By Aniekan Udofia
A State House release signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale read; “The Ministers-Designate allocated to the Federal Ministries of Transportation, Interior, and Marine & Blue Economy have been reshuffled”. Bringing to the knowledge of the public, what could go down in the history of Nigeria as a first, for Nigerians to witness cabinet reshuffle when the Ministers are yet to be sworn into office. It leaves many with the question of if the current administration beyond seeking the office of the President had plans.
What is most shocking is that those who know president Bola Ahmed Tinubu know that he started preparing to the President the day he played a key role in the emergence of General Mohammadu Buhari as president-elect in 2015. Having defeated the People’s Democratic Party led government at the centre. So while others who played key roles in the victory of Buhari settled for ministerial positions in the government, Tinubu stayed in his reserve role as National Leader of the APC, a position alien to the structure of political parties in Nigeria.
From the famous chant of “Emilokan” interpreted to mean, it is my turn, to the masterclass execution of the primaries of the party to get the ticket, to fighting against the run of play with a president whose body language did not show that he was fully supporting the candidate of his party, to the introduction of technology in the 2023 election and to the eventual announcement of the winner by the Independent Electoral Commission, Tinubu was on top of his game as one who had in the last eight years perfected his plan to be president.
When asked on several occasions, what he would do should he be elected president; he summarized all his plans for the nation in the phrase; “I’ll hit the ground running.” Nigerians who had faith in his aspiration jubilated that freedom is coming tomorrow under the Renewed Hope mantra.
29 May 2023 came, and on the assumption of the office of the President, Tinubu went off the text of his written inaugural speech to proclaim; Subsidy is gone! throwing the nation instantly into confusion as the price of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS skyrocketed, and filling stations began to create artificial scarcity. Not that subsidy was not going to be removed as the budget of 2023 did not make provision for it beyond June 2023, but that the President whose words can make or break choose that day to hit the ground running. Before considering measures to cushion the effect of a pronouncement that was never prepared for.
Almost 3 months after the proclamation of subsidy is gone, the administration is yet to carry out a decisive action to ameliorate the hardship occasioned by a knee-jerk, hurriedly taken action. From the announcement of the proposed transfer of N8000 to over 12 million low-income earners in Nigeria to help cushion the effect of subsidy removal and the reversal of the plan, the Tinubu administration continues to make policy somersaults.
The ministerial appointment is yet another question and challenge to the readiness of this administration for governance. The 1999 Constitution has continued to be one of the most ambiguous documents in some of its provisions. Even attempts by the National Assembly to amend the constitution have seen the creation of more ambiguity. For instance in an attempt for the legislature to avoid the repeat of what happened with the embarrassing and debilitating wait for five-month for President Muhammadu Buhari to constitute his cabinet when he was first elected in 2015, Nigerian lawmakers altered the Nigerian Constitution to provide a two-month time limit for a President or State Governor to constitute their cabinet. The Constitution Fifth Alteration (N0. 45) Act assented to by President Buhari in March 2023 requires that the President or a State Governor shall forward to the Senate or State House of Assembly as the case may be, the names of their nominees for confirmation as Ministers or Commissioners within sixty days after the date the President or Governor has taken his or her oath of office.
What the drafters of this amendment, like it has been with several amendments did not realise was that the lacuna or ambiguity of; “shall forward to the Senate or State House of Assembly as the case may be, the names of their nominees for confirmation as Ministers or Commissioners within sixty days” may not have solved the problem they intended to tackle. So, Tinubu waited for 60 days to forward the first batch of ministerial nominees to the Senate and after 60 days to send the second batch. Of course, the vague section of the constitution could not be used as grounds to say that the president had violated it. Within the 60 days that the drafters thought cabinet would have been constituted, the presidency had taken its own interpretation.
The big question is, how a Tinubu who had desired so much to be president and who promised to hit the ground running would struggle with the task of constituting a cabinet within 60 days. The drama of sending two batches of ministerial lists to the Senate and the withdrawal of a nominee go to question if, beyond seeking the office of the President, Tinubu had plans to lead the nation.
In a continuous series of melodrama that this administration has come to be associated with, the President announced, the assignment of portfolios to the Ministers-Designate. And while Nigerians were waiting for the swearing-in of these Ministers, Tinubu again chose to reshuffle a cabinet that has not formerly assumed duty.
One is left to wonder whether there is a new interpretation for hitting the ground running. There are those who have argued that beyond seeking to take power at the centre from Goodluck Jonathan led administration in 2015, the APC had no clear plan of what it wanted to do with the power. Little wonder that the same things they accused Jonathan of , they did and are doing worse. The subsidy removal they villified Jonathan for, they are now championing. 8 years of Buhari became 8 years of wilderness experience, and Tinubu has come from the same APC yet again with another “Tumbo, Tombo, Bascala, Kiti Alaba, Boom” approach to government policies.
