The long wait for the list was always going to have a dilutive effect on the forte of any kind of list that President Muhammadu Buhari eventually conjured up. And it is thus coming to pass. Since last week when the first batch of 21 names was released late afternoon to the Senate, many Nigerians have remained largely unexcited. Many had exclaimed: “What? And we had to wait all of five months for this?” ‘This’ being the outcome of the president’s long awaited list of ministerial nominees that will translate his dream for the country from campaign rhetoric to practical realities. A week after the first list was submitted, the president again sent to the Senate another set of 16 names, thereby completing the mandatory list of potential cabinet ministers which the constitution requires the president to appoint, drawing at least one minister from each of the 36 states of the federation and one from the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, making a total of 37 names in all.
But if one group of Nigerians received the president’s 37 “first eleven” with meh, another group of Nigerians, comprising mainly the vocal members of the opposition team, received the list with considerable attrition. The main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, said through its official spokesman: “By a mere look at the list, one can tell that there is nothing to be excited about, especially considering the length of time it took the President to come up with it. Looking at the list, it is hard to put a finger on why it should take any serious-minded and focused government, six months after its election to assemble such a regular team.”
Coming from a political party that only a few months ago wrecked our country to nearly beyond repair, that was effrontery taken too far; but then again, the man who made the statement is famous for just such great gaffes. This time though, he timed his solecisms fairly accurately because a good number of ordinary Nigerians whose views are undiluted by political chauvinism shared his sentiments. Waiting for anything is always annoying.
The nation’s mood however reverted to excitement and anticipation once the Senate screening commenced last Tuesday. Nigerians had expected that with the Senate’s 108 (one slot is yet to be filled) population almost evenly divided between the two main parties (59 APC-49 PDP), the political brutality that the electioneering campaign engendered, and the sickening skulduggery that characterized the emergence of the leadership of the Senate, the screening of the ministerial nominees would be thorough, tough and in-depth, if not compellingly unforgettable. But those Nigerians who expected a vibrant, issue-based grilling of the nominees by the senators were unreasonable and unfair to the legendary character of the Senate. It was very obvious that the screening of the president’s nominees would be perfunctory, if not mediocre, as has been the tradition of the Senate over the years. So by reputation, we should never have expected anything outstanding from our senators because we, the people, have never really been on the same page with our senators. It is one strong reason why corruption had thrived over the years. Our senators pay more attention to cutting deals for themselves, camouflaged as “oversight” functions, than they do to enacting laws that will have direct bearing on the lives of ordinary Nigerians. The second reason why we should not have expected any dazzling performance from the Senate in screening the ministerial nominees is equally obvious. The Senate leadership emerged through a process that piqued not a feNigerians, including the powerful presidency establishment. As it is, the leadership of the Senate is looking for ways to pacify the presidency and it would be unthinkable to expect that under such circumstances, the Senate leadership would be crazy enough to risk the anger of the presidency any further by rejecting, even with good reason, any of the president’s nominees. And it is all falling into place; by last Wednesday, 18 nominees had been screened, and, yes, 18 screened nominees have been confirmed as ministers-designate. I guess congratulations to all concerned is in order here.
But fortunately not everything about the screening was depressingly predictable. Somehow, and ironically too, it was a select group of the nominees that gave Nigerians something to cheer about. Whereas senators such as former Akwa Ibom State governor, Godswill Akpabio, were asking some of the nominees ridiculous questions such as demanding they “give an undertaking that if they are confirmed, they will respect invitations to the Senate when invited”, nominees such as former Chief of Army Staff, AbdulRahman Dambazau, NNPC GMD, Ibe Kachikwu, Suleiman Adamu, Kemi Adeosun, and former Lagos state governor, Babatunde Fashola, were busy projecting into the screening process such positive energy that was in one word, superlative. Together, that quintet persuaded their audiences that they knew their area of specialization and they conveyed the impression that should they be given any kind of assignment, they will give everything they have to get it done. Mr. Kachikwu (who spent the longest time being screened so far) and Mr. Dambazau were particularly exceptional, their confidence infectious and they left no one in doubt that they meant business in every sense of the word. There were other ministerial nominees too that put up a decent enough performance, such as Solomon Dalong, who, for the first time managed to make a long speech without his entertaining theatrics; but there were others also whose performances are best forgotten.
This brings us to the debate about whether the wait for the ministerial list has been worth the result. All I can say about this is: I hope that in future we wouldn’t have to wait this long for anything, relatively speaking. But we have to be fair to the president. The most important reason why we voted for Mr. Buhari was because we all agreed that corruption had taken over our country and was on the verge on being legitimized, if not legalized, as a necessary tool for survival. From the cleaner in a five-star hotel, to the plumber in the neighbourhood right up to the CEOs of blue-chip companies and the topmost hierarchy in government, corruption had become pervasive. Motorists under duress openly and often in the presence of adolescent children, give bribe to shameless police officers at illegal checkpoints; parents of pupils in primary schools are given bribes in cash and in kind to deliver to their teachers so they could become the teachers’ favourite; students in secondary and tertiary institutions have since discovered that education is for sale and you don’t need any rigorous study to pass examinations. There was simply no sector or level of our national life that corruption had not penetrated.
It was from this murky social setup that President Buhari was expected to select 37 men and women he could trust, those who he can vouch for that they had not been infected by this cancer called corruption. It was never going to be easy. Even the reasonable argument that some people put forward about the fact that in actual fact, the president is well acquainted with nearly half of the nominees so there wasn’t any need for him to have spent time researching on their character, overlooks the possibility that it was precisely because the president knew those he wanted to appoint that he needed to spend time examining their private conduct. In the process, information must have emerged to have changed what the president thought he knew. And let’s not overlook the fact that having ran for the same office on three different occasions and succeeding only on his fourth attempt, Buhari must’ve come across various shades of acts of betrayals most Nigerians can never even imagine existed even by our national world-famous standard of corrupt tendencies. Viewed from this perspective, and given the sterling performances of some of his nominees, the nation has every reason to keep hope alive that in the team that the president has finally assembled, lies the future for our social, economic and political renaissance. We have no choice but to give them that benefit of the doubt, not least because by and large, they deserve it.
As for age, I think the president did a fair job. Although I heard some people put the average age of the nominees at 61, that does not tally with my own arithmetic. When I totted them up, from Audu Ogbe who at 68 is the oldest, to Adeosun who at 48 is the youngest, the average I got is about 49 (Britain’s David Cameron’s cabinet age average is 50). Overall only about six or seven of the nominees are above 60 years, with about the same number at around 48; the rest fall within the age bracket of 49-59. They might not be very young, but they do have the requisite experience and still harbour a hunger to meet certain dreams and ambitions. In other words a lot of them still do have something to prove: to themselves, to their country and to the iconic personality that has placed so much confidence in them. It is true that Buhari’s campaign was driven largely by a youthful population, but those young men and women did what they did not necessarily because they wanted to become ministers, but to have ministers who will guarantee for them a future, which until now is as bleak as it could ever be.
All said, let’s put the debate behind us and subject the team, individually and collectively, to the most rigorous scrutiny, unrelentingly, as they settle down to their various assignments.
Garba Deen Muhammad, an Editor-at-Large at the Daily Sun, is the President of the NGE.
Leave a Reply