WITH reactions trailing the ministerial nomination made by President Bola Tinubu, The ICIR has evaluated the profile of these nominees, predicting the portfolio the president might assign to each person.

Going by the number of people nominated, the projections are hinged on the possibility of the president creating new ministerial portfolios that would actualise his administration’s intent.

Tinubu submitted 48 names to the Senate in the last two weeks for screening and confirmation. Initially, 28 names were submitted as the first batch of nominees. A week later, an additional 19 were submitted before a review was done, which increased the list to 48 names.

After the screening exercise, the Senate confirmed 45 out of 48 nominees.

Also, The ICIR reported some analysis on the trend of governors becoming ministers, women’s representation in the list and a former governor with fraud allegations.

The list consists of past governors, former and present lawmakers, former state commissioners, former ministers, former directors of government agencies, aspirants during the 2023 general election and other private sector experts.

Key issues
Assuming all nominees are given a portfolio, this administration would have the largest ministerial cabinet since 1999, when Nigeria retired to uninterrupted democratic governance.

Also, the president might adopt the style of former president Muhammadu Buhari by appointing senior and junior ministers, that is, a Minister and a Minister of State.

In addition, many of the ministerial nominees come with professional and political experience, which could make them fit into any ministerial position as core administrators.

While the professionals were grilled thoroughly, their counterpart colleagues, who were either former governors or former legislative members, were told to bow and go. This development was frowned upon by many public affairs analysts.

For the Lead Director of the Centre for Social Justice, Eze Onyekpere, “no meaningful screening can be done without asking questions pertinent to the Ministries the candidate will do when he or she gets confirmed.”

According to Onyekpere, “The President needs to submit the list with the portfolios the Ministers have to hold. Also, the screening is not something that should be done in a hurry. The list needs to be submitted early to enable the National Assembly to do thorough screening through the Senate’s relevant committees while reconvening on the committee as a whole for more efficiency.

A professor of International Relations at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Charles Ukeje, said the drama surrounding the ministerial screening exposed the dark side of Nigerian politics and emphasized the urgent need for a more robust and rigorous screening process.

He stressed that the nation’s leadership recruitment process should not be reduced to a source of comic relief and that civil society must hold political leaders to higher standards of accountability, transparency, and integrity.

How we made the projections
For our projections, we reviewed the background profiles of each nominee and cross-examined them with the nominees’ trajectory as political officeholders. We also examined the questions asked during the screening exercises by the senators.

Also, in our projections, we considered the president’s priority and arbitraries in assigning ministerial portfolios to minister-designates. This could depend on the president’s political interests in a particular candidate and for a particular purpose. Election dynamics were also considered, and for the first time, an indigene of the Federal Capital Territory was appointed a minister since the present democratic dispensation, which started in 1999.

This may likely be connected to assertions, in some quarters, that the President is looking possibly at an all-inclusive Presidency, which saw even the nomination of opposition party members as seen in the case of a former Governor and Minister-designate, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike.

Accordingly, Wale Edun, who is projected to be the Minister of Finance, is currently a Special Adviser to Tinubu on Monetary Policies. Edun has a strong background in economics and was once a commissioner of finance in Lagos state and co-founded Stanbic IBTC Plc serving as the Executive Director.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/projections-how-tinubu-may-appoint-ministerial-cabinet/

No need to waste your time and attention on this kind of projection.
When they're duly appointed, it will be clear to everybody. There are better things to do with your time and energy.