MONDAY QUARTERBACKING:  A Quick Look at Yar’Adua’s Ministers - And A Few Troubling Issues to Ponder

By

Mobolaji E. Aluko, PhD

alukome@gmail.com

Monday, July 30, 2007

Introduction

Suppose two “mothers” are arguing over who has a particular baby – but the baby is with one of the contending women?  One expects that the baby will be given the greatest amount of care in the interim, no matter who the baby is eventually given to as the rightful mother.

That is the attitude that I have with Yar’Adua’s government:  until the Presidential Election Tribunal rules otherwise, he has the country under his Federal Government presidency to take care of – and he better take good care of it well even in the interim.

Yar’Adua’s Ministers – General Statistics

On Wednesday July 25, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (UMYA) named the portfolios of his thirty-nine approved ministers.  There were only eight (8) women, all the others being naturally men.  Their ages ranged from 39 to 67, the youngest being Dr. Hong Aliyu Idi (Minister of State, Tourism and Culture), and the oldest being Prof. Adenike Grange (Minister of Health).  However, the average age of all the ministers is 52.38, which falls between the age of  Goodluck Jonathan (49, going 50) and Umar Yar’Adua (56).

Six (6) of them have PhD degrees, fifteen (15) have Masters degrees, eight (8) have non-law-degree bachelors degrees, six (6) are lawyers, two (2) are medical doctors and the rest have just Post-Graduate Diplomas.  Twenty-three (23) of the ministers are alumni and alumnae of just seven (7) institutions: nine (9) from ABU, three (3) each from the Universities of Lagos and Calabar, and two (2) each from Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Bayero University Kano, Howard University (Washington DC) and the University of Birmingham in England.  Except for five (5) others, all the eleven (11) others had their post-secondary degree training only in Nigeria.

Thus in terms of youthfulness and educational attainment, the cabinet can probably not be faulted,  although one would have wished for more than one quarter of them to have had international education degree training.

Round pegs in round or square holes?

I have in another essay [“Sunday Musings: How Not to Knock a Cabinet Together – And Suggestions for Effective ‘Carpentry’ ”] faulted the way and manner in which these ministers are nominated and approved by the Senate in the first instance, that is with state governors being asked to nominate possible candidates, and, following the President’s selection, without the Senate knowing their portfolios before screening.  The possibility of not being able to match names with portfolios becomes quite real – as can be seen in Yar’Adua’s list.

First, the good matches…..

The Attorney-General’s Office (Michael Aondoakaa, SAN; we will have to learn to pronounce his name!), Finance (Shamsudeen Usman and Aderemi Babalola, the latter being minister of state), and Health (Prof. Nike Grange) seem to be the only ministries in strong professional hands.  Halima Tayo Alao in Environment/Housing also does not seem to be a bad choice, with her background in Architecture, as are Tijani Yahaya Kaura in Foreign Affairs (State 1) and Major-General Godwin Abbe (Rtd.) in Interior.   Dr. Hassan Lawal is reprising his role under the Obasanjo administration in the Labor Ministry, while John Odey, as PDP’s most recent Public Secretary was a natural choice for the Information/Communications Ministry.

Rejected Bode Augusto would also have been a good match in the Finance Ministry, but I continue to wonder why he was not quietly asked to withdraw his nomination rather than been shamed by outright rejection.  One would have expected better grace from President David Mark’s Senate.

Now the bad matches……

What the heck is Adetokunboh Kayode (SAN) looking for as Minister of Culture and Tourism, or medical doctor Idi Hong as his minister of state?  In the Energy Ministry – which obviously Yar’Adua is reserving for himself -  the only saving grace is Ekiti representative Olatunde Odusina (whose NNPC antecedents might help him as Minister of State for Gas), but lawyer Odein Ajumogobia in Petroleum and French graduate Mrs. Fatima Ibrahim in Power make me to shake my head. I also cringe at Chief Sarafa Ishola and Alhaji Ahmed Gusau, both diploma holders in Marketing and Modern Management, being minister and minister of state respectively in the very important Ministry of Mines and Steel Development.  Honestly, to my mind, these three ministries (Culture/Tourism; Energy and Mines/Steel Development) exhibit the greatest mismatches in Yar’Adua’s choices.

A few others are also surprising.  Widow, mother of four, and pharmacist Fidelia Njeze at Ministry of Defence (State) is quite head-scratching – but I remember that Mrs. Dupe Adelaja was once in her position in the Navy ministry.  Also, after eight arguably vibrant years of Professor Turner Isoun as Minister of Science and Technology, one would have hoped that a stronger hand than Zoology BSc graduate – and long-time civil servant Mrs. Ekpewhire – would now be heading that ministry.

The Ministry of Education – What Gives?

I end this quick assessment with my primary constituency:  Education.   This ministry has had the greatest amount of ministerial turnovers since the beginning of the Nigerian republic – at least twenty-two ministers in forty-seven years (See Table 2) – which may be one of the hidden reasons for the turmoil in our educational system.  I had expected that the last minister of Education, Dr. Abba Sayadi Ruma, would be left in that ministry, but rather he has been moved to Agriculture and Water Resources, maybe in order to ensure that he does not continue wholesale the controversial policies of his predecessor in the Education Ministry (Ezekwesili) while he (Ruma) was her Education Minister of State?    

Just wondering, but moving on….

The education ministry is now to be headed by Dr. Igwe Aja-Nwachukwu of Ebonyi State,  reprising not only his father’s first-republic role as Federal Minister of  Education, but continuing a curious recent tradition of reserving that ministry for the South- East (Oby Ezekwesili, Chinwe Obaje, Fabian Osuji served recently in reverse order – see Table 2). 

Yar’Adua’s father also served in that first-republic cabinet of Tafawa Balewa.  Who knows – Igwe and Musa might have been old ministerial/GRA brat-friends?

Moving on…

Whether Dr. Aja-Nwachukwu’s local degrees from Ibadan (BSc), Nsukka (MBA) and Calabar (PhD), and his local lecturerships at Abia State University (Uturu) and Ebonyi State University Abakiliki until 2006 make him well prepared for this most important portfolio remains to be seen.  More problematic is that he is to be assisted in the Ministry of Education by two Ministers of States who were former Secondary-School principals-turned-senior civil servants: Dr. Jerry Agada (most recently Permanent Secretary in Benue Civil Service until he retired in 2006), and Mrs. Aishatu Dukku (Principal of a Girl’s College in Gombe State before becoming a Federal Inspector of Schools in March 2006 until appointment.)

With the dire situation of education in the country, the ministry needs the strongest of hands possible, but I am NOT SURE whether this is what we currently have in these three persons.

But we shall see….

Epilogue

One sincerely hopes that we will be in for some pleasant surprises if these ministers prove in general more capable than my prognosis offers.   Otherwise, Mr. Yar’Adua should quickly re-shuffle his cabinet – including bringing in new hands – if and when he discovers that some of his ministers are over their heads in their new positions.

Finally, now that he has his ministers in place, next is his supplementary budget – and/or his 2008 budget – that will finally let us know what his real priorities are.

Comments are welcome.

Bibliography:

Sunday Musings: How Not to Knock a “Cabinet” Together – And Suggestions for Effective “Carpentry”

(by Alphabet Order of Ministries)

Compiled by NigerianMuse.com

TABLE 2:  MINISTERS OF EDUCATION OF NIGERIA – 1960 - 2007