Nigeria set to finally get government ministers

Lagos - It's taken nearly five months but
Nigeria may get a government this week.
Final screening of 36 ministerial nominees is
due to take place from Tuesday, ending a
lengthy process that has earned President
Muhammadu Buhari a less than flattering
nickname.
Buhari, dubbed "Baba Go Slow" for the time it
has taken him to appoint ministers since he
took office in May, will then assign the
candidates portfolios once they are
approved.
Since the first names were submitted to
parliament on September 30, speculation
has been rife about which post goes where.
But some appointments look clearer than
others.
Ibe Kachikwu, the new head of the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), is a
virtual certainty to serve as junior oil
minister, after Buhari said he will personally
oversee the ministry himself.
Former army chief Abdulrahman Dambazau
is in line for the defence portfolio, which has
been dominated for the last six years by the
Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast.
Former Ekiti state governor Kayode Fayemi
has been tipped for foreign affairs.
- Pragmatic, balanced -
Since he was sworn in on May 29, Buhari
has been running Nigeria with permanent
secretaries (senior civil servants), laying
himself open to charges of autocracy.
But the 72-year-old, who headed a military
government in the 1980s, has blamed the
late reception of handover notes from the
previous administration for the time taken to
make his nominations.
Political commentator Chris Ngwodo
suggested that as well as the "political back-
and-forth" about potential nominees, he has
also been looking at revamping failing
government structures.
"He wanted to finish all that. He wanted to
be able to conduct a proper audit of the
federal bureaucracy before getting ministers,"
he told AFP.
As for the candidates, Buhari -- elected on a
promise of "change" -- is constitutionally
bound to nominate candidates from each of
Nigeria's 36 states.
"'The List' has much to commend and cause
for thought too," said Max Siollun, a
historian and author of "Oil, politics and
violence: Nigeria's military coup culture
(1966-1976)".
"It is a pragmatic list that combines
technocratic talent with the need for careful
ethno-regional balancing.
"Buhari could not appoint an entire cabinet
100 percent composed of trailblazing
reformers.
"He had to take vested interests into account
and include ministers who may not be his
personal first choices but who are allied to
the politicians that helped him to get
elected."
The technocrats include Kachikwu, a former
ExxonMobil executive, and Ogun state
finance commissioner Kemi Adeosun, a
former investment banker and accountant,
who has been tipped for finance minister.
Both reflect Buhari's priorities to overhaul the
notoriously-corrupt oil sector and boost the
economy, which has been battered by the fall
in global oil prices since last year.
Figures such as the former Lagos State
governor Babatunde Fashola and Rotimi
Amaechi, his counterpart in oil-rich Rivers
State, were his "political IOU", said Ngwodo.
"It's generally a good balance... personally I
think it's a decent list for both
considerations," he added.
"He's covered the right bases. A lot of it has
shown his own individual mindedness. He's
been able to assert himself against the
interests of the party."
- Corruption cloud? -
Buhari declared before his election:
"Corruption will have no place and the
corrupt will not be appointed to my
administration."
He has already begun a purge of the NNPC,
appointing Kachikwu and ordering an audit
of the group's opaque accounting practices
to identify and recover stolen funds.
At the same time, former oil minister Diezani
Alison-Madueke was arrested in London as
part of a British investigation into
international corruption.
Her arrest -- and the sealing of her house in
Abuja by Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission agents -- has left few in doubt
at Buhari's seriousness in tackling graft.
But his nomination of Amaechi, his
presidential campaign manager, could
muddy the waters as he is subject to a probe
ordered by the Peoples Democratic Party in
Rivers.
Amaechi switched sides from the PDP to the
APC in 2013 and the elections in March,
which the APC lost in Rivers, were marred by
violence, bad blood and claims of electoral
fraud.
Malte Liewerscheidt, senior Africa analyst at
political consultants Verisk Maplecroft, said
the claims against Amaechi could dent
Buhari's image as a "Mr Clean".
"Buhari's open support of Amaechi, who is
enveloped in corruption allegations, will
furnish the opposition with opportunities to
undermine Buhari's trademark anti-graft
image," he said.
- AFP