Ministerial Reshuffle: Tinubu Needs to Compensate C/River 

When President Bola Tinubu inaugurated his first cabinet after winning the 2023 presidential polls, as constitutionally required, he made sure every state had representation in the cabinet. Thus, each state had either a substantive minister or, at the minimum, a minister of state.For Cross River State, it was a harvest of good fortune. The President allocated two slots to the state, appointing Dr. Betta Edu as Minister for Humanitarian Ministry, Senator John Owan Eno as minister of sports, and all substantive ministers.

It was gathered that the President appointed two persons from the state for two reasons: the first slot was for the state, while the second slot was for the South-south geopolitical zone.In the months following their resumption in their respective ministries, each minister went to work and did as the spirit gave utterance. At the same time, Edu swung to office promising hope and readiness to deliver on her mandate of providing the human face of the administration, her inability to grow up and come to terms with the fact that the demands of a federal minister far exceed those of a state commissioner.Not too long, her youthful exuberance and idiosyncracies started to manifest and stories of her inability to uphold basic requirements of corporate governance became her greatest albatross.

As a young woman unprepared for the discipline and rigorous scrutiny that the public subjects such officeholders to, she threw caution to the wind. Gradually stories backed by pictures started flying in the social media showing her dispensing dollar cash gifts to her close friends and acquaintances. Those close to her warned that she was heading for self destruct but she was blinded by the euphoria of new friends, parties, clothes, pieces of jewellery, money money and more money.Before long, the bubble burst, and a scandal unravelled that she had approved above her limit. If she was a humble and calm person, she would have acquainted herself with the accounting role of a chief executive of her standing. She needed to ask and be put through on what she could sign and what she could not sign. But if you’re greedy and power-hungry, you will pay the supreme price and she did.

The President suspended her including two others pending the conclusion of investigations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). When he announced a cabinet reshuffle, the thinking in some circles was that she had been cleared to return to her ministry. It was therefore a big surprise to notice that her name was conspicuously missing from the list. It was Presidential Aide, Bayo Onanuga who clarified that Edu had eventually been eased out of the cabinet and bringing to an abrupt end what would have been an illustrious career for the APC poster girl.

While Edu literally blew away Cross River chance out of youthful exuberance, immaturity, inexperience and indiscipline, the fate of Senator John Owan Eno is quite different and explainable. Eno came to office with bragging rights. He had under his belt several illustrious years as a lecturer. He graduated to a lawmaker serving at the highest echelon as Chairman House Committee, Appropriation for several terms before winning his senatorial seat to represent Central senatorial district in Cross River. So he already had the experience, maturity and world view of what ought to be done and could fit in as minister.

Regrettably, his plethora of failures that greeted his entire time he suprintended the ministry didn’t indicate he knew neither the problems nor the solutions. To be fair, majority of the factors that led to these harvests of failures at international outings were none of his faults. He was blameless because these things were there long before he came along. However, he can’t exonerate himself entirely because the buck on that ministry stops on his table. He failed because he did not know the problems of the ministry and he did not know because he also failed to undertake a forensic analysis of the ministry and why it keeps getting the same result year in year out. It simply meant that they were applying same solutions to same problems, same thing he was doing where as the president wanted a change.

Eno missed the opportunity to write his name in gold in the ministry. He ought to have carried out that forensic examination, and take radical decisions such as cancelling Nigeria’s participation in global competitions and utilized the money to start preparing athletes assiduously for future competitions.

This brings us to a very important aspect of this piece which is the place of the state in ministerial appointments. As it stands, going by the constitution, Cross River has no ministerial representative with Edu’s removal and replacement of a minister from another state. In the last appointment, the President picked two ministers from the same senatorial zone. Edu from Abi and Eno from Etung all from Cross River Central. Wise counsel now indicates that Cross River North should produce the next minister to replace Edu since Eno still represents the South South from Central too.

There are eminently qualified persons from the senatorial zone but the person that has served APC’s interest and will continue to serve its interest more is the immediate past governor, Prof. Ben Ayade. It is still a riddle as some people still find it hard to comprehend why Ayade lost out in the senate and ministerial tussles. For the recast of history, the entire South South was PDP controlled. But in the turn of 2015, Ayade and Minister of Works, Dave Umahi then Ebonyi governor, broke ranks and joined the APC. In Cross River, it was a sacrilege and many predicted it was his political suicide. Yet, Ayade, whose claim to political fame was just a first time senator, rose to the occasion, he won the state for APC including two senators and several House seats.

Unfortunately, the grand conspiracy and fear of who emerged senate president and forces from Rivers torpedoed his march to the senate. When he was again denied a ministerial seat, a position that was handed to his other colleagues, it was considered very unfair. Nonetheless, the opportunity has presented itself for the President to right the wrong, give Cross River its constructional right and give Ayade the honour he deserves to serve Nigeria.