•Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo
THE regime of this President, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, may have been programmed to fail from the onset. Or even before its beginning. Like the affliction, former President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, Tinubu took forever, as a manner of speaking, to send the list of his nominees to the Senate for ‘screening’ and confirmation as ministers. Even then Tinubu was unable to forward a full complement of nominees. He did so in batches, triggering concerns about the legality of his action.
In the wake of the disaster that was experienced under Buhari, Tinubu’s immediate predecessor who ruled as a sole administrator for about six months, the National Assembly [NASS] was compelled to amend the Constitution to insert a timeframe for the council of ministers to be in place. Tinubu would have also moved at his own pace but for the new law.
In spite of taking his time, the choice and composition of the Cabinet was considered underwhelming by a significant section of the Nigerian society. The screening of the nominees, which may not entirely be blamed on the President, was a circus highlighted with ‘take a bow and go’. There was virtually no grilling of the nominees. There was no evidence that a thorough background check had been conducted on the nominees including those who had served in previous administrations.
•Sadiya Umar-Farouq, for minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management
In addition to lack of rigour, there was also drama. Some ‘ministers’ were dropped even before they became ministers. A Cabinet reshuffle was effected and portfolios swapped before oaths of office were administered. A lady ministerial nominee was in the hollowed, sorry hallowed chambers of the Senate for screening when news got to her that she had been dropped. The Senate door was slammed on her face and she was spirited away. The lechers, hangers-on and praise-singers who had accompanied the minister that didn’t become a minister melted away.
Nigerians were later to learn that she couldn’t have been allowed into the banqueath hall ‘to come and chop’ because she did not work for the victory of the victors. The immediate past governor of Kano State from where the nominee hailed, Alhaji Abdullah Ganduje who later was installed as the chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress [APC], said that Kano APC didn’t know the woman.
It was obvious from the beginning that this government for a considerable length of time will be a riotous party for revellers who grabbed, snatched and ran’ away with an electoral victory. So the silly and seemingly intractable distractions the regime is grappling with should not be a surprise.
•Betta Edu, suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation
But first, let’s deal with the bright spot. There’s a man in this Cabinet who is neither notorious nor scandal-prone, at least for now. He is Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo. In a sense he reminds me of Olubunmi Cardinal Okojie, that gadfly of a priest. But he is unlike the fiery Cardinal in public speech. The younger Olubunmi appears more restrained even while ruffling feathers. This man who is the minister of interior strikes me, and certainly some other Nigerians, as an oasis in a desert. He appears quiet and obtrusive but when he speaks, he makes the right noises. He does not look confused and overwhelmed. It would seem that he has refused to be captured by Nigeria’s notorious bureaucracy and the web spurn by its self-serving civil servants.
Dr. Tunji-Ojo does admirable and measurable things in the agencies in his ministry without being in our faces. The passport section of the Immigration department of the Interior Ministry compares favourably with the Nigerian Customs, Nigerian Police Force and the NNPCL in terms of perception and real corruption. That perception of the Passport Office has not changed but it will take an irredeemable and uncharitable critic not to concede that something good is happening there, courtesy of this minister. He started with a commitment to clear the backlog of passports trapped by the corruption of unscrupulous officers. Tunji-Ojo may yet not have delivered 100 percent on that assignment but he has done a yeoman’s job. And there are testimonies from relieved and grateful citizens.
If media reports are anything to go by, application and processing for passports were scheduled to be fully moved online from yesterday [January 8]. The elimination of human contacts except for applicant’s image capture will deal a mortal blow to the corrupt honchos who are embedded in passport offices nationwide.
Recently this same minister said that he was scandalised by the Immigration’s stringent and strange and discriminatory requirement that married women who desire to change the names in their passports to reflect their marital status must physically present themselves to the Abuja headquarters of the Passport Office to effect the change. He wandered what law prescribed that and why only women?
This space is miserly with praises and especially for the Tinubu regime. It is for reasons that are in the public domain and are irrefutable. The regime lacks vigour and rigour. It has not displayed capacity for anything good that will improve the lot of majority of Nigerians. It has no focus. It is clearly weighed down by the crippling baggage right from the top. In politics, they say, perception is everything. And the perception of President Tinubu in the eyes of a critical section of our society is unflattering. He has his rabid supporters who see nothing wrong in his regime. However, the deliveries of Minister Tunji-Ojo cannot be denied. But we will be making a grave mistake by thinking that he alone can drain the swamp in his ministry. The best way we can show gratitude for the work he is doing for us is to buy into his vision and his project in spite of any misgivings about the top dog. The entrenched evil doers in the Immigration department and especially the Passport Office will not easily let go of their cash cow. They will come for him. They will throw mud at him. They will orchestrate campaigns of calumny against him and attempt to tar him with the brush of corruption. I do not suggest that we should dismiss whatever might be thrown at him while he battles the evil confederates, but we should be circumspect in lapping up every and any accusations against him, going forward. We should help Tunji-Ojo to succeed so we can take ownership of that little but critical corner of our life.
Let’s bear in mind that the vultures will now gather around the image capture units for their pound of flesh. Compared with some other ministers, the man in the Interior is a lone ranger. Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management [that was the founding name] is one such ministry. It’s name should be changed to Ministry for Disaster, Inhumanity and Poverty Elevation. I believe this ministry was created by affliction Buhari. The ministry has sufficiently proved the opposite of its name. It deserved to be scrapped immediately unless it is a special purpose vehicle [SPV] for jobs for the girls. The immediate past minister of that ministry, a woman, is under threat of arrest by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC] for allegedly laundering public funds in excess of N30 billion. She said she was ill and so couldn’t honour an invitation by the anti-graft agency to answer questions on her stewardship. She probably wouldn’t be sick if the invitation had been for another appointment to ‘serve’ in the APC regime. APC administrations are made up of her type- incompetent, insensitive and mindless.
By an uncanny twist of fate, the current minister, Betta Chimaobim Edu, is enmeshed in financial scandals following allegations of authorising payment of public funds into a private bank account. She is also being tied an unsavoury story connected to N44 billion of the National Social Investment Programme Agency [NSIPA] whose coordinator, Halima Shehu, is already on suspension. I restrained myself from laughing when it was reported last weekend that the Presidency has launched an investigation into the alleged industrial scale looting of the public in such a short space of time. The minister did not deny that she authorised payment of N585 million into an individual’s private bank account contrary to financial regulations. The minimum expectation is that she will be made to step aside for an unfettered probe. But what do we expect of a President who has kept a serving national youth service corp member in office as a minister while she is still a corper. Thank goodness for the likes of Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo otherwise the gloom that this regime represents would have been totally depressing.
