Buhari’s Ministerial List: – Much Ado about Nothing

Posted by admin Articles, Columnists, NNP Columnists Saturday, October 10th, 2015

By P. Alalibo | NNP | Oct. 10, 2015 – I am disappointed at the president’s long awaited ministerial list that kept the entire nation in suspense and in an expectant mood. Given the presence of old and tired politicians on that list that has invariably diminished expectations, Nigerians should question why it took the president four months after his inauguration and six months after his election to nominate these ordinary Nigerians, most of whom, in my humble opinion, would fail the litmus test if their scrutiny was done without bias and judiciously.

I had thought, as did many Nigerians, that the president would nominate proven and trustworthy Nigerians at home and abroad and was perhaps, waiting for some of them to disengage from their international appointments before going public with the list. Many had also thought that some of the nominees would be technocrats, young and serious minded Nigerians with fresh perspective to assist the president in his wont to break with our corrupt past and move the country forward in this competitive global economy.

But in stark contrast with expectations, there is absolutely nothing spectacular, I mean, nothing earth-shaking about these nominees, some of whom are of questionable character and may in fact have skeletons in their closet. This was certainly not what was expected of a focused president who has been trumpeting from the rooftop his unabashed inclination to fight corruption and had been given the grace by the nation to be circumspect in his selection of those that would be instrumental in that much needed fight.

If he is genuine in this proclamation, his choice of cabinet members does not entirely reflect this position and may in fact undermine his efforts. While there are about two quality nominees with impeccable public service such as Audu Ogbeh who is having his second run as a minister, the record of most of the nominees who have been in public service, leaves nothing to be desired. Many, including this writer, are mystified how Amaechi’s name found its way to the list. Is the president paying a political debt for his political loyalty and the use of Rivers State funds to support his presidential campaign?

The citizens of Rivers State will not forget in a hurry, even if afflicted with amnesia, the unpardonable sins of Amaechi in the last eight years. Here was a governor who hardly paid salaries in spite of collecting more than N10 billion per month in federal allocation not to mention other locally generated revenues that surpassed the budgets of many African countries.

Under his watch, pensioners were owed for more than two years, most of them, without means of survival, while workers went without salaries for three to four months at a time. Many of the pensioners who had served the state, had to rely on family members for their survival. Some died while waiting endlessly for Amaechi to live up to his responsibilities and pay their pensions and entitlements.

Amaechi, despite collecting one of the heftiest allocations was anything but prudent with the state’s resources and had the effrontery to refer to pensioners as ‘dead people’ undeserving of any attention. Amaechi’s financial recklessness and lack of maintenance resulted in the deterioration of many of the state’s infrastructure and institutions, including the once nationally and internationally respected Rivers State University of Science and Technology, which I discovered, upon a recent visit, had become a skeleton of its old self with unkempt environs and dilapidated buildings and structures littering the landscape. The same fate, on Amaechi’s watch, befell the once vibrant and iconic Rivers State FM radio station (Radio Rivers) whose broadcast, in the early 80s, could be heard all across West Africa into other regions of the continent, a leader in broadcast journalism being the second FM station to be commissioned in the country.

Amaechi demonstrated his alarming apathy and utter disregard for the welfare of the children of the state with his gross neglect of primary and secondary schools left to rot to their very core in the midst of plenty. A visit to the secondary school I attended left me in tears as I couldn’t believe the palpable neglect, the decay of infrastructure that inevitably belied the failure of Amaechi’s administration. It was evident that learning can never occur under these conditions and one had to wonder the vitality of the future of these children.

It is inconceivable that for an entire year, the Rivers State judiciary was shut down by Amaechi in an attempt to undermine that arm of government in the interest of self-preservation. At the retirement of the state’s chief judge, Iche Ndu, Amaechi, in clear contravention of the law and duly laid guidelines, refused against his better judgment, to appoint Justice Daisy Okocha, the most senior justice, to the post of Chief Justice.

Justice Okocha, being on the ‘wrong’ side of the political divide, was denied the honour to prevent her from assembling an impeachment panel that would investigate Amaechi’s corrupt acts and recommend his impeachment. For this selfish and self-serving reason, judicial workers in the entire state were asked to go on what could be termed as government induced political strike with their offices under lock and key while they received salaries for one year without lifting a finger. Such colossal waste of state resources and blatant disregard for human dignity, right and rule of law was the hallmark and shameful legacy of Amaechi.

If all these do not jeopardize his nomination, perhaps, the revelation that he spent billions of naira, N35 billion, to be precise, on the mono-rail project that provided the avenue for the pilfering of state funds will motivate the senators not to approve his nomination. Amaechi, in spite of his years in public office as speaker of the house and as governor, had no foresight nor strategic planning as he couldn’t conclude the project before leaving office, thus, leaving behind another white elephant project that may never be completed.

As the commission investigating the excesses and corrupt practices of Amaechi’s administration begins to release its findings, a picture of incompetence, primitive aggrandizement of state resources, blatant disregard for financial probity has began to emerge. The panel has ordered Amaechi and his commissioners to refund N98 billion that was embezzled, misappropriated or diverted. When this amount is converted into US dollars, we are in the obscene range of 800 million. By all accounts, this is a substantial sum that would go a long way to build capacity in a state that had witnessed arrested development since the heady days of Peter Odili, Amaechi’s corrupt predecessor.

It should be recalled that in the twilight of his administration, Amaechi withdrew N53 billion from the state’s reserve fund between 2014 and 2015. As though that were not enough, the Justice George Omereji-led commission of inquiry has indicated that he misapplied N3 billion Central Bank of Nigeria agricultural loan, granted rights to Hotel Olympia at $1 million, paid $39.2 million for the construction of Justice Adolphus Karibi-Whyte Hospital without any evidence of construction, leased Oriso House at an annual cost of N300 million even when it had been razed by fire and utterly inhabitable.

The roads in the state are in gross disrepair endangering the lives of motorists and leaving one to wonder if there is any governance in the state. Port-Harcourt, the state capital, that once had the distinction of being the “Garden City”, now can be comfortably tagged the “Garbage City” with refuse seemingly littering every corner of the state. What does it take for a government to have a system in place that would ensure a clean and healthy environment? Nigerian politicians, including Amaechi, often travel to western countries and see the efficiency of services and how government works for the people, but nothing instigates them to reenact the same feat in their areas of governance.

In light of the aforementioned, Buhari’s list of nominees does not inspire confidence and can’t effectively drive the fight against corruption in the most brazen manner required. It has annihilated major segments of our society such as the Igbos who are hardly represented in Buhari’s government in any meaningful capacity. Youth and women are also conspicuously absent from his list of nominees underscoring his parochial view of the role of women in society and the contribution of the youth to national development. After six months of deliberation, Nigerians expect a much better ministerial list from Buhari, not one inundated with corrupt politicians who are bereft of ideas on how to move the country forward.

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Posted by admin on Oct 10 2015. Filed under Articles, Columnists, NNP Columnists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry