Pouring sand in ministers’ garri
The men and women who are due to be sworn in this morning as Ministers of the Federal Republic must be having second thoughts after their boss did what amounted to a pre-emptive pouring of sand into their garri even before they sat down to eat. At the end of the two day retreat organized […]
The men and women who are due to be sworn in this morning as Ministers of the Federal Republic must be having second thoughts after their boss did what amounted to a pre-emptive pouring of sand into their garri even before they sat down to eat. At the end of the two day retreat organized for the ministers-designate on Thursday and Friday last week, President Buhari handed down five tough rules that he said they must comply with. He said henceforth all foreign travel must be duty related; a minister must not be flamboyant; he or she must adhere strictly to the rule of law and civil service rules; a minister must have only a few cars in his convoy, and that there must be no quarrel between senior ministers and their ministers of state.
With these rules in place, where is the joy in being a minister? Like this rule about having a short convoy. If a minister arrives for an official function or he goes home for the weekend and attends a social occasion, how will people know that the minister has arrived unless they see a long motorcade with siren blaring in front of it? These days governors arrive at social events not only with long motorcades but with motorized praise singers and dancing troupes. How will it look if a minister arrives silently with only two desultory vehicles? Doesn’t Buhari know that this will affect the image of the Federal Government? People will say the Federal Government is broke and that ministers of nowadays are poor as church mice.
You say a minister should not be flamboyant. How can a minister not be flamboyant when, as soon as he or she is appointed, contractors would rush and commission tailors to fill whole Ghana Must Go bags with new clothes? This is necessary so that the minister does not have to wear the same cloth twice. Is it the minister’s fault? People would come to a minister’s house at the end of the day and demand to have the cloth he wore that day, since they know he cannot wear it twice. Or does the president want a minister to wash and repeat a cloth?
It is said all travel must be work related. Imagine, a minister has been assigned to a juicy ministry and you say he or she should not travel out of Nigeria every week. How will people know you are a minister if they don’t see you sauntering out to Dubai, Cape Town, London, New York and Shanghai, work or no work? Please Mr. President, don’t take the shine out of a ministerial portfolio. Next time nobody will agree to be a minister under you unless you remove these unpopular rules.
Mama Taraba, is your mind here or there?
When the new ministers are being sworn in this morning, I am curious to see whether Mama Taraba’s mind is present in the State House’s Banquet Hall or it is far away in Jalingo, where she is looking forward to a far grander swearing in ceremony.
For a woman who is looking forward to being sworn in as Governor of Taraba State soon, a ministerial oath taking ceremony looks like a dress rehearsal. Compared to this one when she will be sitting with 35 other people waiting to take the oath of office, during the upcoming Big One she will be the cynosure of all eyes and all the security, protocol and judiciary people will be fawning around her. So, I will not blame Mama Taraba today if she is not excited by the fuss called ministerial inauguration. Even if she ends up with a non-juicy portfolio, I don’t think she will mind because in her mind’s eye she can already see bigger things coming. Even the rules of austerity that the Big Masquerade in Abuja imposed on the incoming ministers, will they apply in the Jalingo Government House? Surely, Mama’s mind will not be present at today’s ceremony. It is only her shell that will be there.