By Omodele Adigun, Bimbola Oyesola, Uche Usim
and Adewale Sanyaolu
As Nigerians await President Muhammadu Buhari
pledge to constitute the Federal Executive Council
this September, stakeholders are looking forward
to welcoming seasoned and tested experts as
minister to rescue the nation.
For the potential Minister of Finance,
transparency and experience are the qualities
they want President Buhari to look for.
According to Mr Roosevelt Ogbonna, the
Executive Director, Commercial Banking, Access
Bank Plc, the man or woman for the job should
be a strong technical person.
“Somebody who understand the economy and
who should realise that you have to balance the
short term economic needs with the long term
expectations of government. If we have
somebody who focuses on the short term
economic issues and not the long term
development of the macros,we might have an
issue. He should be a person who understands
the market and appreciates there is an
international community outside the local market
that is also created for economic growth. “
Toeing the same line of argument, Sir Sunny
Nwosu, the National Coordinator of Independent
Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN), stated
that the new Finance Minister should also be well
grounded in capital market issues.
According to him, the inability of the former
Minister to understand the capital market robbed
it of shareholders’ expectations.
He added: “He should be a finance person who
should be able to know what it is meant by a
return to shareholders on the issue of capital
market. So we need a Minister who should be in
charge. Even in the National Assembly, we need
somebody who understands the market as
Chairman of House Committee on Capital Market.
The same goes for the Senate. So when you
combine all these with the knowledge of the
minister, the directives and directions will be very
clear to everybody. He should be a minister who
should be transparent in everything that he is
doing so that both the operators and the
shareholders as well as the regulators will not find
it difficult to understand the policies. If there is a
difficulty in understanding the policies in the
country, it is a problem. If we can even get
somebody who has got his fingers burnt already
at the capital market, he will understand much
better how to manage the capital market.
“As for the maritime sector, stakeholders listed
high port charges, poor infrastructure,
institutionalised corruption as the main
challenges of the industry that must be tackled if
the sector must move to the next level
They insist that the past ministers of transport
have been merely politicians with no cognate
industry experience, a development they said was
responsible for the sector’s parlous state.
Speaking with Daily Sun on phone, a maritime
expert and member of Presidential Committee on
Customs Reform, Lucky Amiwero said the new
transport minister must be a transparent, hard
working, experienced and focused person, who
on assumption of duties, will immediately beam
his searchlight on the sector to rescue it from the
stranglehold of corruption, nepotism and other
blights.
“He or she has a lot of jobs to do. There are three
critical bills to be looked at. There is the NIMASA
Act, Local Content Act and National Transport
Commission bill. All these need to be worked on
as they will help transform the sector rapidly. The
maritime sector can generate 3 million jobs in two
years if well harnessed. But when a politician with
no industry experience comes in, he or she begins
to learn the ropes. Soon, the person is hijacked by
corrupt individuals and he starts doing things to
enrich a few powerful individuals. You can see the
sorry state of the industry. Hellish traffic, poor
infrastructure, high cost clearance, corruption and
many more are the lots of the industry and these
must be addressed”, he said.
Amiwero also urged the new coming minister of
transport to urgently review the port concession
exercise done in 2006, as it was neither
transparent nor the terminal operators abiding by
the rules of engagement as enshrined in the
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
He said Nigeria is losing out in the transshipment
business and its cargoes being siphoned by
neighbouring countries with cheaper operating
cost.
Other stakeholders, mainly freight forwarders,
who also spoke with Daily Sun frowned at what
they called arbitrary increase in charges by
terminal operators and shipping agents, which
they described as a breach of the rules of
engagement.
According to the National Coordinator of Save
Nigerian Freight Forwarders Importers and
Exporters Coalition (SNFIEC), Chief Osita Chukwu,
the Buhari administration needs to address the
issue of fictitious charges, alleging that it has
become the rule, rather than the exception.
He also said the issue of congestion and traffic
snarl robs the nation’s economy of billions of
naira annually as trucks spend days on the road
before loading or offloading cargoes.
For the petroleum sector, there are indications
that Buhari may head the Ministry of Petroleum
Resources himself in the new cabinet rather than
trust anyone else with the responsibility, which
currently contributes over 80 per cent of Nigeria’s
revenue.
Weather he appoints a minister or heads it
himself, Nigerians expect to see a regime of
transparency in the sector that is seen to be
corrupt.
Nigerian Association of Petroleum
Explorationsists(NAPE) wants the man in charge
to address the issue of pipeline vandalism while
also reducing the contract cycle to 3 or 9 months.
For the power sector, some stakeholders are
equally calling on the new minister to carry out a
review of the privatization exercise.
Chairman, Society of Exploration Geophysicists,
Nigeria, and former Head of Exploration, Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Prof.
Charles Ofoegbu, said despite the inauguration of
completed power plants, the sector had failed to
deliver adequate electricity to the citizens.
“The privatization of the power sector needs to be
reviewed. Government needs to do this before it
can get the issue of power supply right. We keep
inaugurating power generating plants, but I had
warned in the past that power supply would keep
diminishing and we have discovered that we are
not making progress but rather retrogressing in
the sector,’’ he said.
Stakeholders in the real sector demand that the
President appoints a minister who is
knowledgably and familiar with the plight of
manufacturers.
President of the Manufacturers Association of
Nigeria (MAN), Mr. Frank Jacobs, said the new
minister should be able to convince the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to reverse the recently
introduced policy prohibiting 41 items for
sourcing forex through the official window.
On his part, the President of Nigeria Labour
Congress (NLC), Mr. Ayuba Wabba, canvassed a
minister who is in tune with amicable dispute
resolution and also grounded in collective
bargaining.

Cc: lalasticala

ok. Sounds great

Hisses... Nothing special about the list anymore.. Nigerians dont care anymore.. APC is not really a political party.. They are just liars masquerading the pictures of saints.

Hisses... What is special about the list again?.. I dont think Nigerians care anymore.. APC is not really a political party.. They are just liars masquerading the pictures of saints.

Whatever

the ministers will be unveiled in the fullness of time!

we r taking our time to pick among the best northerners we have shortlisted!