Renewed Hope: Tinubu And His Ministers, By Tunde Abatan
“Prioritize the interests and welfare of the entire nation and its diverse population above any regional or state. You have a responsibility to shape policies that will significantly influence the lives of hundreds of millions of Nigerians. You are not a Minister of a particular state. You or ethnic loyalty. You are a minister of the Federal Republic of Loyalty. You disappoint Nigerians who expect you to serve with disappointment and competence to actualize the Renewed Hope manifesto of the administration.”
With the above statement made by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu last Monday, August 21, when he swore in his 45-member cabinet to reposition Nigeria, he has betrayed his emotions not implicitly expressed but by inference, about the failure of his predecessor whom he helped to office, former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari, it will be recalled spent six months after his election in 2015, searching for ‘angels ‘to serve in his cabinet.
At the end of the day, Buhari only ended up assembling the worst set of nepotistic and religiously inclined incompetent ministers who only succeeded in mismanaging the country, disbanding the Change Mantra that propelled Buhari to office after thirty years out of power.
By the time Buhari’s ministers who ‘served ‘under the direction of Fulani irredentist like late Abba Kyari, Buhari’s man Friday, spent six months in office, they left no one in doubt that it was the Fulani hegemonic cabal led by office, they Daura-Buhari’s uncle, that called the shots in the corridors of power and held the country to ransom.
In other words, Tinubu having spent sixteen years after leaving office in 2007, and studying the performances and pitfalls of his three immediate predecessors, was challenging the new Ministers he assembled to revive the late Moshood Abiola truncated Hope in 1993.
He was actually reminding them that the rabid ethnic and religious inclinations, domination and incompetency which characterized Buhari’s mis-governance will not be tolerated in his government.
Tinubu is also telling the Ministers to shun loyalty to ethnic, religious conclaves but pursue national integration by having a pan -Nigeria programmed to rekindle the Hope already shattered by social upheavals like insecurity and downward economic fortunes.
This is where, the performance of Olawale Edun, an accomplished banker, and economist who was Finance Commissioner for Lagos for eight years comes into play as his ministry will be the agent of mobilising resources for actualisation of programmes.
Edun presided over the ministry that increased Lagos N600 million monthly internally Generated Revenue, IGR, to N6 billion by the time he left in 2007 and which today serves as a benchmark for his successors in the state.
As Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Edun – a banker of high repute, had to promote policies that would change the nation’s fiscal policy and rebuild the economy badly damaged by inept economic policies easily compromised by the Northern hegemonizes that set aside Merit and Competency in appointments for half-baked appointees who merely promoted ethnic and personal interests.
Edun will have to design policies that will build a multi-product economy rather than the mono-product of oil as the dominant export product which has brought the nation to its knees.
The reasons above easily justify why the upper legislative house- the Senate, spent over two hours drilling Edun on how he intends to run the nation’s Economy.
The Senate has reasons to do that because the Tinubu administration is led by somebody who had installed others as Afobaje but now made himself the King.
Edun, will have to design programmes like all others to reposition Nigeria’s economy, generate more revenue for the country using our natural resources, engineering the collection of same as he did in Lagos almost two decades ago and reduce the nation’s debt profile.
This is because the performance indices of other ministries rest on the Finance ministry for without it no meaningful people-oriented projects could be implemented.
In this regard, Revenue power base like Nigerian National Petroleum Company latitudinal, Customs, Immigration, and the newly created Maritime and Blue Economy have to be energized to widen the revenue net, reduce pilfering and wastages in revenue collection.
In this regard, Minister for Maritime and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola, has to prove the confidence reposed in him by energizing the sector to generate the Seven trillion annual revenue which Maritime lawyer, Olisa Agbakoba said has been left untapped for years by the government.
Agbakoba, is surely one of the critics who will put Oyetola on his toes as a human rights activist and lawyer who had campaigned for the establishment of the sector for decades.
As for David Umahi, the former Ebonyi governor is credited more for the infrastructural transformation of the state is now the works minister.
At least the South East with Umahi at the driver’s seat of the most conspicuous appointee from the region can show forth what made him thick while at the driver’s seat in Ebonyi state to merit the new appointment.
Development of wide network of roads is crucial to an economy.
Umahi has to set a target to beat the record of former Works Minister, Babatunde Raji Fashola who showed the stuff in him. His job is made simple by the extraction of Housing from the ministry.
Today, the performance of both Fashola and former Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi, in Works and Railway construction respectively remains the only enduring legacy of the Buhari administration.
In the field of health, Professor Ali Pate as Coordinating Minister of Health has to work along and in synergy with Beta Edu, the young and vibrant Minister of Poverty Alleviation and Humanitarian Affairs to connect the links between the two ministries.
Only a synergy between the two sectors can help solve our myriad of health challenges.
Pate with his record, had a laid down policy of the late Professor Ransome Kuti, who used his tenure under former President Ibrahim Babangida’s regime, re-engineered Primary health delivery in the country.
All the neglected health units in our 774 local governments must be resuscitated towards instilling hopes in Nigeria and in this regard, Pate must use his experience to change our health delivery story for the better.
As for Education Minister, Tahir Mamman, a professor from the Ivory tower, he has his job well cut- out for him.
He has to justify the confidence of Tinubu and yearnings of Nigerian youths to renew Hope in our educational system.
At least he can’t claim ignorance like Buhari’s Education Minister, Adamu Adamu who confessed his ignorance of Education issues, at the tail end of his Ministerial job.
His misdirection of the sector bogged with the industrial disputes which kept millions of students at home while his tenure lasted will remain evergreen in the minds of Nigerians.
Buhari did the bizarre by making a professor of education a junior minister while the ignoramus Adamu, inflicted much pain on our system out of his sheer ignorance helped by his Presidents obvious ignorance or should we say lack of respect for the system.
Buhari’s attitude could also inform why all his children attended universities abroad.
A harmonious relationship between the Academic Staff Union of Universities, SUU, the Education ministry whose staff are as corrupt as the Nigerian system, is crucial to instill Hope in our students and by extension our educational system.
Since morning determines the day, the experience of the students while in school will inform their hope in their country and reduce the ‘Japa’ syndrome that has inflicted our Youths and country at large.
Indeed, Tinubu’s speech had set a benchman for the forty-five ministers to perform and through which they will be measured.
But he has to follow this benchmark up by setting up an independent Project assessment Team to evaluate the performances of the individual ministers to enable him fulfil his pledge last Monday, to monitor them and ensure that ” they serve with integrity, dignity and competence to actualize and realize the Renewed Hope manifestos of the administration failure which he will not hesitate to take necessary remedial measures”.
Tinubu has also set a benchmark for himself and indeed for the Ministers who owes their appointment to him as the person who accepted the challenge to serve Nigeria.
The buck stops at Tinubus table as any failure would first of all be put on his table since he got the mandate of all Nigerians to renew their life.
He definitely has a date to keep with History.
