By Adnan Mukhtar Adam TudunWada
It takes President Muhammadu Buhari five months to nominate members of his cabinet, I mean his minister’s that will make up the federal executive council. Mainly, such ministers will assist the president in implementing the policies of his government and a times come up with a developmental policy initiative for the people, it depends on the ministry a minister is heading.
Most of PMB ministers and some members of his executive council like the chief of staff lack good policy initiative, they are just people with integrity but lack enigma and exposure of discharging their duties right.
The minister of youth and sports since his assumption into office, I can challenge him of not coming up with a good policy initiative for the youth, in his seven months in office I challenge him to come out with the tangible achievements of his office so far, what effort is he making in sanitizing students union, youth organisations and the sporting sector like NANS, NYCN and NFF? These are areas that if something is done, we can shout and say: this is the change we want.The crises rocking the Nigeria football federation seems to be going out of control, it is as if they are not under the government.
No one will ever doubt Dalung competency of being a minister, he is vibrant and a former chairman and at many times gubernatorial aspirant in plateau state, he is a man of integrity who is known as a patriot and nationalist but his being as a minister is still not yielding to expectations, we don’t want to be hearing you talking about Buhari or the anti corruption war, we want to see you focusing on the activities of your ministry, what your ministry have and is preparing for Nigerians, leave the issue of security and anti corruption war to those that are in the position to talk about it, tell us what you are doing under your ministry that will make the lives of Nigerians better.
Another minister is that of the FCT, Malam Musa Muhammad Bello. FCT minister is like a governor of Abuja, he is to oversee the federal capital, initiate projects, work for the state capital like how other governors are working, make the lives of its citizens better.
During the administration of Kauran Bauchi Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, Nasir Elrufai and Aliyu Modibbo Umar, we use to hear about them and the kind of projects they are executing, we use to see them supervising different projects, we use to hear about their policy initiatives but this time around nothing much, when you keep asking they will tell you that the budget was recently signed but yet not implemented or the economy is crumbling and so on. Ok, what effort are you making in reviving the economy?
The minister I learnt is always in office, you hardly see him going round the state capital to see for himself where and where is in need of attention unlike other previous ministers, one thing that will not be left out of the minister is his integrity, it is the same reason why he was nominated as a minister.
Another minister is that of education, an accountant by profession and a former friday columnist of my most favorite paper daily trust Malam Adamu Adamu, he was a fine writer and one of Buhari’s confidants, before his nomination he writes and propose solutions do many Nigeria’s problems including education, he usually touched the educational sector, he is a man of integrity but since his assumption into office he is not able to come up with educational policy initiative, he was given a professor of curriculum studies Anthony Anwuka as his junior, someone who has good knowledge on the problems facing the educational sector, this is where PMB make fault.
Why will you make someone who specializes in a field and make someone who has not his senior in the same field? How can he come up with what we are expecting, when Rukayya was making we were not suprise because that was her field.
It was week the minister announced the scrapping of post utme, this was a wrong decision as it will pave way for the children of the rich to get admitted while those of the poor will not, it is the post utme that determines of whether a student really worked and passed his utme score, it disqualifies those that are not qualified, it generate income for the universities at this era of treasury single account.
Universities will become congested, if you want to scrap the post utme then what provisions do you have in wiping away the miracle centers? you will realise Adamu Adamu’s incompetence to this position only when you recall his action of sacking vice chancellors of some new federal universities without following due process which he at last apologised.
The chief of staff to the president is too old to guide the president well, he need someone very young that he trust there, Abba Kyari is silent, he is not known by many Nigerians as Mr President Chief of staff, a chief of staff is expected to be active and vibrant, he is supposed to be a planner.
Buhari should know that we don’t need people with integrity alone but people with integrity, exposure and enigma to discharge their duties effectively, integrity alone cannot work when you cannot act well. Is it integrity that we will chop? We need integrity, action, planning and creativity by Buhari’s Ministers, they should not hide under PMB to cover for their obvious weaknesses.