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Appointment of ministers is a constitutional requirement and should be seen as such; it is not an avenue to reward party faithful, appointing friends or incompetent persons into such very demanding offices.
Section 147(1) of the Construction 1999 (as amended) provides that there shall be such offices of ministers as may be established by the president. Consequently, Section 147(3) in its provision states that in appointing ministers, the president shall appoint at least one minister from each state, who shall be an indigene of such a state.
The responsibilities of ministers are onerous, demanding, and should not be left in the hands of mediocre or economic misfit. Ministers are very important in driving the wheel of progress of any government and they are very instrumental to the successes, or failure as the case may be, of any government.
The successes or otherwise of the various ministers under the Buhari administration in his first tenure speaks volume of the negative effect of putting square pegs in round holes, or how else would one explain a situation where a lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria would be appointed as a Minister of Works, Housing and Power; a medical doctor as minister of Labour and Employment, the list is endless? Even the all-important Ministry of Petroleum Resources had the president as substantive minister with a lawyer as Minister of States for Petroleum Resources. It is a misnomer and under-utilisation of human resources.
The effect of this under-employment and under-utilisation of human resources has a negative effect on the Nigerian economy and the populace. Nigerians are still recovering from the relics of the effect of the economic recession that hit us hard in 2016.
And whereas technical ministries such as ministries of Transportation, Works, Power, Water Resources, Science and Technology, Solid Minerals, just to mention a few, ordinarily should be overseen by engineers and technocrats, but the reverse is the case, and the under-performance of such ministries, as well as the negative effect on Nigerians, is better imagined than said.
To this end, appointing qualified and competent persons as ministers into the various ministries, thereby putting round pegs in round holes is a sine qua non and compulsory step that cannot be ignored. The qualifications scandal that hit the first tenure of President Buhari where some ministers did not even do their compulsory National Youth Service as required by Law, or situations of certificate forgery should be avoided. Declaration of assets is a Constitutional compulsion which must be obeyed before a minister of the government of the federation should enter upon the duties of his office, as provided by Section 149 of the Constitution.
Finally, President Buhari should hit the ground running and constitute his cabinet without much ado. Nigerians cannot afford to wait for another six months to have ministers, and spend the remaining years of the administration with ministers who are mere political beneficiaries.
By Peter Erekose.
University of Benin,
Edo State.
