Jonathan needs more than 36 ministers to succeed- Graham-Douglas

Posted by admin Goodluck Jonathan (2010-present), Ministries, Presidency Monday, June 13th, 2011

ALABO Tonye Graham-Douglas has served in various capacities in Nigeria; a one time Minister of Youths, Sports and Culture, Aviation as well as Labour and Productivity. In 2000, he became the Minister of Tourism before leaving office in January 2001. In this interview, he bares his mind on the state of the nation especially how President Goodluck Jonathan can survive the next four years. Excerpts:

BY BOSE ADELAJA

The 2011 election has been adjudged to be free and fair, what is your reaction to this?

One has to ascribe it to the leadership, the fairness, credibility and freedom of the citizenry is precisely their democratic right. What made it possible was the fact that the leadership ab nitio selected the INEC chairman without influencing him but asked him to develop a system that will make Nigerians participate in the electioneering system without any grievances, inhibition or distraction.

At the end of it all, Professor Atahiru Jega was appointed and given every penny he needed to achieve a successful election. One must give kudos to the President for ensuring that he kept his words by providing a free, fair, credible and internationally accepted election. There has been a lot of INEC Chairmen with a lot of controversy but this time around, he made sure that he carried out the election according to the principles. With this, I think we have now entered the new regime to ensure that our elections are accepted at the international level.

Would you say that the constitution of a presidential panel is the best approach to the violence that erupted after the polls?

My view about this is that Nigerians and the various political individuals are not used to accepting defeat. If you play a football game, there must be a winner and a loser, the loser does not take a gun and shoot his opponent after the game. This is a mixed grill of ethnic, religious and political ambitions and intolerance, that has triggered the violence.

This is unfortunate because it has taken us back to the experience in the 60s where majority had a terrible experience because, this time around, unity is not negotiable and anybody who is democratically committed to the Nigeria’s definition of unity must refrain himself and refrain his followership from going into such heinous activities, that were most unacceptable.

Many Nigerians have agitated that the NYSC scheme be scrapped, do you share this belief?
It is unfortunate that violence has taken place but this should not be a yardstick to scrap a programme that has been created over the years. The essence of the NYSC is mainly about aquaculture and unity of Nigerians. Most Nigerians are illiterate of their country. For example, people may stay in Sokoto but they have not been to Port Harcourt and vise versa.

ALABO Tonye Graham-Douglas

But the NYSC structure has helped to overcome this by sending our young ones to mix with others. In spite of the ethnic diversity, Nigerians are still united, the NYSC was structured towards the unity of this country. It is a pity that our leaders don’t know the importance of such a programme, that is why they can instigate their followers to commit such a crime.

I don’t support the eradication of the programme but it can be restructured or re-organised while the lapses can be taken into recognition when postings are being done. This can be done by looking into our ethnic, religious fanaticism, etc, you must send people who share the same ideology with the people they are going to. A new research should be made in respect of our cultural heritage and people should be posted to areas where their lives will be saved.

The ideology should take cognizance of political affiliation and other things. he nation’s democracy has gone through a circus system of metamorphoses. To reach where they are Britain, America have a long history. I used to be the minister of NYSC and I re-organised it when people wanted to serve in places where they have relatives. In those days, they used to go and bribe the officer in charge of the postings but I said no. By the grace of God, my daughter served in Kogi where he met a young man and both of them are now married.

In spite of the violence, can you allow your children to serve in the North now?
I am a Nigerian, who believes that one incident should not make me change my attitude and perception about my country. There is cultural, ethnic and religion diversity, as a result, we should be tolerant and be our brothers’ keeper.

We need a lot of orientation. In most cases, people that do this are illiterates who are not politically conscious, they are like sheep without shepherd. I don’t think this situation will prevail again in 2015. In other words, if my children are posted to the Northern parts of the country, I shall allow them whole heartedly.

Some people are of the opinion that the next cabinet should be enlarged or reduced, what is your take on this?
I have been in and out of government, with what is happening now, the bureaucracy that runs the government itinerary is painstaking. It may be slow but it is the type that will not accommodate mistakes. Some of the incoming ministers are completely new and they do not know anything about bureaucracy. We all have to learn, no matter how brilliant you are, and the learning takes some time. When you have challenges, you must have sufficient division of labour, you don’t have to conflict your man power requirement.

Take the Ministry of Education for example, which has primary, secondary, tertiary, inspectorate and you have only one minister and minister of state, this is not good enough. Such a ministry must have a minister that will handle the cabinet policy matters while the ministers of state should be three or four in number to look at other affairs and later report to the senior minister, who will take the issue to the gathering station or take the paper to the council and bring policy, this will make things to move fast.

With a lot of people asking for one favour or the other, the civil service is under perpetual pressure, especially the political appointees.

In those days, Kenya President has a very small English cabinet when he took over power but when he saw the magnitude of the road network, agricultural revolution, tourism, hospital, security and other issues, he created 67 ministers to tackle various issues and he ensured that each of them was properly designed.

He had the first four years to prove to Kenyans that he could do it. Today, the Constitution allows that in Nigeria. Every state must produce a minister and the provincial advisory committee has stated that the ministers should be coalesced for purposes of control. All the President needs to do is to choose about 15 or 20 people as his inner cabinet ministers that will be able to propel his dreams.

Four years is too small to do all these but if all hands are on deck, everything will go well. If he has not been able to achieve 50 per cent of the job by mid-term, you can count him as a failure, remove him and let his Permanent Secretary take up the job, this will put people on their toes. If Jonathan must make a landmark within four years, he needs to appoint more than 36 ministers to pursue specific roles.

Do you see Mr. President as being influenced by former President Olusegun Obasanjo ?
I have said this several times but I think people do not understand President Jonathan very well. This man is a technocratic, a microbiologist, who knows different patterns of species. He knows that Nigerians are very humble but resolute.This man has the mind of his own but his humility and respect should not be taken for granted, this does not mean he is going to be a surrogate of any particular individual. Having stated his different characteristics, I don’t believe there is somebody in the country that can drag him by the nose to do what will not benefit Nigerians.

Many Nigerians are advocating that the legislators should tackle the issue of energy first before delving into other things…

If you have energy, business will flow in this country and the cost of diesel will be reduced. Most companies do not want to come to Nigeria because there is no electricity. Can you believe that in my house in Port Harcourt, I use a drum of diesel every 24 hours while I also run a hotel? Do you know that the tangible part of the income usually goes to diesel? If you make sure there is uninterrupted source of power, more people will come in for investment. Energy is first among several things to do. If this is in place, there will be job opportunities.

What does Jonathan’s victory mean to you?
First of all, we should give glory to God Almighty for his acceptance to Nigerians. Jonathan’s victory should be given to Nigerians, who have reposed such confidence in him, that was divine intervention. People are dying of hunger and insecurity, the various institutions are not in good shape, these are areas of good governance, the primary thing to advocate is self discipline and development.

How do you think he can tackle corruption within the space of time?
Corruption simply means doing something out of the norms. There are government or instutionalised rules, procedures and regulations, and any deviation from the laid down principles should be sanctioned especially if it is done with an intention of self aggrandizement or selfish interest. The synergy is very elaborate and we must put up a virile system in order to build a nation. For instance, if a ministry has a vacancy, it must advertise the job without favoritism, it must conduct interviews and shortlist the candidates and not allow selfish interest to prevail. An independent body should be set up to look into the issue of corruption.

-Vanguardwp_posts

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Posted by admin on Jun 13 2011. Filed under Goodluck Jonathan (2010-present), Ministries, Presidency. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry