When the President finally returns home

In the last three months, there has been a sustained trend of approvals of roadmaps, strategies, and policy documents for different sectors of the economy.

As laudable a development as this seems, there are strong fears of discontinuity, non-implementation or simply put, abandonment as talks of a cabinet reshuffle still hangs over the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. It is still unclear if the reshuffle will be delayed until the president’s return just like the planned convention of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) among other things.

In the last couple of weeks, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the Power Sector, Information & Communications Technology,

Science and Technology Roadmaps. Others include Anti Corruption Strategy, Demographic Dividend and a National Gas Policy amongst others. Last Wednesday, FEC approved the National Oil Policy, National Social Protection Policy and a National Employment Policy all at once.

There have also been several policies approved within this period.

For me, and many others I suppose, it seems that these policies, roadmaps, and strategies took two years put together. It took us slumping into an economic recession, the worst downturn in 25 years,

for ideas to come up. I previously said most of the ministers have only just started to have full control of their ministries and now there is this talk of a cabinet reshuffle.

While I am hoping that key ministers including Emmanuel Kachikwu, Okechukwu Enelamah, and a few others will not be affected, the other

question that lingers on my mind is if Mr. President fires the ministers, who are only just coming to grasp with their portfolios, will we need to wait another two years for the newbies to find their

footing? I still remember how long it took for the President Buhari’s government to put together a cabinet in the first place, six months. I have no idea what the reshuffle will do at this point but I will agree that some “sleeping ministers” do have to go.

There are still ministers waiting to be sworn in and I gathered their coming in may not happen until the reshuffling is done.

Apparently, we are closer to a cabinet reshuffle after reports, unconfirmed as usual, surfaced last week about the imminent return of President Buhari from his over two months medical vacation in London in about a week.

I think now, more than ever, President Buhari’s return is more expedient if not for us all, at least for the APC. It is obvious that the party is jittery despite frantic efforts to conceal the obvious.

They failed to put their house in order even when they are the ruling party, maybe because the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) lost their

steam as a viable opposition. Suddenly after the Supreme Court judgment was delivered on the PDP leadership dispute between Ali Modu Sherrif and Ahmed Makarfi, the ruling party now realised it could no longer slack. They suddenly remembered that they needed to have a national convention. However, they seem to be confused about whether to hold till the President returns or to go ahead with the convention.

After the National Economic Council meeting on Thursday, the APC governors led by the Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha held a closed

door meeting with Acting President Yemi Osinbajo at the State House Abuja, obviously to discuss the issue of the convention. Okorocha told newsmen that they had discussed issues relating to how to move the party forward, how to strengthen the party and how to make sure the party remains victorious in all elections. They also discussed the issue of the convention, apparently how to make it happen in the event that the President does not return to the country anytime soon as is being peddled. I am sure that Osinbajo’s response would be to reassure

them that the President will be returning home soon.

Though it is popular knowledge that the party, especially the chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, had harped on the need for the President to be around for the convention, but Okorocha last week said the convention not taking place has nothing to do with the absence of the president or the Acting President for that matter. “We are just putting our house in order and making sure things are in the right

form before we kick off,” he said also denying that they were not under pressure by the regrouping of PDP, to hold a convention. “No, PDP is a non-issue,  we don’t even care about that, we defeated them when they were in power so what is different when we are now in power”. Really?

While that was on, I remembered that on Wednesday reports said APC governors at the National Working Committee took a decision that the party will not hold till Buhari returns to the country. The chairman of the party had also hinted that the convention will not hold until the president returned given the important nature of the event. “The convention is an important activity of the party that the president should not miss. We will hold on so that he can be part of the convention” he said last month.

So why did Okorocha change the line of agreement or the stance of the APC? Confused? Me too.

The big question is if the President returns will he be able or fit enough to attend and sit through the convention? We all know how it is? Why can’t Mr. Osinbajo represent him there, after all, he is the Acting President? Well, there are many questions I have been trying to answer myself, I will just leave it here. Have a good week.

 

Elizabeth Archibong, Abuja