The Buhari cabinet

President Muhammadu Buhari delayed the appointment of his cabinet for over four months, raising expectations that the individuals to be nominated would be persons of exceptional integrity, competence and character. Nigerians adduced various explanations for the delay – nominees were failing integrity checks; there were disagreements within government and party factions over the appointments; the president wanted to clean up the system before making appointments; the handover briefs received from the former regime were to blame for the delay, etc.

However, when Buhari said in France that “The civil service provides continuity in government. Civil servants are the technocrats who do most of the work. The ministers are there, I think, to make a lot of noise, I think politicians make a lot of noise but the work is done by the technocrats. They are there and provide the continuity. You can see my team (that came to France), you will see perm secs of finance, trade and industries, and others. They provide the continuity, dig into the records as long as possible, they guide us because we are just coming into government. They have been there, some for 15, 20 years. I think that this question of ministers is political. People from different constituencies want to see their people directly in government and see what they can get out of it”, it became apparent that he was enjoying governing without a cabinet and, but for the increasingly negative commentary from home and abroad, would have preferred to continue without ministers, whom the president described as “noisemakers”.

Buhari himself said as much, when he remarked to his France 24 interviewer, “I said that we will have one by the end of the month. Time flies, end of the month is coming too quickly for my liking,” categorically confirming his reluctance to make those constitutionally-mandated selections. On the last day of September, a list of 18 names was received by the Senate president and confirmation hearings are in progress at the Upper House of Parliament. The surprise was that had Buhari named his ministers on April 1 or June 1, days after his election or swearing-in, the names on that first list could not be expected to be different – ubiquitous APC spokesman Lai Muhammed, ex-Governors Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), Kayode Fayemi, Chris Ngige and Rotimi Amaechi.

The president’s long-term supporters, Hadi Sirika, General Abdulrahman Dambazau, Solomon Dalong, Adebayo Shittu and Suleiman Adamu; APC leaders, former ANPP chairman Ogbonnaya Onu and former PDP chairman Audu Ogbeh; NNPC MD Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu; UACN Plc chairman Udoma Udo Udoma and former chairman of SEC and CAC; UN official Amina Mohammed; General T. Y. Danjuma’s brother-in-law, Osagie Ehaneri; Taraba State governorship candidate of the APC, Aisha Jumai Alhassan; and nominee of Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun, Kemi Adeosun, who was Ogun State Commissioner for Finance. There were also former Niger State Deputy Governor Ahmed Isa Ibeto, who has since been withdrawn, and one Ibrahim Usman Jibril.

Reactions to the president’s nominations have been mixed, but I think that except that expectations had been unduly raised that saints and heroes were being awaited, the names were fairly predictable, with my main reservation being that it was difficult to make out an economic core within the nominees. Women and youth may also feel under-represented. In spite of the negative press he has recently received, my views about former Governor Fashola are well-known – I think that he was probably the best administrator amongst the governors of his time and his impact on Lagos State has been significantly positive.

He will be a big asset to the Buhari government. I also think it is difficult to fault the nomination of Kayode Fayemi, an intellectual and decent politician who played a major role in drafting the APC policy platform for the last elections. Governor Amaechi’s nomination is by far the most controversial of all those made by Buhari for understandable reasons. Amaechi in my assessment was a very good governor in his first term, implementing transformational social democratic programmes in the education, health and roads sectors in Rivers State.

It is clear that he was hugely distracted by national politics in his second term and made some project errors, notably with the ill-fated mono-rail project, but if he is confirmed as minister, he is hardworking and passionate about the public good. Kachikwu was my law of contracts teacher at Ife in 1982, a fresh Harvard Law School PhD, and has predictably risen to the top in two different multinational oil companies. He is an excellent choice for NNPC and the petroleum ministry; and Senator Udoma, by virtue of his training and exposure as well as previous roles at SEC and CAC and in the corporate sector, has unique insights into the issues around Nigeria’s trade, industry and investment policy. I am also excited about Amina Mohammed’s selection.

With the release of the second list containing the balance of the ministerial nominees, it is clear the focus of the president and his close advisers may be politics and not policy or transformative thinking – the list is a mixed bag of fairly regular politicians randomly selected to consolidate power with a sprinkling of change agents. The only addition to the still narrow economic team was Okechukwu Enelamah, with former University of Ibadan vice chancellor, Prof Isaac Adewole, being the other stand-out nominee.