Expectations from the recently inaugurated ministers may be high but performance may fall below such expectations, particularly former state governors.
BusinessDay has been told that except the former governors who are now ministers adopt certain strategies, they may even be frustrated on their beats.
This was gleaned from a meeting attended by private sector operators, who have excelled in their chosen sectors of the economy where they operate.
These private sector experts drawn from the academia, agriculture, oil & gas, power, health, media told BusinessDay that it was always a different kettle of fish switching from being an ‘emperor’ to being ‘mere servant’ who takes orders from, and wait on others before carrying out their plans.
The egg-heads, who were looking at the ‘ministers to watch’ in the Bola Ahmed Tinubu cabinet, noted that some of the former governors really established their presence in their individual states, adding, however, that their new jobs were quite different.
They noted in particular the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, who is said to have made some marks in Ebonyi State in the area of infrastructure provision, saying that the former governor was an independent office holder with a lot of money at his disposal to do whatever he wanted to do, unlike now he would be beholding faces as minister.
“One of the mistakes that President Buhari made was to appoint a former governor as minister of works and it has been repeated here,” one of those in attendance, who has also played key roles at the federal level, said.
According to him, “I said so because governors are mini-emperors. For eight years, whatever they said was law. A governor sits down in his office and awards a multi-billion-naira contract. But as a minister, it is a different ball game. For him to award such contract, he has to go to the National Assembly; he has to go back to FEC (Federal Executive Council); he has to go through the process of procurement and all that. So, you find out that you are only one out of many actors.
“Now, as a governor who has arrived at his ministry, he finds out he has many people who will have contributions in the role he has to play, it is very difficult to adjust.”
The meeting also noted that a number of other ministers may not have been familiar with bureaucracies in their former places of work, which is almost statutory in ministries, as a result, adjustments may create initial hiccups.
“Each of these ministers who have arrived Abuja will find out that they have a tail called the ministry with a leader called the permanent secretary and they usually have a mind of their own, especially if you don’t have a plan to ‘carry them along.’ So, the ministers will have to learn how to work with their civil servants or co-opt them into their plan. They could also go and get the President’s back in whatever plan they have.
“Those in the ministries of Health, Education, Power, Agriculture, petroleum- they have to quickly take their time to understand their ministries, otherwise, people will find out these people don’t know what they are doing. That’s how it works and that is the only way they can succeed.”
To help the Works Minister, for instance, the meeting suggested that it would be better for him to go the Public-Private Partnerships route rather than procurement.
“The minister is somebody that has done a lot of construction in his state, but as already noted, state is not the same as federal. But, if he is able to go the PPP model, he will gain a lot of mileage, but if it is procurement, he may not go far. He would build a few roads and, before you know it, election will come,” another member of the group said, pleading anonymity.
On the ministers to watch, the private sector operators unanimously agreed that the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, fits the bill.
“For me, the minister to watch is Finance minister simply because he is the coordinating minister of the economy. He comes with a lot of experience having done so in Lagos State. Again, he has a lot of private sector experience, contacts and network,” one of the operators said.
It was, however, noted that for Edun to optimally function as the coordinating minister for the economy, there should be an Economic Management Team in place and he must be appointed as the vice chairman of that team, the President being the chairman. With that, it is believed that he would have the airs to successfully preside over the team as first among equals.
“Going back in time, there have been only two cases where Nigeria has had special ministers for special roles. The ministers who have had this role, first was Chief Obafemi Awolowo, when he was designated the vice chairman of the Federal Executive Council; the second, we had Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. In-between them, I can’t remember any other minister who had that stature or that title.
“In the case of Okonjo-Iweala, what also gave her the clout was that the President set up an Economic Management Team and designated her as vice chairman of that management team; he also designated the then Vice President as the alternate chairman. So, she had the clout, the stature and experience to coordinate other ministries,” a member of the meeting who was in that government recalled vividly.
The decision of the President to retain the minister of petroleum portfolio did not go down well with the experts who strongly believed that it was not transparent enough.
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“The decision by the President not to appoint a substantive minister of petroleum, but rather be the minister is a challenge. It just suggests that it is the same old way things are done in secrecy. We are supposed to have an independent minister for petroleum if we are going to get the kind of transparency we have always asked for.
“I can’t see where we are going if we have three ministers of petroleum. I think they are going to muddle the water as you can see some confusion creeping in there.”
In a recent interview, Nyesom Wike, a former governor of Rivers State and now minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) confirmed that it is no longer the same.
“So many things I take to my boss as president for approval but as a state governor no; you have to differentiate it.
Even though at structure level, we have our secretaries which are like commissioners, we have a secretary of council which is like an attorney-general of the state; you have a director of this and that. In that way, it’s okay but in terms of exercising the powers, it is not the same because you must seek the approval of the President,” Wike said.
Wike, as two-term governor of Rivers State, was nicknamed ‘Mr. Project’ as a result of his focus on road construction and general projects. He had the limitless power to award contracts but that may not be the case in his current position as a minister.
