• Worry Over President’s Inability To Name Aides

• President Is Working, Says Presidency Sources

• A New Presidency Organogram Coming

The inability of President Goodluck Jonathan to name his Ministers, Advisers, Assistants and other aides has left governance on the slow lane. This makes Nigerians to wonder if the President has forgotten his promise of hitting the ground running. But as Abuja Deputy Bureau Chief, Madu Onuorah reports, Aso Rock officials insist that the Presidency is working behind the scene and preparing the grounds for the incoming aides.

ON May 29, 2011 after President Goodluck Jonathan took the oath of office and allegiance at the Eagle Square, Abuja, journalists, covering the State House, converged at the Banquet Hall, awaiting the customary Press Statement announcing the new presidential aides. None came.

But on the evening of May 30, a terse statement by Musa Adwak, director of information, Office of the Special Assistant to the President (Media and Publicity), announced that, “President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has approved the appointment of Senator Anyim Pius Anyim as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. He will be sworn-in on Tuesday, 31st May 2011 at the Executive Council Chambers at 12 noon. Also, President Jonathan has approved the re-appointment of General O. A. Azazi as the National Security Adviser.”

Since then, further announcement on personnel has ceased, leaving many critical positions vacant. And enquiries on the inability of President Jonathan to announce his aides have taken a life of its own. The questions being encountered daily is, “why is it difficult for the President to appoint his aides? How come the list of Ministers is not yet out? Who or what is causing the delay/s? When will the action-President come out? Is the President going back on his words? Has anything gone wrong? When will the President “hit the ground running?” as he promised.

These inquiries about the direction of President Jonathan’s administration arose from the high expectations Nigerians and the international community had that finally, the vehicle for the transformation of Nigeria had taken off.

Many had seen in President Jonathan the answer to the yearnings of the citizens to move the country beyond the mediocre level it had been. But three weeks into his inauguration for a fresh term of four years, the people are worried that his government has not formally taken off, and that the pace of governance has been slow.

Agitated citizens frequently point to the May 20, 2011 briefing by Ima Niboro, presidential spokesman. Niboro had announced to journalists at the Presidential Villa, Abuja that “the President also plans to hit the ground running after inauguration. There is going to be very little time. So, the new cabinet is going to come almost immediately after inauguration. That cabinet would go on retreat for a few days also in Obudu where the President is going to charge them with the direction of government.”

Niboro said the President had four years to deliver and he was not going to waste any minute of it. “So, the areas the President is going to focus on will be areas of power, infrastructure and human capacity development,” he said.

“We are looking at a target where we have an inclusive growth circle in all aspects. It is very easy for people to say, oh, if he can achieve power, he would have done everything. But you cannot pursue power when the children are not in school; you cannot pursue education while hospitals are dead. The president is planning an integrated approach to governance on all decisions.”

Niboro stressed that the president was going to take the new ministers there (Obudu) and charge them on the direction he wanted this government to take; and this was going to happen in very short order.

He said the President was also committed to ensuring that most of the critical needs of this country, including health, were made centres of excellence “where people from even neighbouring countries would come here. These are parts of the things he is putting together in the four-year plan,” Niboro said.

And Nigerians believed the President, which is why the citizens are apprehensive and look forward to the implementation of the ‘Transformation Agenda’ so that their lives would get a new meaning. Their buoyed hopes hinged on the promises made by the president during his campaign, accentuated by his inauguration speech.

In his inauguration speech, President Jonathan gave the new direction of his administration, which he summed up thus: “Join me now as we begin the journey of transforming Nigeria. I will continue to fight for your future, because I am one of you.”

His other pledges include:

• I will continue to fight for improved medical care for all our citizens.

• I will continue to fight for all citizens to have access to first class education.

• I will continue to fight for electricity to be available to all our citizens.

• I will continue to fight for an efficient and affordable public transport system for all our people.

• I will continue to fight for jobs to be created through productive partnerships.

A PRESIDENCY source told The Guardian that contrary to the impression of Nigerians, President Jonathan was working on every detail of his government and governance programmes. Already, the source noted, the president has the imprint to reorganise The Presidency, as we know it.

Defending the president against the perception that he is slow, the source stated that, “what people perceive as slowness is being detailed and methodical. He (President Jonathan) is being detailed. He is working out every detail. He has not been idle. He has been holding meetings every day. On Wednesday night, the meeting lasted till about 2am with his key people driving the process.”

Asked why most of the president’s Senior Special Assistants, Special Assistants and other aides had not been named almost three weeks after his swearing-in, the source stated that, “this is because of the new organogram of the State House coming. Majority of the presidential aides in the new dispensation are of the Special Advisers status. So, President Jonathan wants to get the approval of the National Assembly before he announces them. And hopefully, the National Assembly will reconvene soon to tackle this and other issues.

“Efforts are on now to re-jig some offices, rename some, remove some and reorganise some. The final meeting on the re-jigging was to take place on Thursday. The President looks forward to The Presidency that works better, that is highly mobile, flexible and result-oriented. He wants to have an improved structure from the one he inherited and has been using since he was sworn in last year (May 6).”

The source insisted that President Jonathan was working hard for Nigeria and advancing his agenda. And that the moment the Senate reconvened and approved his request for Ministers and Special Advisers, the shape of the government would fall into shape and the implementation of his agenda would “hit the ground running.”

The source added: “This President has been working behind the scene, to prepare the ground for full implementation of his programmes. No doubt about that. He has been consulting with stakeholders and he has been handling some assignments.”

Really, the most high profile assignment of President Jonathan was his visit to New York for the United Nations high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS. And there, it was clear that with the successful conduct of the 2011 elections, Nigeria had started enjoying a groundswell of global goodwill and rising acclaim.

At each forum in the United Nations, New York and Washington DC, world leaders expressed the hope that Nigeria would actualise its potentials. For example, former US President, Bill Clinton, said in New York, that Jonathan might turn out to be the leader that would bring Nigeria to its “full potential.”

Clinton had earlier congratulated Jonathan on his election, declaring that the Nigerian President had a “studied outreach to bridge the divide that has kept Nigeria from reaching its full potential.”

Clinton added that his wife, Hillary Clinton, who is the US Secretary of State, said good things about President Jonathan, including the fact that “your hats are always cool,” to the applause of the audience that included top UN and US officials like the Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon.

In reference to Jonathan’s speech at the event, where he restated Nigeria’s commitment to the HIV/AIDS fight and announced that he would lead an ECOWAS initiative to come up with new sources of funding to continue the onslaught against the scourge, Clinton thanked Jonathan for his efforts. “I thank you very much for what you have done,” he said.

On the same day that he met with President Barack Obama, President Jonathan spoke for a fourth time at the UN, at a side event organised by the UNAIDS themed, Countdown to Zero — an initiative to reduce mother-to-child HIV infections to zero.

Before that, Jonathan had spoken on Tuesday at the Security Council and also spoke twice on Wednesday — once at a UN press conference and later at the HIV/AIDS high-level summit of the General Assembly.

PART of the dividend of the visit to Washington DC meeting with President Obama at the White House was the US President’s visit to Nigeria before the end of his first term in office. Nigeria had been skipped during Obama’s first visit to Africa in 2009, where he delivered what was termed a stunning rebuke to Nigeria. But indications are that the outcome of the April elections has made Obama’s visit imperative and could be accomplished later in the year or the beginning of next year.

A White House statement on the Obama-Jonathan meeting observed that the US President “personally congratulated President Jonathan on the success of Nigeria’s recent elections, which deepened the foundation for future democratic contests.”

The statement added that both “leaders discussed how the Jonathan administration can build on this momentum by investing in Nigeria’s energy supply, agricultural productivity, democratic institutions, and security sector.”

Besides, President Obama “called on President Jonathan to make fighting corruption a national priority and a critical step in ensuring the necessary conditions for sustained economic growth and lasting prosperity,” while thanking him “for his leadership both regionally and within the United Nations Security Council on pressing issues such as Sudan, Libya, and Cote D’Ivoire.”

The White House statement concluded, “both leaders agreed to continue to work together to promote peace and security.”

Earlier in the week, Nigeria and its President had received commendation from the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon who also noted Jonathan’s personal commitment to the HIV/AIDS fight.

In a press conference at the UN even before Jonathan’s arrival, Ban said: “I appreciate his (President Jonathan’s) strong commitment to see the end of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.”

Ban had recently completed a visit to Nigeria about which he said, on return at the UN that, he was very impressed by the many efforts of the Federal Government of Nigeria to advance the MDGs in the country, especially citing the new health bill passed by the National Assembly.

Former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, last Wednesday was at the Presidential Villa, Abuja where he met with President Jonathan, who said that Nigeria was committed to global peace, and would continue to support any efforts at peace and development.

He welcomed Mr. Blair’s collaboration with the Elumelu Foundation, adding that Africa would benefit from the former British Prime Minister’s experience and efforts.

Mr. Blair, who runs the African Governance Initiative, and working with the Elumelu Foundation, said that, “I have found the President well focused and very well determined to improve Nigerians’ total potentials and he is someone I have a lot of respect and regards for.

“I have been through Abuja a couple of times, worked with Nigeria for a couple of years, and I just feel there is enormous promise and potentials here. I think the President is absolutely focused on the right areas, which is improving the infrastructure in the country, making sure that in areas like agriculture and power and so on that he is making the changes that are necessary.

“I think the President has absolutely got the right priorities and the toughest challenge in government is getting it done. I find in him absolutely in the right frame of mind to get these things. From one leader to another, he is focused in getting things done according to people’s focus and expectation.”

OUTSIDE the constitution of his government, President Jonathan has been meeting with other stakeholders. They include the Nigerian Economic Society (NES) and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

While the NES President, Dr. Kenneth Adeyemi, said, “we fully aligned with your economic transformation agenda and agree with you that the time for transformation and not lamentation is here and now,” the NBA President, Chief Joseph Daudu (SAN), said that, “this government obeys court orders and this growing pattern of compliance is a big plus for you.”

President Jonathan has assured that the Administration would take definite steps to strengthen the nation’s electoral laws within the next one year, in order to improve and ensure better elections in the future.

He said: “We must take steps to strengthen our Constitution and the Electoral Laws within the next one year, so that we can have even better elections than these (April 2011 elections), which have been praised worldwide.”

He stated that the reduction of post-election cases by 80 per cent, following the 2011 exercise, was a clear indication that the elections were largely free and fair, adding that it would be possible to reduce pre- and post-election cases to the barest minimum with the appropriate legislation and commitment by electoral officials.

The president also spoke about the need to maintain credibility of the judiciary, which is the arbiter in all cases, and thanked the Nigerian Bar Association for its role in this regard.

President Jonathan also received the report of the Presidential Projects Assessment Committee, expressing concern at the large number of on-going projects all over the country.

While he welcomed the inventory taken by the committee, he said “the huge number of on-going projects all over the country is of concern, considering the financial implications.”

The president said his Administration would look at the list while preparing budgets in the future, and thanked the committee for the painstaking efforts at preparing the report.

Chairman of the committee, Ibrahim Bunu, an architect, had said the committee identified 11,886 on-going capital projects executed by the Federal Government, requiring N7.78 trillion to complete.

He advised the government to prioritise the execution of the projects, in order of their implication to the attainment of the Transformation Agenda, and suggested that all planning and development of major projects should be situated within the context of Vision 20-2020.

Yet, the full implementation of the programmes will have to wait until the membership of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) is constituted. And until then, the weekly meeting of the Council cannot hold and the Economic Management Team cannot meet.

Although many of the aides are working behind the scenes, they need the force of a formal appointment for them to work at full speed.

In the absence of a full set of ministers and presidential aides, Abuja is abuzz with rumours of who is in and who is out of the president’s list. It is the major business in town, stalling governance.

-Guardian

Posted by admin on Jun 18 2011. Filed under Goodluck Jonathan (2010-present), Presidency. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry