Agenda for Tinubu’s cabinet

 

I watched the colourful swearing-in of the 45 out of the proposed 48 ministers of President Bola Tinubu last Monday, August 21. It came 84 days after the president’s inauguration on May 29, 2023.  It’s the seventh of such in this Fourth Republic which started in 1999. Hearty congratulations to the lucky few who made the president’s cabinet. It’s indeed a rare privilege to be selected for such enviable appointments among over 40 million estimated members of the All Progressives Congress and over 200 million Nigerians.

I have granted several media interviews across some of the print and broadcast media since the inauguration of the ministers. Prominent among them are the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria better known as Radio Nigeria, Spectrum TV, TV 360, News Central Television and Blueprint newspaper. I do not hide my disapproval of the size of the cabinet which I strongly feel is bloated. What’s the president doing with a cabinet of over 50 persons (President, Vice President, 45 ministers, Secretary to the Federal Government, Head of Service, Chief of Staff to the President, National Security Adviser and possibly the Special Advisers to the president). This is the highest since the advent of this Fourth Republic.

According to last Sunday’s PUNCH (August 20, 2023) the President’s nominees topped the 42 appointed by his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, in 2019 by five more persons. In his first term, Buhari named 36 ministers, while the number increased to 42 during his second term. Former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 named 33 nominees to be ministers in his cabinet, including nine from the Umar Yar’Adua administration. In 2007, Yar’Adua named a 39-member cabinet made up of 32 men and seven women. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo initially named 42 ministers in 1999 but reviewed his cabinet to reduce the number of ministries and ministers to 27 and 40, respectively, before he left office in 2007.

At a time when Nigeria’s paltry revenue is almost spent on debt servicing and the country perpetually goes a-borrowing with heavy debt portfolio, the commonsensical thing to do is to have a SMART government that is lean and efficient   Reduction of the cost of governance should have been our top priority. Unfortunately, it is not so. Right now, we allegedly have over 1,400 Ministries, Departments and Agencies that the Steve Oronsaye committee report of 2011 advised should be pruned to save the cost of governance. Unfortunately, Buhari couldn’t keep his promise to implement the White Paper of the report.

Despite the lean resources, the earlier referenced Sunday PUNCH reported that the housing allowances for the newly appointed ministers might cost the country about N343.25m yearly, according to its findings. With that annual allocation, in four years, the Federal Government will spend N1.37bn on the 45 ministers’ accommodation. The allowances are based on data collated from a document obtained from the website of the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission. It covers allowances for accommodation (200 per cent of basic salary), domestic staff (75 per cent of basic salary), utilities (30 per cent of basic salary), and furniture (300 per cent of basic salary). Unlike other allowances paid monthly, furniture allowance is usually paid once in four years.

Sunday PUNCH further reported that each minister is entitled to an accommodation allowance of N4.05m, domestic staff allowance of N1.52m, and utilities allowance of N0.61m, alongside furniture allowance of N6.08m, which is paid once in four years. Each minister of state is entitled to an accommodation allowance of N3.92m, domestic staff allowance of N1.47m, and utilities allowance of N0.59m, alongside furniture allowance of N5.87m, which is paid once in four years. An analysis of the figures showed that each minister is expected to get a total of N7.7m annually while each minister of state is expected to get a total of N7.45m annually.  In four years, each minister gets N30.8m while each minister of state gets N29.8m. In total, the 32 ministers will cost the country about N985.6m while the 13 ministers of state will gulp about N387.4m in four years.

That’s the least of my worry; the bigger issue is whether the ministers will be well resourced to perform effectively and efficiently. The 2023 Federal Budget is premised on the old 28 ministries. Now there are additional six or thereabouts such as Ministries of Marine and Blue Economy; Tourism; Youths; Arts, Culture and Creative Economy; and Steel Development. What’s the wisdom of calibrating the Ministry of Information and Culture into three? Why separate Youths from Sports? What’s so special about Steel Development that warranted a separation from Solid Minerals? To underscore our wastefulness, two ministers are put in charge of Steel Development. What’s so spectacular about the Ministry of Police Affairs that two ministers are assigned to that ministry when there was absolutely no need for that ministry in the first place since there is a constitutional body known as the Police Service Commission? How will these newly created ministries be funded before the 2024 budget comes on stream in about five months?  What about office spaces and full complement of manpower that will enable them to “hit the ground running.”

From all indications, President Tinubu will most likely double as Minister of Petroleum Resources following the precedent laid by Obasanjo and Buhari. I’m not sure this is a wise decision as the president does not, in my own opinion, have the expertise to successfully drive that ministry even though he has two ministers of states, one for Oil and the other for Gas. Perhaps, he will rely on his accounting background in ExxonMobil but would he have the time to do a thorough job given the enormity of superintending such a huge cabinet in addition to other matters such as his chairmanship of authority of Heads of ECOWAS.

Festus Keyamo(SAN) said at the valedictory session of the Buhari’s government last May that “the concept or designation of ‘Minister of State’ is a constitutional aberration and is practically not working for many so appointed.” He expatiated that, “it would be difficult to assess the individual performances of the ministers of state since their discretion is shackled under the discretion of the ministers. Original ideas developed by a minister of state are subject to clearance by another colleague in cabinet before they can sail through for consideration by Council.” How I wish Tinubu read and understood the point of law made by the Senior Advocate of Nigeria. Unfortunately, we are saddled with at least 13 Ministers of State who may be at loggerheads with their other colleagues who are considered superior. I look forward to what will happen in the Ministry of Defence where two former governors, Badaru and Matawalle are supposed to work together.

I know that a retreat is in the offing for the new ministers. That is highly desirable and expedient. Each of the 45 ministers should have a proper job description, scope of work, or terms of reference together with key performance indicators. This delineation of duties will help to properly guide each of the ministers, thereby avoiding friction. I also do hope that the former governors will not be throwing their weight around and bullying their colleagues in the cabinet the way some of them do to their commissioners.

All the ministers should understand that they serve as lieutenants of the president. Indeed, they are just elevated presidential aides who can be dropped without prior notice. That’s why I don’t seem to understand someone leaving elected positions such as the Senate and House of Representatives to become a minister that has no security of tenure. I’m sure someone will remind me that ministers control budgets and there might be more money to be made in the executive arm of government. Anyway, I implore the new ministers to shun personal aggrandisement and know that they are called to serve and not to corruptly enrich themselves. I do hope they will all be exemplary in the task of implementing the president’s Renewed Hope agenda. Nigerians are impatiently waiting for good governance!