Mr President, reshuffle cabinet and do more in 2017
During his last major encounter with the media sometimes last year, President Muhammadu Buhari jokingly asked Mahmud Jega (who had gone to the Presidential Villa to interview him) if the Press felt it was time for him to reshuffle his cabinet. The answer he got was no. Many things have changed since then, and if […]
During his last major encounter with the media sometimes last year, President Muhammadu Buhari jokingly asked Mahmud Jega (who had gone to the Presidential Villa to interview him) if the Press felt it was time for him to reshuffle his cabinet. The answer he got was no. Many things have changed since then, and if the President were to ask the question again, the media would chorus yes, reshuffle your cabinet.
President Buhari has to reshuffle his cabinet and do something radically different in order to solve the country’s pressing problems and I am not talking about restructuring. At this point, I do not believe in restructuring; restructuring, as far as I am concerned is a buzzword for utterly unsuccessful politicians, who having failed to capture power at the centre have now regrouped at the local level to continue agitating for it.
Muhammadu Buhari will not restructure, he will not give additional political power to the so called six geo-political zones just to please noisy ethnic champions and religious bigots. He didn’t promise that.
What the President promised is relentless fight against corruption, defeat of Boko Haram and indeed all other insurgencies (whether of the Biafran hue or militant tendency or herders variety) and restore national security. The President also promised to “efficiently manage” our resources, reinstate basic services such as electricity supply and revitalise the economy. These are Buhari government’s pledges and until his mandate expires, we shall continue to hold him accountable to them. The President or his government cannot afford to allow themselves to be blackmailed by those who have adopted a dissonant and desperate cry for local power centres to be ceded to them simply because they can’t compete at the centre.
You cannot work and vote for Peoples Democratic Party, receive a bloody nose and now because you have emerged from your shameful defeat, you seek to contaminate everywhere with the silly call for restructuring. No, Mr Loser.
Here is the challenge before our crop of power mongers: form your political party, make restructuring your battle cry and seek political power on that platform; if Nigerians vote for you, then we submit to your partisan manoeuvre.
Be that as it may, it is time for President Buhari to undertake a major reshuffle of the cabinet, beginning with his kitchen cabinet. That is what I mean by doing something radically different; clean the kitchen. The former Minister of State, Labour, Barrister Ocholi is gone, Minister of Environment, Hajiya Amina Muhammed, is leaving, and they have to be replaced; Mr President, this is no time to deny cabinet reshuffle or its needfulness please.
Clearly, some ministers have not pulled their weight and you hardly hear from or about them because they have failed to discharge their mandates. By now, the President should have received and studied the scorecard of each of his ministers and from there he would have known what to do, after all, we are almost half-way of his mandate.
Definitely, the economy will be better if you export two million barrels of crude oil per day at, say $50 or more continuously for one year. At this point, there is no other magic for the Nigerian economy. If crude oil is exported without interruption and at reasonable price, I tell you even a market woman can serve as a Minister of Finance and show good results. As long as crude oil export is sabotaged, and with depressed prices, even a Nobel Prize winner in Economics cannot improve the Nigerian economy in two years. Already, the so called Niger Delta Avengers have served notice of their intention of a “massive” and debilitating disruption of oil export by destroying oil infrastructure. What can a finance minister or economic team do in the light of the malicious acts of interference with the export of the commodity on which the country depends for survival?
In the meantime, President Buhari needs to continue (with single mindedness) his efforts at diversifying the economy and this will take at least 10 years. The various interventions in the economy, particularly the Central Bank of Nigeria’s anchor borrowers’ programme for the agricultural sector, must be stepped up. If we succeed in becoming self-sufficient in just one commodity, say rice, the economy will improve. The implementation of the Lagos-Kebbi Memorandum of Understanding which has resulted in Lake Rice is a pointer to what we can achieve if we invest properly in agriculture. We can achieve even more if we do it on a sustainable basis while bringing in more farmers across the states to cultivate additional crops.
The 2017 budget has to be implemented in a way that ensures tremendous impact on the people and the government has to continuously explain its contents. For example, millions of Nigerians don’t understand why the purchase of cutlery has to cost the country millions of Naira every year. In our various homes, being common people, we have forgotten the last time we bought knives and forks. Someone has to take the time to explain to the citizens that these knives, forks, spoons, etc. budgeted for by the Villa, are not solely for the use of President Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo but that some are used by foreign dignitaries feted during banquets and state dinners; is it or is it not so? The various ministries and departments must also be able to defend every insertion or item they budgeted for, they must epitomise the change and not portray this government as that of anything goes.
More importantly, the Buhari government should focus on those national projects – bridges, railways, roads, power stations, etc. – which it regards as essential and execute them energetically. Let the roads improve, let electricity supply increase and let petroleum products be available; let governance be transparent and cost effective, and let there be peace.