Jonathan Tinkers with Ministerial List Again

Posted by admin Latest Politics, Ministries Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

President Goodluck Jonathan’s ever-changing ministerial list is far from taking a final shape as he continues to tinker with the nominations, days after swearing in the first batch of 14 ministers who passed Senate screening.

The president Tuesday withdrew the nomination of Mr. Tonye Cole, an architect who had been tipped to head the Ministry of Works, without any explanation but apparently of gender balancing.

Sources said Jonathan had said if any state was going to have two nominees, one must be a woman – in line with his promise to allocate at least 35 per cent of cabinet positions to women.

Cole, son of Ambassador Dele Cole, is one of the founders of Sahara Energy Ltd who was initially nominated from Rivers State .

In separate letters to the Senate President and read on the floor by Senator David Mark, Jonathan withdrew Cole’s nomination and urged the upper house to speedily confirm Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as a minister.

Cole has now made way for Ama Pepple, former Head of Service of the Federation who is also from Rivers State , but will be representing the South-south zone.

Former Chief of Staff to Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State, Mr. Nelson Wike, will represent the state in the cabinet.

Okonjo-Iweala is the zonal nominee from the South-east. Although she is from Delta State in the South-south, her husband is from Abia State from where she was nominated the first time as minister in 2003.

The Managing Director of World Bank was screened by security yesterday. She is expected to face the Senate today.

A World Bank official told Reuters news agency Tuesday that Okonjo-Iweala remains in her current job, but is currently in Nigeria “for talks”.

“We are aware that she is in Nigeria for discussions with the president,” a World Bank spokeswoman told Reuters in response to a question on whether Okonjo-Iweala had accepted the position.

Former finance minister, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, is facing the battle of his life as the three ACN senators from Lagos – Remi Tinubu, Ganiyu Solomon and Gbenga Ashafa – have opposed his nomination on the ground that he is not from the state.

They are joined in their stance by their counterparts in the House of Representatives.

Aganga, who used to be a managing director with Goldman Saachs, represented Lagos in the last cabinet but the Lagos Caucus in the National Assembly has insisted that since his parents are from Sabongida Ora, Edo State , he could not be nominated from the South-western state.

They also argued that before his previous appointment, he was living in London and could not have qualified to represent Lagos on the basis of residency.

By the tradition of the Senate, any ministerial nominee who does not enjoy the support of at least two senators from his state cannot be confirmed.

Ironically, the Lagos chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – which does not have a senator in the upper chamber – has been kicking against the nomination of Aganga on the ground that he is not an indigene of the “centre of excellence”.

The Senate could not resume the expected screening of the ministers yesterday following the senators’ closed doors meeting with security chiefs over the Boko Haram security challenge currently facing the nation.

The Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, told newsmen that the Senate would work harder today and tomorrow on the ministerial nominees’ list, pointing out that the lawmakers were worried “that the list keeps changing and we want a clearer picture”.

President Jonathan yesterday responded to an earlier protest by the House of Representatives against a constitutional breach in which he was accused of side lining the lower chamber of the National Assembly in the appointment of advisers.

He sent a letter to the House seeking approval for the appointment of 20 special advisers. The approval was granted immediately.

Minority Leader designate in the House, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila (ACN/Lagos), who raised the Aganga matter as a point of constitutional order said it was against the spirit and letters of the Nigerian constitution for a person to be nominated to represent a state in the Executive Council of the Federation unless such a person was an indigene of the state for which he was being nominated.

Section 147 of the constitution states that: “There shall be such offices of Ministers of the Government of the Federation as may be established by the President. Any appointment to the office of Minister of the Government of the Federation shall, if the nomination of any person to such office is confirmed by the Senate, be made by the President. Any appointment under subsection (2) of this section by the President shall be in conformity with the provisions of section 14(3) of this Constitution:- provided that in giving effect to the provisions aforesaid the President shall appoint at least one Minister from each State, who shall be an indigene of such State.”

Gbajabiamila referred to the nomination of Aganga as a breach of the constitution. He said the people of Lagos State would be short-changed if the ministerial nominee was screened and confirmed as a minister representing the state.

“It is not a personal fight, but a constitutional matter which cannot be resolved or left at the discretion of any individual. The constitutional provision on indigene-ship curtails the powers of the president on the appointment without any denial. The nominee (Aganga) is from Edo State and it will be unconstitutional for him to be appointed minister in a slot meant for Lagos State . It is not just an abuse of the constitution but a flagrant one at that and we can no longer take it. The fact that we were quiet four years ago might be because there was no incontrovertible evidence about his origin and we should not continue to perpetuate or condone illegality.

“The constitution made it clear that you must be an indigene to be appointed minister from a state and there is a reason for it – so that the interest of the state can be protected at that level. It is a way of developing the states at the same pace. If you do otherwise, there is a possibility that the interest of his home state may take precedence over the interest and development of Lagos State ,” Gbajabiamila said.

At the end of the debate, Speaker of the House, Hon Aminu Tambuwal, ruled that what Gbajabiamila had done was to draw the attention of the president to a constitutional order and it is expected that the Presidency would take a look at the provisions of Section 147 of the constitution and act accordingly.

Before the Senate went into the executive session, Senator Chris Ngige (ACN, Anambra) raised a point of order querying the propriety of the president swearing in the first batch of ministerial nominees cleared by the upper house before the conclusion of the entire screening exercise.

He said it was wrong for the president to act on a resolution of the Senate when the votes and proceedings in which such resolution was contained had not been approved.

But Mark cut in, informing Ngige that the resolution of the Senate last Thursday, in which the 14 first batch of nominees were cleared, had been backed up by a communication from him to the president.

He said it was on the basis of this communication that President Jonathan swore in the cleared nominees on Saturday.

Jonathan had initially sent a list containing 34 names. There are six other nominees, bringing the number to 40, are: Pepple (South-south), Chief Edem Duke ( Cross River), Abdulrahman Mohammed (North-west), Mrs. Omobola Johnson (Ondo), Okonjo-Iweala (South-east) and Mrs. Sarah Reng Ochepe (Plateau).

It is yet unclear who the nominee from Kaduna is. Former Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Alhaji Yusuf “Mai Rago” Hamisu, was on the original list but may have been finally replaced with the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Mrs. Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed.

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