[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t is my position that ALL the nominated Ministers should be allowed “to Bow and Go” at the Senate; at the end of the day, this is going to be known as “Buhari’s Government” and not “The Ministers’ Government” and it is the President’s Legacy that gets to be built up when the ministers perform just as it is his reputation that is maligned when they under-perform or misbehave.
We were all here in this same Nigeria when some people said:
1. “The ONLY reason I won’t vote for GEJ is because of Diezani”
2. “Even if I don’t like GEJ, I will vote for him because of ADESINA or Okonjo-Iweala”
So why all the fuss really? This is an Executive Presidency not a Prime Ministership within a parliamentary democracy in which the members of Parliament [MPs] are also also elected by the people and can therefore be held responsible for representing their constituencies and also upholding the Offices [Ministries] they hold – in the case of Nigeria, we are a Presidential Democracy in which the people has already vested their powers in President Muhammadu Buhari by giving him 15 million votes with the inherent powers to pick his team that would support and assist him in delivering his visions for Nigeria.
So, Buhari should be allowed to be pick “his staff” as he chooses – once, I guess, he is doing so within the ambits of the law for example respecting the One Minister Per State rule [we all know the Federal Character Principles issue is at the prerogative of the incumbent as he chooses to implement it].
Let’s face it – no minister will perform beyond the attitudinal intelligence, disposition and outlook of his boss – even if you choose to be a superstar, you can be removed within the confines of the politics of being “an oversabi busybody that is planning to take Oga’s job.”
I know some would consider these to be too simplistic and would quickly raise the point of order, “What about the graft allegations against some of the nominees?”
To that, I say – it is really a waste of time for the Senate to be bothering itself trying to drop some of the names for such reasons because:
- The President ALREADY decided to have these guys despite on #TheList despite the fact that he had “intelligence reports” on his table that some of them night be culpable for these allegations;
- His handlers [with his knowledge] already misled Nigerians by suggesting “these nominees were being screened during the waiting season by the EFCC, DSS, etc” – this would suggest that he was willing to look beyond anything these agencies found, so why should anyone ask the same agencies to vet these people again when their ultimate boss is the President and not the Senate? What are they going to find on these people that they didn’t see only a couple of weeks ago?
- So you see – if Buhari is willing to push these nominees forward despite the information available to him, then let’s agree that “he would do all the lobbying, bullying, negotiations and even possible blackmailing he can muster to get them to become Ministers” – and he is President, there is really nothing anyone can do about that.
So, what happens if a court of law finds one of the nominees culpable for such a case while he/she is already minister?
This could be quite interesting – would the President ask such a person to resign [knowing such information is correct]? Would he begin to use his powers to quench such a case so as not to shame him? Would he allow his administration be dragged down by such a scandal simply to defend the person?
Or perhaps, there is something President Buhari knows that he is not telling us being that “he knows he can get any case dropped against anyone he wants using the powers available to him!” Or perhaps that’s the very reason why those nominees are not losing sleep over these allegations?
Except, I am tempted to push the conspiracy theory of “Buhari knows some of these folks would be dropped by the Senate for these accusations and is therefore setting them up for the fall so that if they are screened out, they can no longer blame him for not considering them to be on the list? And can go away licking their wounds blaming themselves for their own losses in this regard? Perhaps, I should be writing scripts for the conspiracy theory/thriller movies industry?
Buhari’s Strategy
So you see – really at the end of the day, this is a lost battle against the “Executive President & Commander-in-Chief” – the man would have those he wants to work with him except he doesn’t really want them.
Buhari’s strategy in picking “his staff” has been pretty clear to me for a while – he makes sure he picks an initial inner caucus – those very close to him “by faith and geography” with whom he can “run Nigeria” in the way he chooses even without ministers – in doing so, he knows he would still receive the backing of his supporters who would [and of course] unsuspectingly say “Give him time; he still has the ministers to go”.
All the while, Buhari knew he would have to compensate some noisemaking individuals and constituencies for their investments in his elections – so he breaks that list into two. He uses the first batch – an entirely politico one to test the temperature of the polity, while the second batch (which has been delivered to the Senate President this evening) that would have a bit of a semblance of being technocrats-savvy – in a bid to get his supporters [who are also largely disappointed with the first batch but won’t say so in public] to say “Shebi, I told you that there would be technocrats in the list?”
In essence, Buhari has this thing well-planned out – and he was simply being sincere when in France he said “Ministers are Noisemakers” because deep down he knows “none of those of the list he has presented can readily be labelled as “transformative leaders or public sector experts that would change this nation in any of the sectors they are told to oversee” – and he knew all he needed to achieve his agenda for Nigeria whatever that is can be done with his inner caucus – not these lot!
In Conclusion
Well, if are one of those youths that didn’t find his name on the list, I have another op-ed dedicated to you to be released after the entire list is released and if your current concern is for your uncle who also invested a lot into the elections, do reassure him that there is still tons of juicy agency jobs to go around – so much so that we couldn’t possibly exhaust in the next 2 years – this is Naija – man must to chop anyhow anyways!
Favour B. Afolabi who is runs www.fbablogs.com considers himself a specialist in discussing and exposing political stereotypes within the Nigerian polity. Follow him @favourafolabi.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
