Writings in Naij.com, correspondent Clement Ejiofor reported that five ministers in President Buhari's cabinet may have been pencilled down for sacking. He elaborated. I have wondered if this is news or a figment of the imagination of the writer as in wishful thinking. Are we happy with their performance to date? Definitely not. However floating the kite of a cabinet reshuffle now is definitely unhelpful. Let those who got the jobs settle down and do it.
Dr Kayode Fayemi "was reported to have said that he would need time to learn in his ministry."
This is correct. It applies to almost everyone of the ministers even potential high fliers like Babatunde Raji Fashola. The size, scope and the entrenched interests in just one of the ministries under Fashola, say Power or Works, is capable of styming the most brilliant of us all. When a president or minister says that he/she will hit the ground running, nobody seems to factor in the fact that he/she will have to run the gauntlet set up by the necessary evil called the Civil Service. The 2016 Budget fiasco is a case in point.
Dr Ibe Emmanuel Kachikwu of Petroleum and NNPC was not mentioned in this regard. However I am dragging his name and position into this discussion because in the coming year or so we shall definitely encounter several developments that we, the masses, will be extremely unhappy about. Take the current fuel and electricity scarcity for example. We had it coming due to years of timidity, spineless administration and non-regulation. The government seems incapable (or is it unwilling?) to explain, sell or push through with the new electricity tariff. Everybody prefers to discuss metres. I do not envy Kachikwu. Yes, he sells gas to the power companies, and has no fuel for the masses.
As regards the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, when is he ever going to (be allowed to) put his own personal stamp on foreign policy issues when the president himself has led every single delegation for the past nine months ie before and since the appointment of ministers. On the other hand, will a President Buhari allow his handlers to teach him the fine points of diplomacy, gravitas, no go areas, etc?
Could Minister Onyeama have succeeded in preventing Buhari from calling all Nigerians criminals in front of the world press? I doubt it. We are stuck with the president we all voted for. That includes me. I just wonder if even a Dr Bolaji Akinyemi would succeed in this environment.
Let us return to Dr Kayode Fayemi. I doubt if after two years at the Ministry of Solid Minerals, this gentleman will be able to sustain a 30 minute enlightened discussion with me on the matter at hand. Mineral economics is such a vast multidisciplinary field. Granted that I have tried to intervene in this sector by means of several technical writeups in the press, I cannot even claim to be an expert. My activities in the last 35 years have just kept me relatively better informed that most people. That's all. The kind of information that Dr Fayemi, or any other minister for that matter in this portfolio, routinely throws at potential foreign investors, is akin to the rote learning in a Primary 4 class in Geography. I cringe when I read it the newspapers and watch it on television regularly. There is Kaolin in Jos. Gypsum in Sokoto. And the class claps! We need to elevate the discussion. The fact that I have never heard of a visit to Nigeria by a team from say BILLITON or RIO TINTO says it all. Does anyone out there ever watch MSMBC or BloombergTv? Perhaps it is African Nagic all the way. Very sad.
Note that Dr Fayemi, smart or not, inherited this ministerial environment of low expectation and low achievement. Perhaps after four years we may see light at the end of the Solid Mineral tunnel. It can hardly be sooner.
Meanwhile I have decided not to offer any opinion on the other three ministers mentioned by Ejiofor.
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