Why new ministers are Nigeria’s third eleven – HURIWA

A prominent civil society platform – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has criticized the decision of president Muhammadu Buhari not to appoint real tested and trusted statesmen/women and hard core patriotic technocrats as members of his cabinet but chose to nominate party loyalists most of whom failed as either state’s governors or ministers in the last cabinet.

HURIWA said that with the possible exception but a few, the remaining bunch are politicians with irreparable brand damages and persons who lack the desired qualities to turn around the battered economy if Nigeria and put the nation on the oath of economic growth and technological advancements.

How can persons who were unable to consistently improve their people as Senators and governors be able to achieve the lofty ideals of actualizing sustainable economic development which is what the Next Level mantra of President Muhammadu Buhari claims to be about?”

The Rights group further carpeted president Muhammadu Buhari for padding up his list of cabinet level officials with an unwieldy and unusually expansive number even when public opinions over the years have been to the effect that the constitution be amended to trim down the mandatory number of 36 ministers from all the states of the federation to a manageable number with a view to cutting down the costs of governance.

“Some of these political liabilities will simply be sleeping on duty and gulping billions of national resources without adding any value to the body polity. Is this legacy of waste and redundancy what Mr President promised us?

“We wonder what the likes of erstwhile Osun and Bayelsa states governors would be doing in the soon to be inaugurated cabinet when in the case of the former Osun state governor he could not pay civil servants in Osun state for nearly two years and still could not discharge this obligation even after picking up generous paris club refund courtesy of the magnimity of his party leader and president of Nigeria. We will like also to know what has become of the encounter between the former Bayelsa state governor and the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission or has the president also glossed over these issues the same way he openly undermined the prosecution of senator Danjuma Goje the moment he (Goje) accepted to step down and not contest for senate presidency against the president’s boy senator Ahmed Lawan? What about the extremely large number of allegations of fraud running to nearly $100 billion made against Akpabio by EFCC as governor of Akwa Ibom state or has he been forgiven because he left the PDP to APC?”.

HURIWA has also faulted the retention of some never-do-well cabinet level members in the last cabinet such as Babatunde Fashola who as power minister brought the worst kinds of nation-wide darkness never seen before since the amalgamation of southern and northern Nigeria by the British in 1914. Also the former works minister failed spectacularly to deliver any good measure of road infrastructure across the country apart from those media creations called roads which Babatunde Fashola brandished as his achievements. Transportation sector is in comatose, what then is Chibuike Amaechi coming to do since he could not even deliver on his mandate as transportation minister?”

HURIWA has also warned against making a rabidly partisan lawyer such as Festus Keyamo as the Federal Attorney General and minister of justice nor is there merit in retaining Abubakar Malami under whose watch court orders were violated by president Buhari with reckless abandon just as the Rights group carpeted Buhari for nominating Chris Ngige who by all accounts lacks the composure to organize the Labour sector.

HURIWA RECALLED THAT THE Full list of Ministerial Nominees sent to the Senate by President Buhari With their states of origin ARE AS FOLLOWS:

Ikechukwu Ogar – Abia

Mohammed Musa Bello – Adamawa

Godswill Akpabio – Akwa Ibom

Dr Chris Ngige – Anambra

Sharon Ikeazor – Anambra.

Adamu Adamu – Bauchi

Maryam Katagum – Bauchi

Timipre Sylva – Bayelsa

George Akume – Benue

Mustapha Baba Shehuri – Borno

Godie Jerry Agba – Cross River

Festus Keyamo – Delta

Ogbonnaya Onu – Ebonyi

Osagie Ehinare – Edo

Clement Agba – Edo

Adeniyi Adebayo – Ekiti

Geoffrey Onyeama – Enugu

Ali Pantami – Gombe .

Emeka Nwajuba – IMO

Sulaiman Adamu – Jigawa

Zainab Ahmed – Kaduna

Hadi Sirika – Katsina

Abubakar Malami – Kebbi

Sabo Nanono – Kano

Maj Gen Bashir Saleh – Kano

Ramatu Tijani – Kogi

Lai Mohammed – Kwara

Gbemisola Saraki – Kwara

Olorunnibe Mamowora – Lagos

Babatunde Fashola – Lagos

Subairu Dada – Niger

Olamilekan Adegbite – Ogun

Tayo Alasoadura – Ondo

Rauf Aregbesola – Osun

Sunday Dare – Oyo

Paulen Tallen – Plateau

Rotimi Amaechi – Rivers

Mohammed Maigeri Dengaji – Sokoto

Saleh Momoh – Taraba

Abubakar D Aliyu – Yobe.