Waiting for President Buhari’s second cabinet

The waiting game is on. This Friday, June 28 will make it exactly 30 days or one month since President Muhammadu Buhari was inaugurated for a second term in office. The president in a media chat had promised to surprise those who call him “Baba Go Slow” with the agility with which he will tackle national issues in his second term. Seeing is believing. We are still waiting with bated breath for the president’s new set of ministers. I do hope we wouldn’t have to wait for six months as we did in 2015.

How I wish our dear president will take a cue from South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa who formed his  gender balanced cabinet barely a week after inauguration. The president has been in the saddle for four years. Election into that office was conducted four months ago, precisely on February 23, 2019. Shouldn’t the president hit the ground running? Is he still searching for saints among sinners to be appointed? Already many kites are being flown about the persons who had made the cabinet. Last week, the social media was agog with news of purported appointment of Dr. Ogbonaya Onu as the Secretary to the Federal Government. Last Friday, a friend also sent me a list of First Batch of 14 new ministers allegedly announced by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina. Both stories eventually turned out to be a hoax. The rumour mill is thriving on this matter because of the president’s vacillation. How can a sitting president not have made any official announcement of any aides or cabinet one month after inauguration?

I have been interviewed by some print and electronic media on what should be the shape, size and character of Buhari’s next cabinet. The latest of such interview was on Rockcity 101.9 FM, Abeokuta, Ogun State last Monday, June 24. Like I said on the programme, the Nigerian Constitution, which is the grundnorm, has spelt out the parameters of the cabinet of the president.

Section 147 of the 1999 Constitution as amended in 2018 stated as follows: “(1) there shall be such offices of Ministers of the Government of the Federation as may be established by the President. (2) Any appointment to the office of Minister of the Government of the Federation shall, if the nomination of any person to such office is confirmed by the Senate, be made by the President. (3) Any appointment under subsection (2) of this section by the President shall be in conformity with the provisions of section 14(3) of this Constitution:- provided that in giving effect to the provisions aforesaid the President shall appoint at least one Minister from each State, who shall be an indigene of such State. (4) Where a member of the National Assembly or of a House of Assembly is appointed as Minister of the Government of the Federation, he shall be deemed to have resigned his membership of the National Assembly or of the House of Assembly on his taking the oath of office as Minister. (5) No person shall be appointed as a Minister of the Government of the Federation unless he is qualified for election as a member of the House of Representatives. (6) An appointment to any of the offices aforesaid shall be deemed to have been made where no return has been received from the Senate within twenty-one working days of the receipt of nomination by the Senate.”

From the aforementioned section of the constitution, some facts came out strongly. Section 147 (3) made reference to appointment on the basis of Section 14 (3) of the Constitution. What does that section say? It says: “The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few State or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies.”

Invariably, the law is saying that the president must pay attention to issues around ethnicity, religion and other considerations in order to promote national cohesion. Note that it is not only in forming cabinet that this is a sine-qua-non. It is in all appointments. Thus, it is not expected that the appointment of security chiefs should be lopsided as it is currently. It is also now patently clear why we cannot have less than 36 Ministers. Section 147 (3) has prescribed that at least a person must be appointed from each of the states who must be indigene of that states. Thus while United States of America has 15 Secretaries which is equivalent of our own Ministers, Nigeria with less than the population and States in USA has to appoint one from each of the federating states.

I have also heard a strident call by a section of Nigerians for the president’s cabinet to be majorly populated by “technocrats” and not politicians.  According to Cambridge Dictionary, a technocrat is “an expert in science or technology who has a lot of power in or influence with the government or industry”. Is it then possible to have only people who are versed in science and technology in government? For me, I want every member of the incoming cabinet to be knowledgeable about digital technology. I mean that they should be able to use Information, Communication Technology such as personal computers, laptops, internet, communicate via email and be able to make independent research of their own rather than depending on what they are told by their aides or civil servants.

Did you know that you cannot be a Minister without being a card carrying member of a political party? That is the import of provision of Section 147 (5). It says “No person shall be appointed as a Minister of the Government of the Federation unless he is qualified for election as a member of the House of Representatives.” A look at Section 65 (2)(b) of the Constitution which spells out qualification criteria for House of Representatives says  an aspirant for House of Reps must be  a member of a political party and be sponsored by that party. So whether you’re a technocrat or not, you must be a party member. However, you need not belong to the ruling party. In any event, the so called technocrats can be found in politics aplenty.

Lest I forget, the president will do well to honour his campaign promise to the Nigerian women. The president had promised to give 35 per cent of his cabinet to women. This pledge should be honoured. I recalled that on being declared the president-elect in February, the No. 1 citizen promised to run an inclusive government. This is the time to walk the talk. His South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa used the following criteria as yardstick in the formation of his cabinet – experience, continuity, competence, generational mix, demographic and regional diversity. Mr. President can do likewise.

It is not only in the formation of cabinet that the president should expedite action. He needs to do that in all appointments. As I said on Rockcity FM on Monday, at least three months to the expiration of the tenure of a chief executive of an Agency or Department, and the Board of any of them, the President should do well to name replacements to the about-to-be vacant positions. Imagine where the Board of National Social Insurance Trust Fund and the Security and Exchange Commissions were left unfilled for many years. As I write this, many positions of heads of agencies and Department are still vacant leaving a lot of them being run by people in acting capacity which is not good enough. Finally, those who are to be appointed into the in-coming cabinet should be incorruptible and be thoroughly screened by the security agents and the Senate before being confirmed to take office. Certificate forgers and those who dodge national service should not be part of the cabinet this time around.