Appointments: Jonathan Snubs Lobbyists – May retain many serving ministers

Posted by admin Enugu, Goodluck Jonathan (2010-present), Presidency, Top Stories Thursday, May 26th, 2011

President Goodluck Jonathan, has lambasted those lobbying for ministerial appointments, saying less than 10 per cent of them are genuine.
He disclosed this during the presidential inauguration lecture in Abuja, which was delivered by Prof. Ladipo Adamolekun, even as the independent scholar urged the President to declare and make public, his assets and those of his wife within three months after his inauguration and mandate all ministers to do the same.

Jonathan said: “It is all the papers you open up today, you talk about somebody either he is lobbying to be a minister or… Stories about it are that I am at the centre. And I know that more than 60 per cent of the stories are not true. It is unfortunate, but Nigerians must read them because the papers must be sold.

“But I know that there are two categories of lobbyists. I will just put it that way. I will not comment on it. There are people lobbying for ministerial positions for what I describe as personal reasons: either for themselves, their wives, their children, their in-laws, their brothers or their friends; personal or maybe political. And then, those who love the country.

“Those who love the country, when they come to you and if they feel that maybe a particular person, let me say Chukwuemeka Yusuf, if there is such name, if they are lobbying for Chukwuemeka Yusuf to be a minister, when you decide to analyze it, you see that he has no business relationship with that person. They don’t have any relationship and they are really lobbying because they believe that that person had the background to do the work. That person can help the country. These are those who love this country. Unfortunately, they are less than 10 per cent,” Jonathan revealed.

The President, however, said that we have various categories of people, who definitely will serve because we must not climb to the heavens to bring people.“But one thing again, for us to get to where we want to go, is one, the quality of leadership, which of course, is how do the leaders emerge through the electoral process, through the appointive processes, but the time these people stay to execute their work also matter,” he said. He noted that the break in the tenure of those occupying appointive positions coupled with their short duration in office, has not helped in the development of the nation.

“One thing worries me and it does not just worry me, but one thing I believe that helps us not to transform as fast as the way we want to, is the duration of ministers. I will not talk about the president and the governors. The Constitution has said four years, though quite a number of people have said that four years is too short to make any change, which I also believe.
“That is a constitutional problem but in terms of even the people we appoint as ministers, if you turn back and look across (referring to pictures of former ministers of foreign affairs, adorning part of the wall of the auditorium of the ministry where the lecture was held,) it tells you the story of why we have not transformed significantly. If you count from Tafawa Balewa to Ajumogobia as foreign ministers, we have 24 foreign ministers in a space of 51 years. That means that an average of two years per minister. How will a country drive their foreign policy?

“You appoint a new minister, let’s say Ajumogobia, who had been a very fantastic lawyer. But as a lawyer, lawyers are even fairly good because by their training, they are vast. Lawyers and journalists are groups of people that are vast because of their professions. So, it is even fairly okay. Assuming it is somebody like me, it would have been a disaster but even then, he has not focused on foreign relations. He had been a practising lawyer, he was the Attorney-General of Rivers State, he came in here as Petroleum Minister and now, Foreign Affairs.

“For you to be very conversant, it takes more than two years to really understand the policies of your country, vis a vis, the international interest because in the world, there is a competition and people come to you who are so vast and they will be talking to you with soft tongue, before you know, you commit your country and that is the problem we are having.
“If a government comes up with a good policy and of course, that government goes the following day and another person comes, there is the tendency for them to change,” Jonathan noted.

On his part, Prof Adamolekun, while delivering the lecture, titled: ‘A transformation agenda for accelerating national development,’ amongst other issues, said “the President can lead by example through the following actions: declare and make public his assets and those of his wife within three months after his inauguration, mandate all ministers to do the same and commission an immediate performance audit of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to be followed by revamping of the two institutions to make them more transparent, efficient and effective in leading the fight against corruption.

He also argued that the Ministry of Niger Delta created in 2008, significantly duplicates the work of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), saying “it should be folded into NDDC.” According to Adamolekun, “what is required is the strengthening of the NDDC and ensuring that competent and top flight experts and professionals are recruited with appropriate remunerations to turn the commission into a well-performing organization.”

-Sunwp_posts