Task Before Buhari’s Ministers

It is a well-known fact that President Muhammadu Buhari has sworn-in new ministers of his cabinet to take responsibility for each of the government ministries in Nigeria. Having been inaugurated and assigned portfolios by Mr. President, a lot is expected and it is imperative that they hit the ground running.
As we all know, Nigeria is faced with many incontrovertible challenges, ranging from youth restiveness, killings, kidnapping to poor road networks, Fulani herdsmen, poor drainage, religious upheavals, unstable electricity, thugs, economic recession, infrastructure decay, inadequate learning facilities and ravaging flood in the country, among others. It is, therefore, imperative that all hands must be on deck to reduce these challenges to the barest minimum. Our roads are bad and most federal roads have become death traps. This must change.
Recently, the Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, conducted an online poll where he asked Nigerians for their opinions and suggestions on how to move the transport sector forward. In as much as it is a welcome development, most polls conducted in the past had ended up in the drawers. Our roads need to be fixed. The level of their degradation is visible even to the blind.
Up to the early 1980s, rail was one of the major means of transportation in Nigeria. But right now, rail workers have since been sent home as retirees. Our trains have been converted into shops and most of their parts sold as containers to businessmen and women. This ought not to be. Our trains must return and must be functional for the interest of Nigerians.
It is also necessary for the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, to ensure that there is synergy between Nigerian workers and the Federal Government. All issues pertaining to strike and workers remunerations should be adequately dealt with. Workers in institutions of higher learning must not be owed and all disagreements regarding payment of their salaries should be resolved amicably.
There is a huge need to commend the previous ministry of health on the way it tackled the Ebola crisis under the administration of Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. If such cases of Ebola should re-occur today, can the present ministry handle it in a much better way, where there will be no loss of lives of both citizens and medical personnel?
The courage of late Dr Amego Adedavoh, a renowned physician at First Consultant Hospital, Lagos, who laid down her life to protect the lives of millions of Nigerians during the Ebola crisis should not be forgotten in a hurry.
On the youth front, restiveness can be tackled through engaging the youth in meaningful activities. It is the responsibility of the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, to create avenues for meaningful engagement of these youths.
Sports clubs should be formed, talent hunt programmes should be promoted in all the six-geo-political zones. By so doing, more youths are taken off the streets and crime rate will hopefully reduce.
Our youths who are interested in sporting activities should be encouraged, scholarships be granted to qualified and talented ones, so as to carve a niche for themselves in the sporting world. Nigeria has the talent to produce more Mary Onyalis, Blessing Okagbares and Chioma Ajunwas who will make Africa and the entire globe proud.
The minister is expected to set machineries in motion to scout and fish out talents from all nooks and crannies within the shores of the nation. During the reign of Dr Jonathan, Nigeria overtook South Africa as the fastest growing economy in Africa. But currently, the reverse is the case.
Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua had a vision to make Nigeria one of the 20 biggest economies in the world by the year 2020.
The newly appointed ministers need to brace up for the tasks of economic recovery ahead and contribute to build upon the administration’s roadmap of policies, programmes and projects that will lift the bulk of Nigerians out of poverty and set them on the road to prosperity.
They should be duly responsible for the development and implementation of policies, programmes and projects in consonance with government priorities. They must also ensure that agencies under their ministries are effective, efficient and accountable in the discharge of their responsibilities.
Clearly, Nigerians deserve better than they have had thus for. They expect a new cabinet that would be filled with technocrats and professionals and where there is the need to bring in politicians, such characters must glow with sterling track records of accomplishments in their past public assignments and with best ideas that can move the nation forward.
A situation where about 70 per cent of the present cabinet are mere bench warmers would not be acceptable to Nigerians. The new cabinet must have the capacity to drive sustainable economic growth, job creation and ability to enhance good governance through delivery of tangible dividends of democracy to the masses of Nigeria.
It is expedient to ensure that the policy agenda, such as the one involving poverty reduction through lifting millions, drives ministerial interventions.
It may be necessary for the Presidency to create a green book containing an outline form, the principal points of departure embodied in such documents as the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) and the Social Protection Policies of the administration. It may take a while, especially for ministers both old and new to achieve the desired knowledge base. But time spent on it should be seen as a trade-off to avoid inertia, dilatoriness and fumbling. For the purpose of efficiency, we can raise the question, how do we know of a particular minister has performed well or not?
Well, short of impressionistic data, based on output, the best way is to set performance objectives with metrics to measure diligence or tax application. This has been much talked about by this and previous governments but has never been faithful, if at all, implemented. That kind of scientific approach, common in the private sector, should also include public perception of the performance of the ministers, which situates the problem at the user end of the chain. If applied, this will reduce but cannot fully eliminate such subjective factors as closeness to the president, ability to shout party slogans and propaganda.
Another imperative is for the Presidency to exercise leadership regarding desired policy changes as well as their implementation, considering that no minister can move faster than the president himself who is both the visioner and the policy coordinator.
Within their first three months in office, they should begin to make impact or, at least, demonstrate a sense of purpose in such areas as improved electricity generation, transmission and distribution, job creation, the current security situation, poverty reduction and infrastructural upliftment. They need to make a real difference and we wish them luck as they set out to do so.
Endemic corruption, impunity, lawlessness, weak institutions, delay in justice administration, multiple taxation as well as unfair trade practices are some of the challenges the new cabinet is expected to tackle.
They must restore investors’ confidence considering the country’s rating by the World Bank as one of the fastest growing economies.
The nation needs to get out of the present malaise by embarking on massive infrastructure building and renewal programme; social spending and protection, improved consumer spending; job creation, and expansionist fiscal and monetary policies.
It is imperative for the government to embark on public enlightenment and awareness of its policies and programmes, so that the citizenry will be in a position to determine whether the government has failed or has succeeded in pulling the country from the economic, social and political quagmire that has long existed in Nigeria.
The fight against corruption will be won the day we have a judiciary and security agencies that want corruption to be eradicated in Nigeria. Let the philosophy that “we want an end to corruption” be imbibed by all the members of the security agencies and the judiciary, and we will witness a drastic reduction, if not an end, to corruption.
A virile judiciary, competent security agencies and a political will on the part of the executive will end impunity and enthrone the rule of law in Nigeria.
For the 20 years of this democracy, we have not heard or seen any new road constructions and expansions. All the roads that the Federal Government is finding difficult to repair were constructed during the military era, this is shameful.
To be specific, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway should be addressed, the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway in Lagos should be expanded; the Ikot-Ekpene-Ikwuano Road; Port Harcourt-Aba Expressway; Owerri-Port Harcourt Road; Enugu-Umuahia Road; Onitsha-Owerri Road and all the bad federal roads in the South East, South West, South-South, North-East, North-West and North-Central States should be repaired and expanded.
The cabinet should tackle the legal issues that impede on the ability of states and individuals to generate and supply power to those who need it. It will be disastrous for this dispensation if they fail to find a permanent solution to the perennial darkness in the land. Nigerians need stable and regular power supply daily; it is feasible.
The new cabinet must also look into the directives of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on importations and foreign exchange and remove unnecessary bottle-necks and ease business transactions.
Considering the dwindling price of oil in the international market, they should think out of the box and stop relying on federal allocation for all and everything. They should all agree to reduce their over-bloated security apparatus to avoid sending messages of insecurity to potential investors and they must reduce drastically the size of their aides as it is obvious the economy can no longer cater for political parasites.
They should say no to all forms of political razz-matazz by drastically reducing their convoys and stop harassing other road users. It is believed that an era of accountability has come to stay. Hence, we should think beyond ourselves, for the future generation of Nigerians.
Can this new cabinet transform Nigeria to a great nation free from all forms of negativity and corruption? Well, time shall tell, whether or not Buhari and his ministers would be able to tackle the poor state of Nigeria’s economy.

Bethel Toby