The much-anticipated cabinet reshuffle of President Bola Tinubu occurred recently with five ministers sacked. Ten others were either reassigned to other ministries or demoted, while seven new ministers-designate were appointed. Two ministries were scrapped. The administration viewed the changes as “far-reaching actions to reinvigorate its capacity for optimal performance” to deliver on its promises to Nigeria.
But we differ as these changes were, at best, cosmetic. Seismic action is needed in proportion to the manifestly grotesque situation that Nigeria is in. Unmistakably, the country is like a nation at war with the prevailing strangulating socio-economic challenges, with inflation at 40 per cent and spiralling out of control, a devalued naira, mass hunger, a litre of petrol selling above N1,300 in some states and high-level of insecurity pervading the nation.
Truly, the reshuffle was a marked departure from Muhammadu Buhari’s inflexibility, which saw most of his ministers literally left to sleep for almost eight years. Tinubu may have matched his words with action, having charged members of his cabinet to perform or get fired, during their November 2023 retreat. “If you are performing, nothing to fear, if you miss the objective, we review; if there is no performance, you leave us…,” the president had said then.
To make the assessment somewhat easier, a Results Delivery Unit was set up, which the presidential Adviser on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Usman, heads to monitor the performance of ministers and MDAs of the federal government.
The ministers fired were Tahir Mamman (Education), Uju-Ken Ohaneye (Women Affairs), Lola Ade-John (Tourism), alongside ministers of state, Abdullahi Gwarzo (Housing and Urban Development) and Jamila Bio Ibrahim (Youth Development). The ministries of Sports and Niger Delta were scrapped and the Ministry of Tourism was merged with that of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy. While the responsibilities of the sports ministry were ceded to the new National Sports Commission, the Niger Delta ministry transmogrified into the Ministry of Regional Development to supervise the commissions created for the country’s six geo-political blocs.
An element in the overhaul is the presidential directive that limits the number of vehicles in a minister’s convoy to just three and five security details. Before, the paraphernalia around ministers were caravan-like. But these cost reduction measures, while laudable, only scratch the surface.
Looking at the priority areas of the administration, as outlined during last year’s cabinet retreat: food security, job creation, ending poverty, access to capital, fairness and rule of law, and the anti-corruption stance, which should foster development and catapult Nigeria from being a “potential to pragmatic” economic development hub, in relation to the performance of the government and the cabinet tweak, the signs of national redemption are not here yet.
Are the sacked ministers the only deadwoods in this government? We do not think so. There are still ministers who cannot point to what they have achieved within the context of turning around the Nigeria situation from its present malaise. This means that politics may have weighed heavier, rather than the positive notches in the scorecards of many ministers who survived the purge.
It is a ruse for the regime to think of economic development with the kind of erratic power supply and perennial system collapse, confusion and dishonesty in the management of the petroleum downstream sector that the country is mired in. The net effect has been big corporations folding up and leaving Nigeria, just as small and middle scale enterprises are becoming totally dysfunctional.
Corruption remains the reason why the four public refineries are not working, despite the cumulative sum of $25 billion spent on their turnaround by successive regimes. In the case of the Port Harcourt refinery, it has gulped $1.5 billion and missed seven timelines for the resumption of operations since December 2023. This gaffe is inexplicable.
It is beyond debate that this administration is not ready to confront the cabal involved in the fuel subsidy scam and known corporate crude oil thieves and bring them to book. Their criminalities have brought the country to its knees. Therefore, Hadiza Usman’s, or rather, President Tinubu’s pass marks for the ministers in charge of power, the economy, petroleum and several other underperformers, in our view, are suspect.
Having the most expansive cabinet of 46 members ever in the country, enlarged further with the seven new members that the Senate screened and cleared last week, more than the five persons discharged, contradicts the logic behind the reduction in the convoys and security aides of ministers.
The expectation of PREMIUM TIMES was that the recent shake-up would be used to cure the cabinet of its glaring weakness in the absence of acclaimed technocrats in the mould of the Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealas, Amina Mohammeds, Akinwumi Adesinas, Obiageli Ezekwesilis, and Aruma Ottehs, whose stellar performances pivoted the achievements of past administrations, to drive the government’s renewed hope agenda.
Instead, Tinubu chose to retain the cohorts of jaded politicians, some of who are former governors whose investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged corrupt practices while in office were stalled by their appointments. Tinubu has seemingly conferred immunity on them, which is a luxury the constitution did not give them.
A government that is conscious of its integrity, public perception and committed to an anti-graft mandate, should have used this recent opportunity to ask these sets of ministers and aides to go and clear their names with the EFCC first. Not doing so sets up a duplicitous portrait of the president.
An aspect of the Tinubu administration often overlooked is the gross violation of Section 14 (3) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, which deals with the observation of federal character in the composition of the MDAs and conduct of their affairs. This constitutional provision emphasises that adherence to the principle promotes “national unity.” Key appointments in the government, without question, are mainly in the hands of Tinubu’s Yoruba ethnic stock. This is not how to manage diversity in a complex and fractious political entity like Nigeria.
At the cabinet level, the Ministries of Finance, Power, Justice, Trade, Marine and Blue Economy, Interior Affairs, Solid Minerals, Communications, all have Yorubas in charge. Besides, it appears that the president has appropriated the substantive Petroleum minister position, as only two ministers-of-state are there.
Other similarly staffed positions are those of the Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Staff to the President, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Accountant-General of the Federation, Head of Service, those in charge of EFCC, NAFDAC, NIMASA, Nigeria Customs, Immigration Service, Army, SSS and Commander of Brigade of Guards, and much more.
This is extreme parochialism and a vicious assault on nation-building efforts. Buhari, as a critic has noted, might have tried to concentrate power in the North, but he was not as brazen as Tinubu. As such, the president should reflect deeply on the lop-sidedness of the said appointments and address them immediately. A lot of Yorubas are embarrassed by this tactless statecraft and have excoriated him accordingly.
Having shown that ministries could be scrapped or merged, Tinubu should go the whole hog by acting on the decade-old Stephen Orosanye report now, to profoundly reduce the cost of governance and entrench efficiency in our bureaucracy.
With a horde of underperforming ministers, worsening welfare of the people, and vulnerability of lives and property, this government risks the loss of its legitimacy, which is the worst albatross any regime could face.
