Yar'Adua's New Cabinet
By Reuben Abati

The long-awaited list of new Federal Ministers finally arrived on Wednesday. By Tuesday, this week, the Senate will begin the necessary task of screening the nominees to be sure that the President has chosen wisely and that his team can be relied upon to defend the interests of the Nigerian people. In many ways, the Yar'Adua list and public reactions to it so far, reflect the complex nature of Nigerian politics. It took the President 33 days to come up with a list. In the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown was ready with a list within 24 hours of assuming office as Prime Minister.

But here, there were reports of negotiations, intense lobbying and pressures from everywhere, with speculations that certain party big wigs and former Governors who had featured prominently in the last administration were eyeing Ministerial positions. There had also been speculations that the list of Ministers would be used to take care of some PDP candidates who lost out in the last elections particularly at the Gubernatorial level as well as members of the opposition in order to get them off the President's back.

Would Yar'Adua succumb to pressures and end up with a list that such processes can produce: a totally predictable and uninspiring list? With what is now before the National Assembly, 34 names drawn from 32 states, with four states not yet represented on the list, and considering the profile of the nominees, President Umar Musa Yar'Adua has succeeded in walking the tight rope very carefully. His list signals continuity and at the same time, a departure in style. He has managed to achieve a fair balance between the old order and the new. It is not surprising that many commentators have noted that many of the persons on the list are relatively unknown, or that they have no track record of proven competence, but a closer look at the individual profiles actually suggests otherwise.

In terms of the diversity and richness of talent, and the antecedents of the nominees, this is not a bad list. Each person on the list is bringing something to the table as a professional or experienced public servant, and not merely the fact that he or she helped the PDP to rig elections in April. Persons in public positions are not necessarily good or bad because they are unknown; the test is in what they do. Who knew Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in 1999 but who doesn't know her today to be an excellent material? We never heard of Dora Akunyili, but today we can all attest to her passion and commitment. What we expect is for the National Assembly to screen the nominees carefully and to help identify whatever ghosts that may stand in the way of any one of them? Even before the screening, one of the original nominees, Mrs Fatima Balarabe Ibrahim, representing Kebbi state, was withdrawn from the list, for we are told "security reasons"? Why discover this security reason at the last minute? Poor Mrs Ibrahim.

But on the more reassuring side, President Yar'Adua has kept out of the list, names and persons whose inclusion alone could deepen public skepticism. He has retained from the Obasanjo era, 12 persons who cannot be considered controversial, perhaps with only one exception. The continuity that they will bring to the team would be useful. One point though: Yar'Adua has cleverly avoided the super stars of the Obasanjo era. His former colleagues, those former Governors who were said to be waiting for Ministerial appointments have been kept out too. Perhaps Yar'Adua really wants to run his own show and be his own man.

Although four more states are expected to nominate Ministers and there may be about eight or ten more names going to the National Assembly, this is mainly a PDP list. If talks about national unity government are still taking place, it is clear that members of the opposition for whom the idea is an opportunity to get a place in the Federal Cabinet would be disappointed. In fact one of them has cried out in obvious pain. With this list, it may be said that the PDP is not prepared to share power with the opposition, it has chosen to look within its ranks and not across party lines, with the addition of a few persons who by association may be considered sympathetic to the PDP. Team Yar'Adua is a combination of technocrats, the young and the not-so-old, very bright young men and the not-so-bright, those who may become Minister perhaps because they came from the Godfather's list, and those who are recommended by their track record.

There are only four women on the list. President Obasanjo had more women in his Federal Cabinet and if there was any strong point that was made by that administration, it is that women can hold their own in the public arena in terms of competence and performance. Team Yar'Adua is not gender sensitive enough. The unwieldy size of the list should also be a cause of concern, even if the President's hands are tied in the matter. By the time a complete list is formed, Nigeria would have no fewer than 42 Ministers or more. Obasanjo at a time had 47 Ministers.

This is a direct consequence of Section 147 (3) of the 1999 Constitution which states that there must be at least one Minister from each state of the Federation who must be an indigene of that state. Section 14(3) of the same Constitution is even more categorical in insisting on federal character in all arms of government as a means of promoting national unity, a sense of national loyalty and the likely domination of Government by only one group. In principle, this may be a useful condition in a multi-ethnic society such as Nigeria, but this balancing act imposed on the Constitution like a millstone is also the source of many problems.

These are provisions in the Constitution that should be debated afresh. Should we insist on federal character forever? Are there other conditions that may promote national unity and a sense of loyalty and identity? It is a delicate matter for sure, as the Yoruba Council of Elders is now on record as having accused the Yar'Adua government so early in the day of introducing a policy of Northernisation of key positions in government.

But even if federal character is applied in making political appointments at all levels, this should not be extended as is often the case to other aspects of Nigerian life and society such as school admissions, the civil service etc. The structure of Nigeria's development process must change from the present centralised format to a dispersal of centres of development and creation of equal opportunities at all levels. Federal Character has become such an embarrassment because there is too much obsession with politics and government as the only means of advancement in society. The Federal Government is also too prominent in the affairs of the people. If the states and local councils were functioning well, and there is greater efficiency in the management of the public space, there will be no need insisting on Federal Character. A culture of competition, which drives efficiency, should replace the present fixation with uniformity in the context of a dis-enabling economy. Nigeria has the potential to be a merit-driven society, the challenge is in ensuring the necessary transformation that would bring only the best set of people into government at all levels. The leadership recruitment process should be driven not by geography or ethnicity but ability and judged strictly on that basis.

But surely, we still have a long way to go as evidenced by some of the local reactions to the Yar'Adua list. In Osun state a group of protesters going under the curious name: "Osun Sensitive Underdogs (OSU)," they are sensitive alright, went onto the streets to protest against the nomination of Senator Olasunkanmi Akinlabi, whom they say is not popular at the grassroots, and who according to them is from an area of the state that has been favoured with too many political appointments. In Lagos, there has been a similar protest as well. The nay-sayers in Lagos had gone to Alausa, the seat of government to ask: "Who knows Bode Agusto, the nominee from Lagos state?"

They want a grassroots politician who can extend patronage to the members of the PDP in Lagos, not a technocrat who is not a "party member". In Gombe, the State House of Assembly set aside the main assignment of lawmaking and passed a special resolution rejecting the nomination of former Minister of Commerce Aliyu Modibbo. The lawmakers want the nomination zoned to another Senatorial Zone in the state in the spirit of federal character. In all these instances, there was no reference to the competence of the person involved. It is all about whether the nominee's appointment would bring political patronage to the people at the grassroots or a particular constituency.

Yet another dimension of the Nigerian story was highlighted when the Senate President David Mark in presenting the Yar'Adua list to his colleagues noted that nominees should not try to bribe the lawmakers, and that no Senator should accept any kind of inducement from the persons to be screened. There was also a declaration about the National Assembly embarking on an "Operation No Fake Certificates". These are old issues which remain resonant. In 2003, former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. Nasir El-Rufai had blown the whistle about how members of the National Assembly asked him to pay N54 million to facilitate his screening. Another Minister at the time who paid N50 million to get the budget of his Ministry passed, got into trouble and ended up losing his position.

All of these offer a sense of the dilemma in Nigerian politics; the people see public office as an opportunity to become rich. And so anything goes: bribery, use of fake certificates, anything at all, can be thrown into the game. Between 1999 and 2003, many of the persons in high places had no verifiable qualifications. One Governor who spent four years in office quoted his participation at a two-week conference in London as his academic qualification!

Indeed, the National Assembly should do a thorough job of screening the nominees. President Yar'Adua two weeks ago, had promised that the nominees would be subjected to rigorous screening but the last minute, embarrassing withdrawal of Mrs Ibrahim's nomination shows that perhaps the screening was not so thorough after all. And Charles Ugwuh, the nominee from Imo state, what is he doing on that list? Is he being rewarded for supporting Third Term?

When eventually a cabinet is composed, it would be interesting to see how the various portfolios are distributed. But whatever happens, Yar'Adua should run an ideas-driven, values-based government. The Obasanjo government was very strong at the level of ideas, but it failed to move quickly to the next level of translating those ideas to measurable performance in many ways.

Team Yar'Adua should be driven by pragmatism not dogma; it is perhaps a good thing that for now, there are no indications of any fixation in any direction. The President should insist that all members of his team declare their assets publicly. Hopefully with a team in place, the near paralysis that we have witnessed regarding public policy decisions in the past month will come to an end.

Robot  # 1 | 08.07.2007 06:02

Yar'Adua's New Cabinet By Reuben Abati Th...Read the full article.

Mikky jaga  # 2 | 08.07.2007 13:22

It is hoped that the list belongs to Yar'Adua and not a list submitted in the name of the President by the eternal Chairman of the BOT. The Federal Character principle should still be retained for political appointments. If Yar'Adua had selected 24 ministerial nominees from the North based on merit, the noise that would be generated would not allow those nominees to function at all. It is a pity no villager made the list. I had expected one or two NVS villagers to be nominated especially the beloved Paul. Anyway, more names are still being expected and as they say, anything can still happen.

tengallons  # 3 | 08.07.2007 13:35

In my humble opinion, I think we are getting to the point where we should be just as concerned with the shadow interests that nominees might represent as with the nominees themselves. Unknown quantities can very easily push the programs of known parties. I hope the clearance process pays attention to the forces behind the nominees -- the people to whom they may be beholden to. We need to be wary of proxies...