Reshuffling The Tinubu Cabinet

The administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will be one-year-old this Wednesday, 29th May, 2024. For an administration that promised so many things to the electorate, one year may be deemed as too early to assess the capacity of the government to obtain early fruits and convince doubting Thomases of its capacity to walk its talk. However, as the Hausa man would say, “Jumma da zata yi kyau; akan santa tun ranar larba (The Friday that will turn out good would be known on Wednesday).

There’s no doubt that the future does not come out of nothingness; it is anchored on the present. The promise for a better future is anchored on a delightful present. As the Tinubu-led government prepares to mark its one-year anniversary, Nigerians have said that this year’s celebration would be low-keyed devoid of celebration. Some are already insisting that there is no reason to celebrate as not much has been achieved by the government

Dealing with incompetence

Even before now, there have been calls for the re-organisation of the Tinubu Cabinet in order to weed out dead woods.  Expectedly, news has trended on the planned reshuffling of cabinet, with many analysts insisting that the exercise was overdue. When the presidency appointed Hadiza Bala Usman to head the Policy and Coordination Unit to track down performance of ministers, she declared that President Tinubu was poised to drop non-performing ministers. Now that the days of reckoning are drawing closer, many are already predicting that sack of non-performing ministers would be done in accordance with the marking scheme provided by the former Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).

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Coming against the backdrop of the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, much the noise calling for the re-organisation of the cabinet were largely not heeded. In a government where cabals were ruling both in the day and night, such members of cabal could even run against the president’s wish or ignorance, depending on where they come from. It is expected that after Wednesday, the coming weeks may be fraught with reminders on the need to flush out dead woods ingrained in the corridors of power.

Too many saying nothing

For a government that is expected to turn things around for citizens, after the years of cankerworms as seen in the last eight years of the Buhari administration, refusal by President Tinubu to review his team may send a wrong signal of unseriousness on the part of the former Lagos governor whose presidential ambition was a life term exercise. After 12 months, it is obviously clear that there are certain people that need to be uprooted for the system to breathe.  While there are ministers that are doing their utmost best to reform the system and make things work, institutional impediments, most times, have permanently vitiated them.

That is why it is good for those who have not found their bearings to be excused from the power corridors to allow for the injection of fresh blood. The President must not allow the indolence of the Buhari era to repeat itself, as the country is gradually headed for the death throes, and only people of competence can salvage what is left of the nation.

Who’s in, who’s out?

Among those who need to be changed or redeployed are those handling the power sector. In the last months since the power sector palaver started, solutions have been unattainable as ministers in charge of the sector have always been comfortable with doing what was obtained in the past. Instead of relying on expert advice, those in charge of power are prone to subscribing to the old system where whopping sums of money were bandied to paint the impossibility of making the sector work despite the billions of dollars spent with no commensurate increase in performance profile of the sector.

How do Nigerians continue to pay for darkness when investors who were cashed in on NEPA facilities refused to inject foreign direct investment as was required of them before they took charge of the distribution and transmission sections of the sector.  Insisting that the power needed $100 billion, being $10 billion each year for a decade, is not a sign of intelligence. Who gives birth to a child and calculates the cost of school fees and other accidentals in cost bringing up the child to adulthood. The truth is that these whopping sums are thrown in the public space to frighten and force Nigerians to do the wrong thing by surrendering to the forces of fear.

President Tinubu should, without delay, review his team in order to ensure that round pegs are put in round holes. In a situation where people are allowed to do whatever they like, with no consequences, amounts to encouraging lawlessness. Those who think there are no consequences must be reminded that a system that allows public officials to act in an offensive manner without being repudiated or punished risks a quick and complete collapse.

Tinubu must embark on an honest assessment of his ministers to ensure the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ is realised. Something drastic should be done so that those who are found lacking are thrown out in order to give room for fresh minds. Anything short of this amount to embracing the practice by the Buhari-led administration that protected cronies and close families even when it was glaring, they were whimsically incompetent in performing their jobs.

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