t going to be wishy-washy. You can take a bow and go, if there is no question for you and you have proved yourself that you have satisfied all the criteria that will make us as representatives of the people to believe that you are going to deliver.
“Then, you can surely take a bow. But it is not going to be a situation just anyhow. This time around, where are going to examine the characters, the personalities, the experiences, the background of every nominee and we believe that at the end of the day, like I said earlier, Nigerians won’t be disappointed.
“This Senate won’t disappoint Nigerians. We are going to uphold the tenets that Nigerians are yearning for: excellence, super performance.
“We are expecting that the Executive Council that will emerge after the screening and confirmation is going to be the one that will breathe oxygen into the comatose economy of Nigeria.”
Reject Wike, el-Rufai, other ex-political office holders, MBF tells Senate
The Middle Belt Forum (MBF) has called on the Senate to reject the former governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, his counterpart from Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, and other former political officeholders on the ministerial list.
The Publicity Secretary of the Forum, Dr Isuwa Dogo, stated that recycling politicians for political appointments would not bring good governance and development to the country.
He argued that such politicians would end up being a liability rather than an asset to the government.
Dr Dogo said it was unfortunate that some politicians since the beginning of this dispensation have been holding the country to ransom by moving from one appointment to another without any achievements.
He pointed out that the ministerial list before the Senate, where the names of former governors, senators, and other former political office holders feature prominently, was not the best for the country and depicted that Nigeria lacks competent hands to run the affairs of the country.
“We cannot continue to run the country with the same set of people. Some of them have been recycling themselves since the beginning of this democratic dispensation and have contributed nothing but controversies and disruption to the system.
“It is not appropriate; some of the names submitted by President Tinubu for screening are in this category; a typical example is the former governors of Kaduna and Rivers states, el-Rufai and Wike. What makes them special enough to be re-nominated?
“I want to say that these two and others would rather be liabilities than assets to the administration. The president should watch out. Going by their utterances after the election, both el-Rufai and Wike openly declared that they were not out for ministerial appointments. So, they should reject the appointments.
“In a country as big as Nigeria with compliant people in all fields of endeavor, we cannot afford to be recycling the same set of people.
“A person cannot be a minister from there to be governor and return to the Senate. Are they the only educated or wise people in the country or from their states? I think the recycling is just too much.”
According to him, these are the same people who said terrible things against their party.
Wike openly described the APC as a cancer, while his party, the PDP, was malaria.
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