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Waiting for Tinubu’s Ministerial List
Postscript by Waziri Adio
For some reasons, President Bola Tinubu was widely expected to submit his list of ministerial nominees last week. The political and the press circuits had been agog with speculations and thick with expectations. But the Senate resumed from almost three weeks of recess on July 4th, and there was no such list from the president. There was still no list by July 6th when the Senate ended the legislative week. There are indications the wait may stretch for longer. This is neither necessary nor desirable. The president needs to constitute his cabinet post-haste.
A recent constitutional amendment mandates the president to submit the names of his ministerial nominees for Senate confirmation within 60 days of his assumption of office. Similarly, the constitutional amendment bill signed on 18th March this year by former President Muhammadu Buhari binds the state governors to the same timeframe for presenting their nominees for commissioners to their Houses of Assembly. This important law forecloses the befuddling and counterproductive situation where a president would operate without a cabinet for six months, as we saw in 2015, or where some state governors would govern without commissioners for even much longer, as it unfortunately became the fad in most of the states.
To be sure, the executive system locates all executive powers in the political chief executives, in this case the president and the governors. But it is neither envisaged nor practical nor efficient for the president and the governors to exercise executive powers all by themselves. This is why the executive powers are delegated to political appointees at the cabinet level and in the departments and agencies.
While the ministers and commissioners hold their positions at the pleasure of their principals, the cabinet is a constitutional creation and is designed to assist the president and the governors with advice, coordination and policy direction. The role of ministers and commissioners and the conditions they must fulfil are specified in sections 144 to 150 and sections 189 to 195 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Though still within the limit prescribed by the constitution, Tinubu has now been in office for 42 days. He can choose to exhaust the 60-day deadline. But he scores no extra points for doing so. Rather, if he chooses to run down the clock, he chips away from the remarkable sense of urgency that he has demonstrated on other fronts since his inauguration. Such early dissonance doesn’t serve him well.
Of Tinubu’s four predecessors, President Olusegun Obasanjo holds the best record, according to an infographic by The Cable, an online newspaper. It took Obasanjo just six days to submit the names of his ministerial nominees in his first term and 25 days during his second term. Talk of a man who meant business. President Buhari took the rear as he did not send his list of nominees until Day124 of his first term. In the middle of the pack are: President Goodluck Jonathan, 30 days; Buhari during his second term, 54 days; President Umaru Yar’Adua, 59 days. It is important to bear in mind that Tinubu’s predecessors didn’t have a constitutional deadline to contend with.
In fairness, presidents will need some time in assembling their ministerial nominees. They need time for consultations with critical stakeholders across the states (as the ministers actually represent the states); time for some of the nominees to duly notify their employers, tender their resignations and tidy their affairs; time for the parliament to be inaugurated and be ready for the confirmation hearings; and time for security screening to be concluded. But all of these can be fast-tracked. Besides, Tinubu had three full months between being declared president and being sworn-in. That’s enough time to touch all the bases and to put a solid list together.
Quickly constituting the cabinet actually aligns with the president’s promise to hit the ground running. It also enhances his emerging and cultivated image of Baba Go Fast, in contrast to two of his predecessors. But it is not just about his image. It is about the practicality of getting things done quickly and properly too. The intention of the constitution and the amendment is not for the president to be sole driver of the executive branch of government or for him to run the government with some shadowy policy advisory committee.
It is good to have a president that is open and eager to set the tone. But much more concretely gets done with having ministers and heads of key agencies in place on time. The president needs to fully form his government. He needs this to get his administration firmly on track, to spread the debilitating weight of governance more evenly, to get the full complement of the help he needs to function effectively, and to signal to the country and the rest of the world that his administration is ready for the drudgery of heavy lifting and the long haul. He also needs space to focus on the big picture.
Most of the president’s decisions and appointments so far have been well received. But man Nigerians and critical non-Nigerians such as diplomats, development partners and investors are still in the wait-and-see territory. They are eager to see the kind of people that will make it to his cabinet. The calibre, antecedents and character of the people the president appoints will help this set of Nigerians and other critical stakeholders to decide whether to take the Tinubu administration seriously or not on its reform agenda and the kind of support they should consider offering. Some of these people have a big say in decisions around investments and other strategic supports, and they have little attention span. Nigeria is not the only country on their radar.
More importantly, Nigeria is at a critical pass. There is a lot to be done in many areas beyond just announcements and symbolic actions. There is no time to waste. The earlier those who will do the heavy lifting of policy formulation, coordination and implementation are in place, the better for the administration and for the country. This is why it wasn’t an extravagant hope or meddling to expect that the president would have used the opportunity offered by the recess of the Senate and the Eid holidays to finalise his list of ministerial nominees. He, unfortunately, missed that window, prolonging the suspense and leaving the room open for endless lobbying and jostling. This is a needless distraction, given the enormity of the work at hand. Tinubu should save himself and the country some time.
In finalising his ministerial list, the president should consider the following recommendations. One, it would be helpful and novel if he can attach portfolios to the names of the ministerial nominees. This will send the message about the desire to do things differently, cut out the unhelpful jostling for juicy positions post-confirmation, and better prepare the nominees and the senators for the Senate confirmation hearings. Since questions will be more targeted, this approach will help the legislators and the country at large to assess the fit of the nominees for the positions.
Two, the president will need to maintain a healthy balance in many areas. To start with, balance will be needed between the politicians who helped the president to office, his long-term associates and the technocrats who will help him to deliver on his vision. There are instances where the politician or the loyalist is also a technocrat but not in all cases. A cabinet full of recycled politicians or their nominees or those merely rewarded for staying faithful and loyal will not inspire needed confidence.
There is also the need for balance along gender and generational lines. The women and the youths have lower than 5% each of elected positions from the 2023 elections, despite that women and youths constitute about 50% and more than 70% of the electorate respectively. There are highly capable and competent women and youths that should be appointed to the cabinet not just for the sake of inclusion but also because they have much to offer.
It is also important to pay attention to regional balance. This should not be just in terms of meeting the barest minimum of one minister from each of the 36 states but about the quality of ministries allocated to the different geo-political zones. Nigerians know how to count, in both quantitative and qualitative manners. Appointments, including to the cabinet, should be used to bridge (not expand) the divides. The president thus needs to be intentional and mindful, especially in reining in the triumphalist desire of his zone to corner all the juicy positions.
Three, there are certain clusters of sectors that the president needs to give special consideration to and should strive to appoint only accomplished, competent and credible individuals to lead. The first is the economy sector: finance, budget and national planning, industry, trade and investment, petroleum, digital economy and communications, and agriculture and rural development.
Given where we are now, we need a rockstar, not a rookie, as Minister of Finance. We need an experienced and towering economist, preferably one with specialisation in macro-economics and public finance, and armed with an impressive Rolodex. The economy is not a space for appointees to build their resumes. The other clusters are security sector (defence, police, internal affairs), social sector (education, health, environment), physical infrastructure (works and housing, power, transport and aviation, water resources, FCT) and outreach (foreign affairs and information and culture).
Based on the various factors to be balanced, all the 36 ministers don’t have to be superstars or established high-achievers. But having at least a third of his cabinet as stellar and credible performers and assigning them to key portfolios will serve the president and the country well. Let’s hope that Tinubu will meet or even surpass this expectation. And that the eventual list will not be underwhelming, unlike a certain long-awaited list of a few years ago.
