SUNDAY MUSINGS BY MOBOLAJI E. ALUKO

How Not to Knock a "Cabinet" Together in Nigeria – And Suggestions for Effective "Carpentry"

alukome@gmail.com

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Introduction

I have often wondered what Nigeria's Constitutional framers – and the Constitution's military confirmers   - were thinking when they put in the Constitution that there must be at least one Minister per state in the Presidential Cabinet.   With 36 states, that means a minimum of an equal number of ministers, whether we like it or not, which appears the perfect recipe for bloated bureaucracy when one considers that each will have a special adviser, etc.   Luckily, the creation of the positions of "ministers of state" – over which the Constitution was ambiguously silent - has cut the number of MINISTRIES down to a theoretical possibility of eighteen.  

Incidentally, starting in January 2007, there are in fact now twenty ministries instead of the previous thirty ministries (see Table 1), although theoretically, this does not cut down the maximum number of ministers since the "minister of state" device can still be capriciously applied no matter the actual number of ministries.

Furthermore, unless the intended "federal character" clause strictly meant "equal state representation", being assured that there would be at least five Yoruba ministers (with possibility of one or two more from Kwara and Kogi), five Igbo ministers (with possibility of one or two more from Rivers and Delta) and thirteen to fifteen Hausa/Fulani ministers from all over the Northern region, in a country of about 374 ethnic groups, hardly counts for true federal character.

The other issue is the growing practice or conventional wisdom of asking state governors and (on occasion ex-presidents) – naturally only of the same party as the current President -   to nominate from within their own states a slate of  two or three candidates for the President to choose from.    One wonders who nominates commissioners for governors – chairmen of councils? – and why governors should be allowed to double-dip after having chosen their own commissioners.

The other interesting –and  most embarrassing – situation is when the nominees are forwarded to the Senate WITHOUT portfolios attached .   Surprise, surprise, they are APPROVED – sometimes following no more than a deep and amusing bow if they were former legislators, ministers or executive governors - without knowledge of what portfolios they will serve in.  One was even graciously approved following a frightening faint after an embarrassing credential-verification question, and okay another was disapproved for not being able to recite the National Anthem and/or tell the full meaning of the acronym of some important national program..  

Granted that  the Constitution DOES NOT REQUIRE such knowledge, but COMMON SENSE would dictate that not EVERYBODY can serve EQUALLY well in every portfolio, and that the Senate should have a sense of prior or impending competence in a particular ministerial office before approval is given.

And What is To Be Done?

First, I would suggest a 20-ministry-40-ministers cabinet – with a minister and a minister of state in each ministry – no more, no less.   This will take any haziness out of the endeavor.  Furthermore, rather than having each ministry considered Tier A, Tier B, Tier C (etc.) in terms of financial "lucrativenes", they should be grouped in four divisions in terms of functionality:

(i)                   Administrative & Legal – Finance, Justice, FCT

(ii)                 Social Services – Education, Health, Labor, Women, Youth Development, Environment & Housing, Tourism & Culture

(iii)                Industry & Infrastructure – Energy, Transportation, Agriculture & Water Resources, Commerce & Industry, Information & Communications, Mines & Mineral Development, Science & Technology

(iv)               Security – Interior,  Defence, Foreign Affairs

Promotion of inter-ministerial interactions within each division wherever possible can then be better effected.

Secondly, NO MATTER how the ministerial nominees arise, their names should NEVER be forwarded to the Senate without their portfolios attached, whether at the first instance or during subsequent cabinet reshuffles.   This should be held as a cardinal rule, and written either into the constitution or the Standing Rules of the Senate.

Thirdly, rather than have ONLY the governors do the nomination, it might even be more acceptable for the LEADERSHIP of the   twenty majority  and major-minority groups (Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Fulani, Ijaw, Tiv, Urhobo, Edo, Ibibio, Annang,  Idoma, Gwari, Kanuri, Nupe, Birom, Angas, Jukun, Isoko, Itsekiri,  Ikwerre) to join in doing so. For example each can forward two nominees the President for him or her to choose one.   As these ethnic representatives will cover at least fourteen states in all the six geopolitical zones, that should be ENOUGH to satisfy the spirit of the "federal character" clause in the Constitution.

Fourthly, any state NOT eventually represented by these ethnic nominees – there is a possibility of twenty-one of such states - can have the governors nominate three from each of the six GEOPOLITICAL ZONES, from which the President chooses two.   It might be stipulated, for example, that at least one third of these gubernatorial nominees must have served as commissioners or other cabinet position under the Governors, since it is conceivable that some of these commissioners are easily upgradeable to federal ministerial positions.   This whole exercise will cut down the eventual nominees of the governors by a third and remove much arbitrariness and undue political pressures.

Fifthly, the 40 ethnic nominees and 18 geopolitical nominees (from which eventually 20 and 12 ministers are eventually chosen) must be made with two stipulations:

(1)     at least a third must be women, appointed in consultation with women civil society organizations; and

(2)     each must be accompanied with a suggestion of portfolio and rationale for such a portfolio.

What these two stipulations do is that in the event of a minister being dropped later – say one or two years down the road -   the President has a list to draw from without having to reshuffle the cabinet., and without having to go back to a PARTICULAR STATE for replacement.

Sixthly, one would hope that before putting their names forward to the Senate, the President has asked each nominee for a statement of their political and philosophical underpinnings and worldview, and personally interviewed those that he has some lingering doubts about.   It would be odd to work with a largely "unknown" cabinet – as Obasanjo himself admitted that he did in his 1999-2003 outing.

Finally, the President himself should be able to choose eight members of his cabinet WITHOUT regard to where they come from in the country – including even all from his own state if, for example, he thinks that they served him well as commissioners when he was previously governor of his state. This core group helps in alleviating the situation where the President is overwhelmed by   complete strangers in his cabinet, but that does not mean that as time goes by, he will not build new relationships in the cabinet and beyond.  Naturally, these presidential nominees can at first be expected to populate his core ministries like Finance, Defence,  Education, Justice, Energy, Foreign Affairs & Information/Communications.

Yar'Adua's Newly-Announced Cabinet

After five weeks of dilly-dallying since his presidential inauguration of May 29, Umar Musa Yar'Adua  (UMYA) recently announced on July 5, 2007  a list of cabinet members that he has forwarded to the Senate.   (See Table 2).  It appears that he might be heading for a 42-person cabinet – one per state   and one per geopolitical zone. 

After suddenly dropping one nominee from Kebbi State for "security reasons" – purportedly a sister of the irrepressible Colonel Dangiwa Abubakar Umar -  the 34 persons ("All the President's Men", or people, to be more gender-sensitive) that he has chosen so far come from 32 states. They have been characterized recently in one newspaper (This Day, July 7, 2007)   as comprised of six "technocrats" (Shamsudeen Usman, Bode Augusto, Yayale Ahmed, Odein Ajumogobia, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, and Aderemi Babalola), two "pseudo-technocrats" (Aliyu Modibbo and Charles Ugwuh) and the rest "politicians" (like PDP National Secretary Ojo Maduekwe, PDP Publicity Secretary John Odey, PDP 1999 and/or 2003 Legislators Sanusi Daggash and Akinlabi Olasunkanmi; three immediate past Ministers -  of State for Health,  Halima Alao, of Education, Abba Ruma and of Labor, Hassan Mohammed Lawal;  Ekiti AC-decampee-to-PDP and erstwhile Afenifere chieftain Dayo Adeyeye and twenty others).   Kano and Gombe have two nominees each (Usman, Ahmed Bichi for Kano; Aliyu Modibbo and Aisha Dukku for Gombe), while Kaduna, Jigawa, Benue and Kebbi have no nominees for now.   Only five women [(Alison-Madueke (Bayelsa), Grace Ekpewire (Delta), Halima Tayo Alao (Kwara), Aishatu Dukku (Gombe) and Fidelia Njeze (Enugu)] are currently on the 34-person list, a far cry from the one-third to half that can be wished for. [Obasanjo once had as many as nine or ten in his cabinet at one time: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Oby Ezekwesili,   Joy Ogwu, Leslye Obiora, Grace Ogwuche,  Halima Alao, Helen Esuene, Salome Jankada, Maryam Ciroma and Nenadi Usman]

This newly-announced team is not a particularly inspiring mix and might have partially informed the recent commendable decision of the Action Congress with Abubakar Atiku's blessing.   Unlike the ANPP (sans Muhammadu Buhari blessing) and PPA (with Orji Uzo Kalu's blessing), the AC is staying away from a Government of National Unity and its promised slots of cabinet positions, special advisers and ambassadorial postings to the opposition parties.  However, the buzz is that this is a very transitional cabinet that will last no more than six months to one year; and that it has been established merely for political expediency to carry the UMYA administration over the election petition period.   This "transition" designation also serves to salve the minds of the many disappointed persons who were surprisingly not named in the cabinet list and can now hope for the best in the shortest possible "next time."

We shall see…..

Epilogue

The whole point of the above suggestions is to make our federal cabinet more representative of the ethnic and gender composition of our Nigerian people; to attempt to preemptively make their professional backgrounds and experience match their portfolios better; enable easier cabinet re-shuffling;   and at the same time give the President more leeway in terms of choosing a core team for himself or herself.

Comments are welcome.

STAR INFORMATION:  Nigeria 's New Federal Ministries & Ministers 

New Ministries Announced December 13, 2006

New Ministers Announced January 10, 2007

Compiled by NigerianMuse.com

January 11, 2007

Sources:

THE NATION http://www.thenationonlineng.com/dynamicpage.asp?id=8214

PUNCH http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200701111434146

TABLE 2:  34 Ministerial Nominees of Umar Musa Yar'Adua So Far

1.  Dr. Aliyu Idi Hong                                                   - Adamawa

2.  Senator John James Akpanudoedehe                          - Akwa-Ibom

3.  Prince John Okechukwu Emeka                               - Anambra

4.  Chief Ojo Maduekwe                                              - Abia

5.  Mahmud Yayale Ahmed                                          - Bauchi

6.  Mrs. Diezani K. Alison Madueke                              - Bayelsa

7.  Senator Muhammed Sanusi Daggash                        - Borno

8.  John Ogar Odey                                                      - Cross-River

9.  Mrs. Grace Ekpiwhere                                            - Delta

10. Igwe Aja-Nwachukwu                                            - Ebonyi

11. Maj. Gen. Godwin Abbe (Rtd).                              - Edo

12. Prince Dayo Adeyeye                                             - Ekiti

13. Mrs. Fidelia Akubata Njeze                                    - Enugu

14. Aishatu Jibril Dukku                                                - Gombe

15.  Dr. Aliyu Moddibo Umar                                       - Gombe

16.  Chief Charles Chukwuemeka Ugwu                       - Imo

17.  Alhaji Ahmed Garba Bichi                                     - Kano

18. Dr. Shamsudeen Usman                                          - Kano

19.  Abba Sayyadi Ruma                                              - Katsina

20. Arc. Gabriel Yakubu Aduku                                   - Kogi (Igala)

21.  Halima Tayo Alao                                                 - Kwara

22. Bode Augusto                                                        - Lagos

23  Dr. Hassan Muhammed Lawal                                - Nasarawa

24.  Abdularahman Hassan Gimba                                - Niger

25. Chief Sarafa Tunji Ishola                                         - Ogun

26. Prince Adetokunbo Kayode                                   - Ondo

27. Senator Akinlabi Olasunkanmi                                - Osun

28. Aderemi W. Babalola                                             - Oyo

29.  Amb. Baudu M. Hirse                                            - Plateau

30.  H. Odein Ajumogobia                                            - Rivers

31. Alhaji Ahmed Mohammed Gusau                            - Sokoto

32. Barrister Ibrahim El-Sudi                                        - Taraba

33. Adamu Maina Waziri                                              - Yobe

34. Tijani Yahaya Kaura                                              - Zamfara

35. Vacant…………………………………………....... - Benue

36. Vacant…………………………………………....... - Jigawa

37. Vacant………………………………………..........  - Kaduna

38. Vacant………………………………………......      - Kebbi.