The Buhari administration swept into office on the mantra of change and promised to hit the ground running. Critical to delivering on the mandate that was given to the government by Nigerians was the team the President would build. Hence, Nigerians waited with anticipation for President Buhari to announce his ministers after taking office.

After a five month wait, the ministers were finally announced and screened by the Senate in a highly publicised, and well-followed exercise. The nomination and screening process was not without drama, and while supporters of the administration argued that the process took as long as it did because the President needed to balance factors such as constitutional requirements for ministers from each state with the party politics and getting credible, competent and people with clean records, many were of the view that all these could have been done with a greater sense of urgency for the tasks ahead.

Upon the allocation of portfolios to the ministers after their screening and confirmation, SBM Intelligence undertook a projection of expectations from the ministers and whether in our opinion, the ministers were a hit, a miss or intermediate.

After a year in office, we have reviewed actual performance of the ministers thus far, and based on this, have produced an updated performance rating of the ministers. We have also put the ratings after one year in office side by side with our predictions as the ministers took office, and indicated where those predictions were correct as well as where we were off the mark.



Takeaways

Key ministerial appointments should not be delayed after an administration is sworn in. Ideally, the President should know who's names he will be sending to the Senate before he is sworn in.
Ministerial portfolios should be assigned before screening. This will enable proper interrogation of their plans at the confirmation hearings of the Senate.
Across board, there is a need for the ministers to improve performance drastically if there is going to be any chance that the Buhari administration will deliver on its mandate.
A review of ministers’ performances is due by the Buhari administration with a cabinet shakeup based on performance over the last one year.

Download full report