March 17, 2010
A team is only as good as its leader and Federal Cabinets always mirror their presidents. So, it was asking too much of the Nigerian Federal Executive Council to do anything beyond what they delivered since Yar’adua became Aso Rock’s chief occupant three years ago.
A team is only as good as its leader and Federal Cabinets always mirror their presidents. So, it was asking too much of the Nigerian Federal Executive Council to do anything beyond what they delivered since Yar’adua became Aso Rock’s chief occupant three years ago.
As he foot-dragged on every policy decision; took out every opportunity to jump on the next available flight to Jeddah, so did his apathy and slow pace of leadership spread through his entire team. ‘President’ Yar’adua’s cabinet will be remembered for 6,000 megawatts that never was, ethnic and religious crises of an embarrassing scale, award of contracts that were never implemented and government pronouncements that left us wondering what sort of men got the nods by their state governors to serve Nigerians.
Acting President, Goodluck was in order in asking them all to look for jobs elsewhere, but the task has only been half done. With the divisions in the cabinet occasioned by the ailing president’s illness, putting his foot down was just what the doctor would have ordered. And in sacking Yar’adua’s men, he now has the opportunity to work with his own loyalists and lay down a marker in the short space of time he has left. He must resist the temptation to bring back some or all of these men or risk defeating the entire purpose of an action that has been widely hailed as pro-active and in good faith.
Take erstwhile Special Duties Minister and erstwhile Attorney General of the Federation, Michael Aondoakaa for instance. He was the epitome of all that was wrong with Nigeria—slippery as an eel and with a tongue always in his cheek. Famous for protecting former corrupt governors and turning the regime’s ‘rule of law’ mantra on its head, Aondoakaa bestrode the Nigerian Federal cabinet space like a colossus until he was cut to size by Jonathan. It would be sad to see him return in whatever capacity, Mr Goodluck. Thank You.
Former foreign affairs minister, Ojo Maduekwe riles the Nigerian intelligentsia to no end. Having left bicycle riding as a pastime in an earlier regime, Maduekwe quickly became a pseudonym for ill-timed propaganda and political sleight of hand. Until the ‘president’s ill health became a subject that no spin doctor could work on, Maduekwe told everyone who cared to listen at home and abroad that the president’s rate of recovery was another attestation to the wonders of modern day medical science. Scoffed at by other foreign diplomats and given a cold shoulder by US secretary of state, Hilary Clinton, as she toured Africa, Maduekwe’s mistruth that he had an audience with the US president in Ghana and that the latter had promised that Nigeria was well in his plans, should go down as the lie of the decade. Surely, we don’t want to see him back, do we?
Former Minister of Niger Delta affairs, Ufot Ekaette, was Yar’adua by another name. Slow, bureaucratic and never one to put his foot down, Ufot Ekaette’s posting to the most sensitive ministry in the land was a cardinal mistake. Agreed, the minister for this ministry should hail from the Niger Delta, it would be difficult to find a more tepid fellow in all of South South Nigeria than Ekaette. Surely, it should be a final ‘bye’ to the ‘egg-head’ from Akwa Ibom.
In saner climes, erstwhile Minister of Power, Rilwan Babalola should have resigned or relieved of his job since December, when his and his boss’ vision of infusing six thousand megawatts into the national grid became another bare boned Nigerian sound bite. But he was still in the ministry, farming out excuses with the ease of a Rilwan. The same should apply to his namesake in the Petroleum ministry, Mr Lukman, the geriatric and thoroughly recycled erstwhile boss of the most abused of ministries for whom deregulation was the ‘be all’ and ‘end all’.
Madam Dora Akunyili has never struck me as one cut out for the slugfest and murky world that is Nigerian politics. Why she took the job of minister in the first place still leaves me scratching my head. I believe, by now, she would have realised that her ‘Rebranding Nigeria’ campaign set out on a wrong footing and was ill fated from the off. She swallowed it hook, line and sinker in spite of warnings to the contrary and now it is her own image that may just need a rebranding. Serving in a cabinet brimming to the hilt with corrupt persons and a great dose of myopia and trying so hard to be the ‘one good fella’ amongst a sea of lucre filled heads, should not save her. A career back in the world of Pharmacy would be a more probable choice.
Out the door also should be Dear Deziani Allison whose bucket of crocodile filled tears on the Benin—Ore road still dampen the state of roads in Nigeria and who was a picture of docility in the mines and steel ministry.
Jonathan must set about his business of re-appointing ministers with a clear head. Lobbyists would have their say, but he should have his way. It is time to take a clean break from the old guard of ministers whose anachronistic ideas are the reasons we are still not taking any significant steps as a nation. If Jonathan dares to look, he would find out that they are indeed finer men and women with stellar qualities and of a different hue who can move us forward as a nation. All they want, all they have ever wanted, is to be called upon. These are the men state governors should be looking for.
And may this be the last we hear of a certain ‘seven point agenda’ and all the men who never saw it come to fruition.
As he foot-dragged on every policy decision; took out every opportunity to jump on the next available flight to Jeddah, so did his apathy and slow pace of leadership spread through his entire team. ‘President’ Yar’adua’s cabinet will be remembered for 6,000 megawatts that never was, ethnic and religious crises of an embarrassing scale, award of contracts that were never implemented and government pronouncements that left us wondering what sort of men got the nods by their state governors to serve Nigerians.
Acting President, Goodluck was in order in asking them all to look for jobs elsewhere, but the task has only been half done. With the divisions in the cabinet occasioned by the ailing president’s illness, putting his foot down was just what the doctor would have ordered. And in sacking Yar’adua’s men, he now has the opportunity to work with his own loyalists and lay down a marker in the short space of time he has left. He must resist the temptation to bring back some or all of these men or risk defeating the entire purpose of an action that has been widely hailed as pro-active and in good faith.
Take erstwhile Special Duties Minister and erstwhile Attorney General of the Federation, Michael Aondoakaa for instance. He was the epitome of all that was wrong with Nigeria—slippery as an eel and with a tongue always in his cheek. Famous for protecting former corrupt governors and turning the regime’s ‘rule of law’ mantra on its head, Aondoakaa bestrode the Nigerian Federal cabinet space like a colossus until he was cut to size by Jonathan. It would be sad to see him return in whatever capacity, Mr Goodluck. Thank You.
Former foreign affairs minister, Ojo Maduekwe riles the Nigerian intelligentsia to no end. Having left bicycle riding as a pastime in an earlier regime, Maduekwe quickly became a pseudonym for ill-timed propaganda and political sleight of hand. Until the ‘president’s ill health became a subject that no spin doctor could work on, Maduekwe told everyone who cared to listen at home and abroad that the president’s rate of recovery was another attestation to the wonders of modern day medical science. Scoffed at by other foreign diplomats and given a cold shoulder by US secretary of state, Hilary Clinton, as she toured Africa, Maduekwe’s mistruth that he had an audience with the US president in Ghana and that the latter had promised that Nigeria was well in his plans, should go down as the lie of the decade. Surely, we don’t want to see him back, do we?
Former Minister of Niger Delta affairs, Ufot Ekaette, was Yar’adua by another name. Slow, bureaucratic and never one to put his foot down, Ufot Ekaette’s posting to the most sensitive ministry in the land was a cardinal mistake. Agreed, the minister for this ministry should hail from the Niger Delta, it would be difficult to find a more tepid fellow in all of South South Nigeria than Ekaette. Surely, it should be a final ‘bye’ to the ‘egg-head’ from Akwa Ibom.
In saner climes, erstwhile Minister of Power, Rilwan Babalola should have resigned or relieved of his job since December, when his and his boss’ vision of infusing six thousand megawatts into the national grid became another bare boned Nigerian sound bite. But he was still in the ministry, farming out excuses with the ease of a Rilwan. The same should apply to his namesake in the Petroleum ministry, Mr Lukman, the geriatric and thoroughly recycled erstwhile boss of the most abused of ministries for whom deregulation was the ‘be all’ and ‘end all’.
Madam Dora Akunyili has never struck me as one cut out for the slugfest and murky world that is Nigerian politics. Why she took the job of minister in the first place still leaves me scratching my head. I believe, by now, she would have realised that her ‘Rebranding Nigeria’ campaign set out on a wrong footing and was ill fated from the off. She swallowed it hook, line and sinker in spite of warnings to the contrary and now it is her own image that may just need a rebranding. Serving in a cabinet brimming to the hilt with corrupt persons and a great dose of myopia and trying so hard to be the ‘one good fella’ amongst a sea of lucre filled heads, should not save her. A career back in the world of Pharmacy would be a more probable choice.
Out the door also should be Dear Deziani Allison whose bucket of crocodile filled tears on the Benin—Ore road still dampen the state of roads in Nigeria and who was a picture of docility in the mines and steel ministry.
Jonathan must set about his business of re-appointing ministers with a clear head. Lobbyists would have their say, but he should have his way. It is time to take a clean break from the old guard of ministers whose anachronistic ideas are the reasons we are still not taking any significant steps as a nation. If Jonathan dares to look, he would find out that they are indeed finer men and women with stellar qualities and of a different hue who can move us forward as a nation. All they want, all they have ever wanted, is to be called upon. These are the men state governors should be looking for.
And may this be the last we hear of a certain ‘seven point agenda’ and all the men who never saw it come to fruition.
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