Buhari’s ministerial nominees must be prepared to embark on mission impossibles

By Ayo Akinfe

(1) So President Buhari finally submits his list of ministerial nominees to the senate some two months after being sworn-in. If you ask me, all the enthusiasm, energy and excitement of a new administration has evaporated over this period. Can you just imagine the buzz we would have got if the ministers were named on May 30, a day after the swearing-in. However, better late than never

(2) I agree with Napoleon Bonaparte when he said: “A new government must dazzle and astonish.” If President Buhari’s government was really serious about taking Nigeria to “the next level” this new cabinet would be given set deadlines to meet. Ministers would be given unprecedented targets to hit during their tenure in office

(3) I see nothing to suggest that this is a cabinet brimming with energy and enthusiasm or one that is raring to go. For starters, when you look at the number of nominees with EFCC cases to answer, you have to ask yourself if the list is inspiring. Someone like Godswill Akpabio has a $300m case pending with the anti-graft agencies, yet he is expected to be approved by the senate? How does his nomination inspire anyone?

(4) When you also look at the way some of the old ministers were dropped, you have to ask yourself if there is any coherent strategy here. This ill-thought out cattle colony plan called Ruga was one President Buhari’s pet projects yet he dropped its architect Audu Ogbeh. It was Mr Ogbeh, who erected that funny fence in Benue State proclaiming Ruga, forgetting that there is a thing called the Land Use Act

(5) It maybe that Mr Ogbeh was dropped for not pursuing Ruga aggressively enough. Let us see if President Buhari appoints a more Macban-friendly agriculture minister who can ram the Ruga policy home more forcefully

(6) On to more serious issues, between 2019 and 2023, we need an agriculture minister who can dramatically boost farm output. He needs about four under-secretaries of state to work with him. I would have one each for livestock & animal husbandry, aquaculture & fisheries, cash crops and food crops

(7) Each of these ministers of state would be given unrealistic targets that must be met come what may. No excuses, when you are sent on a mission impossible you must deliver, whatever it takes. If it means you coming back to Abuja in a bodybag, so be it but failure should not be tolerated in any way, shape or form. If anyone dies during delivery, we will give that person a national heroes funeral but failure to meet delivery targets over two successive quarters must lead to automatic dismissal

(8) Targets I would set these ministers include say fish - 5m tonnes, cocoa - 1.5m tonnes, livestock - 100m head of cattle, sugar - 20m tonnes, palm oil - 20m tonnes, coconuts - 100m tonnes, groundnuts - 10m tonnes, etc. There is nothing in all this that is not achievable. Any determined minister will achieve these targets within four years

(9) These targets I have laid out for agriculture ministers will also apply to education ministers when it comes to number of schools an class sizes, trade and industry ministers when it comes to steel production, transport ministers when it comes to kilometres of railway tracks laid, health ministers when it comes to the number of hospital beds provided and housing ministers when it comes to the number of units constructed

(10) What propels humanity forward is that “can do” spirit which makes us defy all odds and grow food in the desert, build railways up the side of mountains, navigate impossible oceans, etc. At this stage of her socio-economic development, every single one of Nigeria’s ministers needs to be one of these “can do” individuals