Since the shock sacking of nine
ministers by President Goodluck Jonathan, news and social media have
been awash with comments expressing surprise, or those who felt the
attempt at reshuffling the cabinet was not far-reaching enough,
considering that some particular ministers are left in their positions.
This sacking brings the total number of
vacant cabinet seats to 11 (former Minister of State for Health, Dr.
Muhammad Ali Pate, had resigned a couple of months ago, while the
Minister for Youth Development, Inuwa Abdulkadir had also been sacked a
few weeks ago).
While it will take days, if not weeks,
before the reasons behind the sacking of each of the nine ministers are
fully known, we can only speculate whether it was based on
non-performance, corruption, or political consolidation (some of the
ministers might bear allegiance to the breakaway faction of the ruling
Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP).
In other countries, the sacking of 11
cabinet members would have amounted to at least half or even two-thirds
of the entire cabinet gone. However, in Nigeria, this is just about
one-third of the number of ministers, not to add the motley crowd of
Special Advisers (which are cabinet-level positions) and Senior Special
Assistants to the President. All these offices come with their own
retinue of aides, expenses and budgets. There is no better description
of an over-bloated cabinet than what we have.
While this is not entirely President
Jonathan’s fault, as the 1999 Constitution demands a minister per state,
he has made it worse by creating offices of special advisers and senior
special assistants with either very vague job descriptions (such as the
Special Adviser on Ethics and Values) or duplicating those of others.
Take for instance, the fact that there
is a Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, a Senior Special Assistant
on Public Relations and another Senior Special Assistant on New Media
(Facebook and Twitter). These three offices can be merged into one
position, saving the country a lot of funds.
The President can start by trimming
these redundant positions, while the National Assembly can do us all
good by removing the clause of the constitution that stipulates that
each state has a minister, a practice rooted in a disastrous scarcity
mindset. After all, not every ministry needs to stand on its own (e.g.
the Ministries of Information and Communication, Science and Technology,
and Communications Technology have a lot of overlaps) and not every
ministry needs a Minister of State (Works and Health are two ministries
that readily come to mind).
It will also be recalled that after the
appointment of his cabinet, President Jonathan had his ministers sign
performance bonds, against which their stays in office will be
evaluated. While that was a laudable move in order to tie the ministers
down to performance contracts, it is sad that the contents of these
performance bonds are not known to the public. As a result, the Nigerian
people, who are the true employers of the ministers and the President
himself, can only form conjectures in assessing their performances.
Having the performance bonds of the
ministers publicly available also bolsters the President’s case when he
lets cabinet members go for non-performance. For example, until this
sacking, one would be forgiven for not remembering that we had a
Minister for Environment, or Lands and Housing, as there has been
nothing to show for their existences.
As President Jonathan beams his search
radar across the country for persons to fill the eleven vacancies in his
cabinet, he cannot be faulted for factoring political considerations
into his nominations. However, the capacity to do the job should not be
sacrificed for political expediency.
The practice where the state governor
(if from the PDP) or the state chapter of the party is asked to nominate
a minister must be done away with, as the President should select
people whose pedigrees he is sure of, and whom he can work with.
There must be efforts made to turn the
cabinet into a collection of all-round performers, not what it is at
current where persons like Akin Adesina, the Minister of Agriculture
earns plaudits nationally, while those like the now former Minister for
Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufai will not be missed.
It is now less than two years before the
next general elections when President Jonathan is expected to seek
another four years at the helm of affairs of Nigeria. His performance,
by which many Nigerians will judge whether he is deserving of a second
term, will depend on the performance of his cabinet members.
We hope that he keeps this in mind.
IntelOpinion
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