A nation’s senate and the coming mediocre cabinet

By Bonaventure Melah

In October, 2015, former US First Lady Hillary Clinton was questioned by the country’s senate for 11 hours at a stretch, over an incident the led to the killing of four Americans in Bengazi, Libya, while she was Secretary of State in 2012.

Because four Americans died in the Bengazi attack, a former First Lady and later, Secretary of State, was grilled by lawmakers, because of the value they placed on their country and the welfare of its citizens.

But last week, President Muhammadu Buhari submitted the much awaited list of ministerial nominees containing names of 43 people that would serve in his cabinet for the next four years.

Less than 48 hours after they received the list, the senators began what was supposed to be screening or interview of the nominees with more than 30 of them cleared within just two days.

Rather than subject the nominees to scrutiny to know whether or not they are competent to serve the nation and engender meaningful development, the senate, led by its president, Ahmed Lawal simply patronized them by asking that they should take a bow and go; and that was for so many of them.

Even those that were asked questions spent their time spewing gibberish that Nigerians knew was blatant lies.

And because the President refused as usual to pencil the portfolios he plan to assign the nominees to, the questions were more like current affairs or social studies meant for secondary school students.

There are many questions begging for answers concerning the ways and manner both the executive and the senate are carrying on the very crucial assignment of selecting those that would take charge of strategic ministries in the next four years, on behalf of the people.

In the first place, was it a deliberately calculated tactics that Buhari submitted the list of nominees a few days to the date the lawmakers would commence their recess so that it would be rushed as is being done now?

The second question is, were the names of the nominees submitted to the security agencies for background checks as used to be the practice? When did the president submit the names and to which agencies?

This is because many of them have criminal cases in court while others are still undergoing investigation for allegedly stealing billions of Naira belonging to the people.

The third question is, on what basis, what criteria, were these men and a few women selected to serve as Nigeria’s ministers? Was it for political patronage, just to compensate party members that lost elections or to create jobs for the ‘boy,’ as they say in Nigeria?

If it were not so, what qualifies Uche Ogah for nomination to serve as minister? Someone who has been selling petrol without requisite technical know-how for such exalted position?

What qualifies Rauf Aregbesola whose eight years in office as Osun state governor has been described by many as monumental failure? Was Godswill Akpabio nominated to serve as minister merely because he defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and ‘contributed immensely’ to the party during the last election? What about the N100billion allegations for which EFCC was grilling him before this nomination?

For what reason should Ogbonaya Onu return as minister when nearly four years the ministry of science and technology that he supervised still could not produce pencils as he boasted?

Then there is Chris Ngige who mocked himself when he said that Nigeria has more medical doctors than required, and Babatude Fashola who was once described as the ‘minister for darkness because of his dismal performance in the power sector,’ then these Akpa Udo, Timipre Sylva, Adamu Adamu (again/) after the shameful performance of the education sector under him; George Akume (being recycled so many times), Paullen Tallen and Mohammed Adamu.

If we decide to close one eye and excuse the above names on grounds that they, at least, served in the last cabinet, even though they ended up as total disappointments; from where are the names listed below coming from?

In which corporate organizations in Nigeria or internationally have they worked to prove their mettle before being invited for this higher national service to motherland?

Where are names like Sadiya Farouk, Shewuye, Isa Pantami, Ramatu Tijani, Clement Abam, Tayo Alasaodura, Maryam Katagun, Sabo Nano, Emeka Nwajuba and Zubair Dada coming from?

This is because when the likes of Soludo, Oby Ezekwesili, Nasir El-Rufai and the rest were announced as appointees of Obasanjo, Nigerians immediately knew they had ‘addresses’ as they say in Anambra state, because they had already made their marks elsewhere in the corporate world and were being invited for their expertise and the value they would bring into the system.

Most of the people that made Buhari’s list are not just colourless, they are jobless characters that have nothing to give because they don’t have anything to offer, people whose occupation has been to contest elections and fail, so that they can be considered for one appointment or the other.

Following his re-election in February, it took Buhari six months to decide on whom to work with this time and after such a long wait, these are the names the president could come up with as ministers.

Compare this with the United Kingdom Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. His predecessor Theresa May simply went to Queen Elizabeth to announce her resignation, and Johnson who had earlier been elected was invited by the Queen and asked to go and form a government.

The following day, Johnson announced his cabinet and addressed the country outside No. 10 Downing Street commencing his administration.

These took less than two hours. There were no ceremonies, no gunshots, no budgetary expenses for swearing-in ceremonies, no fanfare.

But here, after wasting hundreds of billions of Naira on elections that are allegedly rigged, we spend months preparing to swear in some funny characters into executive and legislative positions, only for them to end up clueless on how to govern and then the nation blind.

It is painful that after waiting for six months, Buhari could not find competent Nigerians from across all divides to give Nigeria a new direction like former president Olusegun Obasanjo did in 1999 when he went round the world to fish out competent citizens like Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Chukwuma Soludo, Mutkar Mansur, Dora Akunyili, Nasir El-Rufai, Aruma Oteh and the rest of them to serve their fatherland?

If Nigerians went through hell to survive the last four years of Buhari’s administration, one can imagine what the future holds for the nation and its citizens with the characters the president has lined up as ministers this time.

In the last four years, insecurity has reached its peak with the lives of Nigerians now worthless as dozens are killed every minute of the day without anybody held accountable.

Under Fashola, Nigerians lived in darkness; there was virtually no minister for the FCT as the man Buhari put there was completely absent from duty; the economy of the country is in tatters with unemployment at the highest level, same with inflation rate while the value of the Naira has remained at N360 to one Dollar, among many unfortunates.

With many of the same people being called back to work, there is no reason not to believe that the next four years would be as empty, if not worse for the greater majority of citizens, even as our common patrimony will still be looted by the select privileged.