Nigeria’s president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, finally swore-in his ministers, who will make up his government’s Executive Council, 84 days after he took the oath of office as president, and the appointments have reinforced claims of an all too obvious political trade-off.
The list of ministers is a confusing mix of allies and strange bedfellows, even for a country where political alliances are drawn on sand. This is not unusual for the country, however. As a former government official states; “The President, as Head of State and leader of his party, must strike a delicate balance between the conflicting intricacies inherent in making such choices.”
A quick glance at the names reveals the usual Nigerian attempt at a geopolitical balancing act with the designations. For example, the president’s appointments for Power, Infrastructure, aviation, maritime and Finance sectors go to appointees from the South of the country. Agriculture and Security go to the North, which is possibly informed by the region’s longstanding control of the agricultural sector and a recognition that it also suffers the bulk of the country’s security challenges. The North also holds Foreign Affairs and information.
New ministries
Some new ministries have been carved out of previously existing ones and some entirely new portfolios have been created as well. Many commentators in the country say the creation of a brand new “Ministry of Marine & Blue Economy” is a good start for diversifying the country’s economy.
This opens a new chapter for the country’s maritime sector. Beyond shipping activities, Nigeria has never really taken advantage of the potentials that its maritime corridor provides. It is believed that a full fledged Ministry would be relevant for coordination and enlargement of the blue economy.
The “Ministry of Petroleum Resources” now has two Ministers of State- who act as deputies to a full-fledged minister; one for Petroleum Resources and another for Gas Resources. There are no senior ministers for those portfolios currently, indicating that president Tinubu may assume the role in both ministries, just like two previous presidents, Muhammadu Buhari and Olusegun Obasanjo, who held same positions during their time in office in what was then only “Petroleum Resources”.
The president’s team.
The new cabinet holds the record as the federal cabinet with the largest number of former state governors in Nigeria’s political history- nine in total, and largely the result of an attempt at compensating party loyalists for losing out in their quests for elective offices.
One of the most anticipated appointments that never happened was that of a former governor of one of the northern states whose administrative skills have been described by many as impressive, but whose approach to addressing security challenges in his state came under serious criticisms. He was also one of the main northern advocates for a southern presidential candidate for the ruling party in the lead up to the presidential primaries in 2022.
Another former governor, who came under strong criticism for his poor management of the security crises in his state and lost his bid for a seat in the Nigerian Senate , has become the minister of state for Defence.
Some of the appointments have kicked up far more dust than others. One curious nomination is the Minister of Budget & Economic Planning, which has been assigned to a former governor whose name has hogged Nigerian headlines for some time as an alleged accomplice in concealing the huge wealth plundered by Nigeria’s former military dictator, Sanni Abacha. He was mentioned in the famous Pandora papers.
It is uncertain what the full implications of the president’s decision to give such a sensitive office to the controversial former state governor will be, but it looks more like compensation for his failure to win a Senatorial seat at the polls than for any exceptional gift for fiscal administration.
The audacious and effusive former governor of one of the oil-rich states in the Niger Delta, and a member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who once described the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as a “cancer”, gets to work under same party and takes control of the country’s federal capital territory. He is the first from Nigeria’s deep south to hold that portfolio in the country’s history.
It is unusual that the president would assign control of the ministry managing the country’s seat of power to a candidate from an opposition party, especially as ministerial portfolios come with the added responsibilities of coordinating party affairs in the state the minister hails from. However, this likely comes as compensation for the former governor’s open support for Tinubu, at the cost of his own party’s chances at the polls. In Nigeria, party allegiances are drawn along very thin lines and adherence to a particular political doctrine is fleeting.
Another former governor, and a close confidant of the president, who lost his race for a second term in office, has been appointed as the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy. The newly established ministry has a prominence that implies that the president has high expectations of the new minister.
The man who heads the country’s finance ministry was predicted by pundits to hold that portfolio before he was even appointed. He has strong academic and public service credentials and had been Tinubu’s finance commissioner when the president was the governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007.
The minister will be dealing with an economy a lot more diverse than what he managed in Lagos, but his rich background in economics and finance at the national and international levels would prove useful, economists predict.
Nigeria’s solid minerals ministry gets a seasoned journalist as its head. The new man at the top was predicted to take charge of the ministry of information, especially as he had just stepped down as the president’s official spokesman barely a week before his new appointment.
Part of the minister’s responsibility would be to halt the illegal mining and smuggling of Nigeria’s huge gold deposits, a trade estimated by the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparent Initiatives (NEITI) to be worth $9 billion annually.
It is not clear what qualifications he possesses to manage such a task. What is known about him is that he is held in high regards in media circles as a seasoned reporter and editor. He, however, briefed the press that “…that position was one that I specifically asked Mr President to give me, and he obliged. The ministry is key to the administration, and the president wanted someone that he trusted and believed would deliver effectively.”
In the ministry of “steel development”, one Ministry on which a lot of expectation is placed, the ministerial appointment appears to be a homage to an old political alliance.
The new minister is the son of an old political ally of the president who died a day after winning elections for a second term as governor of his state. The minister, however, flaunts strong banking credentials that includes years of experience as an investment analyst.
All eyes will be on the new minister as he tries to navigate the complexities of a Steel industry that has struggled under the weight of serious corruption allegations, crippling the sector almost completely, despite billions of dollars invested by the government since the 1970s.
The country’s ministry of communication, innovation and digital economy is in the hands of a political greenhorn. He is a young and fast rising star in the Information Technology sector who, until his appointment, had been critical of the ruling party and Nigeria’s political elite in general. He comes with a vast knowledge of the sector, tech experts say.
Far below expectations on Gender equality.
Gender equality does not seem to have been a major consideration in the appointments. There are a total of nine women in Tinubu’s 45 member cabinet, which makes women’s ministerial representation about 19% of the entire cabinet, far less than the 35% allocation to women in public offices promised in his manifesto and the 2006 National Gender Policy, female activists say.
The cabinet features some of the staunchest female supporters of Tinubu’s political creed. The new minister for “arts, culture and the creative economy” is a lawyer, politician and author who has been an active and recognised party member with important responsibilities within the party previously.
The minister for “humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation” is the youngest of the ministerial nominees with a reputation as a vivacious politician. Her role in managing her state government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic means she may be fairly accustomed to the requirements of her new office.
Nigeria’s tourism ministry would be run by a former banker and systems Analyst with Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, a subsidiary of the Dutch firm, who has no background in tourism but is expected to employ her almost 30 years of managerial experience in awakening an industry whose potentials have been largely untapped.
If Tinubu’s reputation still holds true, observers say the ministers would be working under very tight schedule and strict guidelines. As the cabinet navigates the rough tides of a struggling economy and serious security challenges, it would have to prove beyond any doubt that its functionality has not been compromised by the obvious political concessions.
