Five months after winning the February 23 presidential election and almost two months after he was sworn in for a second and final four-year term, President Muhammadu Buhari unveiled a ministerial list long on politicians but largely lacking in technocrats.
Buhari submitted the 43-man ministerial list to the upper chamber of the National Assembly for screening on Tuesday and the names were read on the floor by Senate President Ahmad Lawan after a closed-door session.
Following the submission of the list, the Senate postponed its annual recess for one week in order to screen nominees, Dayo Adeyeye, chairman, Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Media and Public Affairs, told journalists after plenary on Tuesday. The annual recess was earlier billed to start on Thursday with resumption scheduled for September.
But analysts who spoke to BusinessDay after the list was released said it is full of recycled politicians, expressing doubts that this set of ministers would take Nigeria to greater heights in Buhari’s second term.
“The economy cannot grow if we continue with the same template that has made us poor over the years,” Henry Boyo, a veteran economist and columnist, said.
In the first four years of President Buhari, the Nigerian economy was confronted with low growth, high unemployment rate and a widening inequality gap and thus requires targeted reforms of various sectors to achieve higher growth rates, analysts say.
Lagos-based CSL Stockbrokers said that from an economic development point of view, the list suggests there might not be a fundamental change in strategy and policy framework of the government in addressing the critical challenges facing the country. They noted that the former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, was excluded from the published list.
“The President seems to not be in touch with reality of running a modern economy. And I think that is affecting the entire decision he is making. I am not sure he has a wide network of professionals he can pull from. So in a bid to get people he trusts, he has this narrow network that is not very optimum for what we need to do as a country,” Jude Ohanele, executive director, Development Dynamics, told BusinessDay in a phone interview on Tuesday.
“I am not sure these guys will do any better because with the old names I am seeing there, it means it is going to be business as usual. As you can see, he has recycled the old names. I don’t know what else these old men and women will do,” Ohanele said.
The list contains 43 names, an excess of five from the 38 names appointed to work with the president during his first tenure. Of this figure, seven are females and the rest are male. The average age of the 43 nominees is 60 years, checks by BusinessDay show, a development that has made analysts question the ability of the nominees to function actively.
Yinka Odumakin, spokesperson of Afenifere, a pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, said with the names on the list, Nigeria is heading into deeper crisis than it has ever imagined.
“I read through the list expecting to see reliable hands willing to serve and with an in-depth knowledge of the economy, that would have at least justified the long wait, but I was largely disappointed,” he said.
Odumakin told BusinessDay on the phone that the list could have been put together by one of the party stalwarts at a campaign rally because he couldn’t see much merit on it “beyond the mere political patronage and spoils of sharing political victory”.
Auwal Ibrahim, executive director, Civil Society and Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), said the list has exposed President Buhari’s lack of commitment to the anti-corruption fight. “We are shocked and many Nigerians are also surprised that the President can go ahead and nominate those who are under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,” Ibrahim said.
Timipre Sylva, a former governor of Bayelsa State, whose name is on the ministerial list, for instance, was docked alongside his co-accused in July 2014 for allegedly using three companies (Marlin Maritime Limited, Eat Catering Services Limited, and Haloween-Blue Construction and Logistics Limited) to siphon funds from Bayelsa State treasury between 2009 and 2012.
Godswill Akpabio, a senator in the last administration, who also made the list, has been assailed with corruption allegations since he left Akwa Ibom Government House for the senate in 2015. He entered the EFCC’s books for allegedly looting the sum of N108.1 billion from the coffers of Akwa Ibom during his eight years as governor.
Earlier in 2019, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State had called on the EFCC to prosecute George Akume, a former governor of the state and another Buhari ministerial nominee, for allegedly fleecing the state of N2 billion in 2007.
Ibrahim of CISLAC also berated the nomination of some members of the previous cabinet whom he said failed to perform to expectations in Buhari’s first term.
“Many of them ought not to have come back. So, we are worried that nothing good will come out of this cabinet just like the previous one,” he said.
“Apart from lacking inclusiveness, Nigerians are also not impressed because the cabinet has less number of technocrats and experts to help restructure the economy,” he added.
The Nigerian constitution requires the President to appoint at least one minister from each state of the federation. And so, the list contains at least one nominee from each state (36 nominees) as well as one from each geopolitical zone (six nominees).
BusinessDay analysis also revealed that 13 of the ministers that were appointed in 2015 were returned, meaning that a total of 30 new names have been added in the new list.
The returning ministers on the list are Lai Mohammed (Kwara), Babatunde Fashola (Lagos), Chris Ngige (Anambra), Suleiman Adamu (Jigawa), Zainab Ahmed (Kaduna), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Mohammed Musa Bello (Adamawa), Adamu Adamu (Bauchi), Mustapha Baba Shehuri (Borno), Ogbonnaya Onu (Ebonyi), Osagie Enanieri (Edo), Geoffrey Onyeama (Enugu), and Abubakar Malami (Kebbi).
Those coming for the first time include Uchechukwu Ogah (Abia), Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Sharon Ikeazu (Anambra), Maryam Katagun (Bauchi), Timipre Sylva (Bayelsa), George Akume (Benue), Bodi Agba (Cross River), Festus Keyamo (Delta), Clement Ike Agba (Edo), Richard Adeniyi Adebayo (Ekiti), Ali Pantami (Gombe), Emeka Nwajuba (Imo), Muhammad Mahmud (Kaduna), and Sabo Sanono (Kano).
Others are Bashir Sani (Kano), Rahmatu Tijjani (Kogi), Gbemisola Saraki (Kwara), Adeleke Mamora (Lagos), Mohammed H. Abdullahi (Nasarawa), Zubair Dada (Niger), Olamilekan Adegbite (Ogun), Tayo Alasoadura (Ondo), Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Sunday Dare (Oyo), Paulen Talen (Plateau), Muhammadu Ngiadi (Sokoto), Sale Mamman (Taraba), Abubakar Aliyu (Yobe), and Sadiya Umar Faru (Zamfara).
Suleiman Lamorde, who described himself as a loyal party member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), decried the return of former education minister, Adamu Adamu, wondering why the President nominated him for a second term after “failing woefully during his first tenure”.
“Apart from Rotimi Amaechi, Raji Fashola and to some extent Chris Ngige, others who returned do not deserve their reappointment,” Lamorde said.
“I do not have much information about the new ones but the President ought to have searched for better hands to help him achieve his next level agenda,” he said.
Also in a quick reaction on Tuesday, the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) described the ministerial list as colourless, stagnant, and uninspiring. The party believed the list did not convey any sense of hope or purposeful governance under the All Progressives Congress (APC).
A statement by PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Olognondiyan, emphasised that the list is replete with incompetent individuals who failed in their erstwhile ministerial assignments and left their ministries in a shambles.
“Indeed, such a ministerial list can only come from a leadership that does not have mandate of the people. It is a complete waste of time and cannot fulfill the expectation of Nigerians,” the PDP said.
“The list has further shown President Buhari and APC’s insensitivity and disdain for Nigerians and it does not in any way reflect their hope and eagerness for a better Nigeria. Furthermore, in recycling failed yesterday’s men for today’s assignment, President Buhari and the APC have left no one in doubt that they have no vision to move our nation out of the economic and security predicaments into which they have plunged us in the last four years,” it said.
The PDP said a committed and responsive leadership would have widely consulted with Nigerians before compiling a ministerial list, given the current situation in the country.
“If, indeed, President Buhari and the APC mean well for Nigerians and are interested in revamping our critical sectors, they would not have ended up with a list of those who will help conceal the huge corruption in the Buhari administration in the last four years, as well as those who will assist in channeling funds to individuals and groups used by the APC to rig the 2019 presidential election,” it said.
The Nigerian stock market, however, gained 1.21 percent following the news showing that investors have largely anticipated the formation of a cabinet.
Michael Ani, Endurance Okafor, Bunmi Bailey, David Ibidapo, Lagos, Tony Ailemen, Innocent Odoh, Owede Agbajileke & Harrison Edeh, Abuja
