Between Yar'Adua and His Cabinet of Geriatrics

By

Ifeanyi Izeze

All right thinking Nigerians would have thought that the embarrassing manner the President sacked some members of his inherited cabinet was to enable him bring in new people with the energy, professional soundness, fresh and workable ideas to help propel the nation forward.

But the manifest of names peddled as ministers- to -be obviously confirms that the President is not only bent on sleeping throughout his tenure in office but also has a clear cut plan to run a cabinet of spent forces or rather an old peoples’ assembly.

Contrary to an earlier statement by the federal government that the long period it took to effect this cabinet change was used to source for good and competent hands to rescue the country’s dwindling fortunes, the long period of silence was rather used to consult several councils of elders (old people) to nominate their own in the new cabinet of geriatrics as is being indicated by the average age of the proposed cabinet.

When are we going to stop the recycling of the same set of old people and take the bold step of bringing new sets of genuine technocrats to make their own contributions?

The reshuffle was supposed to have been used to correct the mistake of accepting a pack of incompetent party men in the mock cabinet arranged for him by his predecessor, but President Yar’Adua used over one year to look for ‘seasoned professionals’ only to turn out with a manifest of old and recycled bundles, and mediocre political jobbers.

This is the manifest as presented by the President: Rilwanu Lukman; Shettima Mustafa; Adamu Aliero; Ufot Ekaette; Sam Egwu; Nuhu Somo; Sani Mohammed Ndanusa; Jubril Maigeri; Ikra Aliyu Bilbis; Bello Jubril Gada; Ibrahim Kazaure; Ibrahim Isa Biu; Achike Udenwa; Babatunde Oshotimehin; Ibrahim Yakubu Lame; Dora Akinyuli amongst others.

In the entire list, the only people you can look back and say they have made meaningful mark in their previous assignments are the two professors- Akunyili and Oshotimehin. Who else?

What is making it so hard for the President to bring in young and sound professionals to drive the governance of this great nation? Why are we recycling these same oldies? Is it because of their past distinguished contributions in service during their previous assignments or what?

Agreed that we need very experienced men and women in the service of this nation, haba! Is that enough for the President to form a conglomeration of elders who have been in government since the days of Hassan Katsina and Nnamdi Azikiwe and merely bias the list with political jobbers (oti nkpus)?

Just imagine; one of the nominees was Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe’s running mate in the 1983 presidential election while another has been in government since the early 1960s under the Tafawa Balewa. So you can guess how old they should be today.

Nothing could have been more apt than the Action Congress reaction to the list of ministerial nominees as the party declared that it has no option than to believe that “this government is not about to change the dwindling fortunes of Nigeria but to satisfy some crude political interests at the expense of progress, which Nigerians are yearning desperately for.” How true this statement is.

According to the party, “the nominees confirm the position that Yar’Adua has no idea of what governing the country entails and the men that would drive a meaningful change in the country. It only confirms the long-held fact that the present government has no plan or idea on how to move this country forward.”

How can anybody justify a list that contains names of people that have performed abysmally in their respective states in eight years as governors, as well as those that have held one form of appointment or another in Nigeria since the early 1960s?

President Yar’Adua had earlier told the Nigerian people that the release of the ministerial list was delayed because some state governors insisted on bringing in their candidates. So are the names on the list nominated by state governors?

If the candidates were nominated by their state governors, how come President Yar’Adua accepted and swallowed them line, hook and sinker without insisting on making his own nominations from the states? Of course that would have been possible if the President, in the first instance, had some professionals in mind to work with across the country. But he never had, he is not having and may never have. So he will continue to rely on other people to assemble teams for him. This is really pathetic.

It does not show any iota of seriousness and desperation- two qualities that any leadership of this country at this point needs to confront the realities of the nation’s backwardness or rather failures and misplaced priorities.

We need people with genuine willingness to serve and make sacrifices for this nation not recycled political jobbers and spent cannons. For once, can’t Nigeria do things differently?

Obasanjo with all his peculiarities even took very bold steps to assemble in his original cabinet fire-brand new breed professionals whose sole target at the onset of the administration was to make definite and visible contributions and impacts. Though the former president’s peculiarities later worked against the starring of most of the real professionals in his team, at least he was well guided into bringing credible and dynamic middle aged professionals with credibility and hunger to star for the nation and the results were glaring until the demon of third term took possession of both the leader and the led in that cabinet

If somebody has been in government for over ten and some twenty years, what else does he think he is coming to offer that could not have been done in the previous years of service?

It is an understatement to say that as it is now, the onus of saving this country from another phase of inactivity or rather business as usual heavily rests on the National Assembly especially the Senate. If the National Assembly actually represents the interest of the Nigerian masses and has the love of this country at heart, it should stamp its feet and genuinely wither this list of geriatrics, mediocre and political jobbers to save this nation the agony of this seemly eternal groaning and yearnings for good governance.

IFEANYI IZEZE IS AN ABUJA-BASED CONSULTANT ON POLITICAL STRATEGY AND GRASSROOT CONSULTATION (iizeze@yahoo.com)