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President Jonathan and the Many CVs on His Table
By Tommy Odemwingie
Newsdiaryonline Fri June 3,2011
Subject
to the discretion of the editor, an alternative title of this
piece, except that it would sound too melodramatic, would be “I
Beg to Apply.” That’s quite unlike me.But the indications from
the corridors of Aso Villa are that President Jonathan is having
sleepless nights wading through a galaxy of applications for
ministerial positions. It’s normal for such deluge of interests,
given the overwhelming support that Nigerians provided to secure
his revalidation for his own position.
It doesn’t also matter that the vast majority of applications
are from those who are not qualified for the kinds of
appointments they are craving. The only problem is that some of
the least qualified would have to be favourably considered.
These would include Governors who have either failed to get
reelected or served out their terms, but who have the clout,
backed by a seamless war chest of resources, to acquire the
positions they want. Remember Sam Egwu, Rabi Kwankwanso, etc?
Moralists, brilliant bureaucrats and high-flying academics will
gnash their teeth in contemplating this absurdity. But that’s
politics. The “elders of the party” – who may not be the most
literate; who may not be the most articulate in espousing the
ideals that the party stands for; who may not be the most
popular; or the most “acceptable” to the public – must have not
just their say, but also their way in these matters. Come to
think of it, they are the ones “on ground”, either as
godfathers, foot soldiers of political office seekers or
community leaders. With all the pecks associated
with a ministerial position, who else but the goose that laid
the golden egg should take precedence is savouring its omelet?
That’s why some of the names that show up on ministerial lists
defy sane imagination. And where the godfather is charitable
enough to excuse himself from being directly appointed, he
settles for a stooge who must, at every
step, be able to read
his lips and be able to provide resources to oil the political
machine that constitutes the platform for his position.
That is why bureaucrats, moralists and academics are encouraged
to take risk and join in the political fray during
electioneering, rather than wait for the moment of booty sharing
– as we are now – and expect to be called upon to “come and
chop.” They can’t always be lucky!
The bureaucrats, the moralists and academics have a place in the
great Nigeria reconstruction project. Whatever you feel
about them, the Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealas, the el Rufais, the Oby
Ezekwesilis and the Nuhu Ribadus were some of the redeeming
faces of the Obasanjo era. But the fact that none of them is any
serous position today to significantly influence political
developments is down to their lack of political clout. They were
never on ground, as the pitiable cases of Dora Akunyili and
Ribadu would buttress.
And, even then, for all their brilliance, there was always the
stark reality that whatever attributes they had were limited to
the space that Baba allowed, as the redeployment of Ngozi from
Finance to the Foreign Affairs Ministry would suggest.
Where do we go from here? What options are available to Jonathan
in terms of the fresh blood available to him to work with? The
outlook can’t remain permanently bleak.
He needs to sit down with the godfathers and tell them: “Yes,
we’ll take your interest into consideration. But there are
minimum standards we must agree to. It just won’t do for you to
nominate someone who doesn’t fit the bill.” Some of the criteria
he should insist on are:
* Transparent patriotism in deeds and utterances
* Good education, which enables the candidate to draw
links between developmental challenges and champion innovative
ideas
* Clean personal and professional records
* Hands-on skills at presentation of facts
Then there is also the matter of Nigeria’s obligation to ensure
gender balance. Nigerian women are not going to accept the
argument that the President alone cannot determine how many
women are in his cabinet. Let this become one of the criteria
and a basis for negotiating with the godfathers.
Every state has a surfeit of persons that meet these criteria,
and there is no room for marginalization. So let the godfathers
collate better CVs the ones that they already have to present to
the President.
However, in all this, the position that I would continue to
question is the one by doctors that nobody other than a medical
doctor should be the Minister of Health. Unfortunately, we seem
to have been intimated to form the habit of “complying” with
this “directive”. While the issue of a lawyer being Minister of
Justice makes sense, what doctors must realize is that health is
not only about medicine.
Odemwingie, a former features editor of The Guardian,
is a sustainable development advocate based in Abuja.
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