New cabinet: The tasks ahead
WHEN President Bola Tinubu took office in May 2023, Nigeria was in the doldrums, and the people desperately wanted to banish poverty, hopelessness, unemployment, hunger, and hardship. All eyes were, therefore, on the President to constitute a competent cabinet to move the country from misery to prosperity.
In response, Tinubu named a 48-man cabinet three months after he assumed office. It is deemed the largest in the Fourth Republic. Contrary to expectations, political considerations gained precedence over competence as the cabinet was studded with politicians. One of the ministers – Betta Edu – was suspended on graft allegations.
The situation was compounded by the economic volatility instigated by the withdrawal of petrol subsidies and the floating of the naira. This triggered unmitigated hardship, hunger, hyperinflation, high food costs and a general lull in almost all sectors. Nigerians had called for a cabinet reshuffle to effect a change.
The change came on October 23, but it is a mixed bag. Essentially, the status quo remained. Most of the politicians were retained. The new Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development, Yusuf Ata, boasted that he was appointed by the President to “win back Kano State” for the ruling All Progressives Congress in the 2027 elections. This is reckless.
Ten of the 48 ministers, including Yusuf Sununu, Olatunji Alausa, Doris Uzoka-Anite and John Enoh, were reassigned while five were appointed. Worse, ministers of state with non-demonstrable achievements in their previous ministries were redeployed to other ministries.
Notably, the redeployment of Alausa to education from health is well received by citizens. Tahir Mamman, the previous incumbent, upended the system with his obsolete admission policies.
Similarly, Shehu Dikko now heads the revived National Sports Commission. The commission replaces the Ministry of Sports. Enoh was in charge. Enoh is the new Minister of State for Industry, Trade, and Investment.
From the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Uzoka-Anite moves to the Ministry of State, Finance.
Yet, the cabinet reshuffle lacks the requisite bite and fire to turn the ailing country around. There is a thick disconnect between Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and extant realities. To move forward, the government must find the compass to return the country to its desired destination.
Most core ministries, including Defence, Health, Agriculture, Marine and Blue Economy, and Humanitarian Affairs, whose ministers were laid back, were left untouched. Until a drastic and relevant policy is undertaken and the right hands employed, there is a battle ahead.
The security architecture is in tatters, and people are groaning under the siege of insecurity. It is a continuation of the Muhammadu Buhari era (2015-2023), in which over 55,000 people were killed. The government has been unable to tame the insurgents. Sadly, a new one, Lakurawa, is springing up in the North-West.
And for a country whose some of its sub-nationals are being sacked by non-state actors, and the military bases are under serial attacks, there must be a well-thought-out strategy to lead the country out of the security siege and a visionary minister to drive it.
The President and the Ministers of Defence, Mohammed Badaru and Bello Matawalle should save the people from the insurgents and grant Nigerians respite. The country requires heavy investment in technology to secure its space and people. Retaining the minister who has delivered the extant insecurity profile under this administration is not the direction to go.
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True, “our country attracted foreign direct investments worth more than $30 billion in the last year;” the government has “cleared the ways and means debts of over N30 trillion” and has “reduced the debt service ratio for 97 per cent to 68 per cent,” the pervasive hunger and hardship, as well as hyperinflation and unstable petrol prices making the cost of food items and other commodities high, have creamed off these initiatives.
The petroleum industry, under the President as minister, requires urgent diagnosis. The cascading petrol price hike has had a roller-coaster effect on the economy, inflicting unimaginable pain, hunger, and hardship on the people. With the benefit of hindsight, presidents are too busy to man the sector. It should be yielded to a visionary professional with innovation and drive.
This country, whose prosperity and infrastructure development in the First Republic was generated from agriculture is struggling to feed itself six decades after. The Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates Nigeria’s arable land of about 70.8 million acres, the largest in Africa. The country is blessed with good weather to farm and has over 60 per cent energetic youths. It is ridiculous that in these times, there are no strategies and interventions from the Ministry of Agriculture. Months after establishing the Ministry of Livestock, citizens are still at a loss about the initiative.
UNICEF reports that “preventable or treatable diseases such as malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea and HIV/AIDS account for more than 70 per cent of the estimated one million under-five deaths in Nigeria.” Therefore, the Minister of Health should implement strategies to reverse this alarming trend and profile and restore the status of the health ministry.
The challenges besetting the Ministry of Education include poor funding, brain drain, decrepit infrastructure, unstable calendar, outdated curriculum, and policy somersault. Public Tertiary institutions regularly strike over funding, infrastructure, and welfare issues. UNICEF said that one in five out-of-school children globally is a Nigerian.
The 2024 budget allocation to education is less than 7.0 per cent. A clear strategy is needed to revitalise the sector responsible for producing personnel for all the country’s sectors.
The Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy was established to enhance revenue generation. Unfortunately, nothing substantial has happened in that sector since its founding under this administration. There must be an instant overhaul if the President is serious about delivering renewed prosperity to an ailing country.
The Office of the Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination charged with driving governance is as docile as the ministers it is established to oversee. Rather than supply information to the President to drive the ministers’ performances, the office has been involved in post-mortem. Consequently, the past 16 months have been wasted.
Therefore, the government must table a workable strategy to drive the economy and the ministers; strengthen the naira; develop the revenue-generating sectors; including agriculture, solid minerals, Marine and Blue Economy; up the country’s export profile and strengthen the predecessor’s diversification policy to revitalise the economy.
The government must rally the state governments to introduce a sustainable and permanent system that will define the social security net to deliver welfare to the people, especially during high unemployment, and job losses.
The situation remains bleak as the administration approaches the beginning of the second half. So, there must be a sincere, deliberate, and courageous effort to do things differently to get different results.
Tinubu should merge some ministries and scrap some of the ministers of state portfolios.
