Tinubu’s Ministers’ Rating: 22 Should Go in Looming Cabinet Reshuffle

This medium conducted a rigorous ministry performance review and identified 22 ministers as non-performing and urged their replacement. The rating, which is based on their ability to set goals, achieve them, and promote their achievements, offers a troubling picture of numerous important ministries failing to deliver on their mandates.

With Nigeria facing significant economic, social, and security challenges, the performance of these ministers has come under scrutiny. The ministers, who were appointed by President Bola Tinubu in August 2023, have had nearly a year to prove themselves. However, this recent rating highlights inefficiencies and underachievement in critical areas such as agriculture, education, and energy.

Recall that Ministers and other top officials in Tinubu’s administration have signed performance pledges, committing to achieve specific goals in each sector of the economy after the 2023 Cabinet Retreat in November 2023.

With a mandate anchored on the promise of prosperity and progress, his administration has set ambitious targets aimed at addressing the multifaceted challenges facing Nigeria. Our rating at ACJ was done after thorough analysis using our proprietary score card while engaging with each Ministry at the elemental level to scrutinize their performance on the critical measures of ministerial responsibility.

From Poor to Great Performers

Among the lowest-rated ministers are Hannatu Musawa, Minister of Art, Culture and the Creative Economy, and Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, both receiving a score of just 1.00 out of 3.00. These low ratings signal severe deficiencies in driving national programs within their sectors. Some supposedly “ghost” ministers like those in Innovation, Science and Technology, Police Affairs Minister and Minister of State, Marine and Blue Economy Minister, Niger Delta Minister, Minister of State for Steel and surprisingly uninspiring  Minister of Youths, and the rumored to be  sick Tourism Minister and  even the four Water Resources & Environment Ministers  & Ministers of States now confronting the worst floods in decades all suffer this fate.

In short, 22 of the 49 ministers rated below 1.5 and are deserving of being removed.

The other culprits like the Minister of Sports, Minister of State Oil, Minister of Transport and Minister of Industries & Trade despite a little above 1.0 average rating, only emerge from the dirt of performance due to their critical ministries that forced them to speak to the media every now and then but with no discernible achievements.

John Enoh (Minister of Sports Development), who performed poorly, with scores reflecting his lack of progress in the moribund Ministry of Sports that continue to disappoint millions of Nigerians. Nigeria’s disappointing performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics, which saw the country return home without a single medal, analysts say, reflects the poor management of the sports sector under Sports Minister Enoh having spent N12 billion on the event with no discernible outcomes while giving excuses.

However our ratings also revealed some super stars. Chief of them was HE Dr. Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, who received an unbeatable perfect average score of 3.0 for his massive, obvious and well publicized work of transforming the Federal Capital alongside Mr. Festus Keyamo at the aviation Ministry who achievements on the resolution of the UAE and UK flight disputes favorably for Nigeria and securing leading rights for Nigeria airlines have received high praise. In addition to this twosome, Interior Minister Olubunmi Ojo’s hard nosed reform in prison sector, immigration and civil defense earned him also a top performer perfect rank by our assessors, and these same can be said about Dr. Pate of the health Ministry whose exploits in attracting investments for the health sector and securing massive turnarounds is a story still being written.

Otherwise, other ministers were middling. But worthy of honourable mention is the Honourable Minister of State for Labour, who in our reckoning deserves a promotion for securing some very difficult concessions from Labour and delivering alongside the President a new minimum wage from which workers are now benefitting. The Minister of Justice also deserves commendation especially for his landmark but quiet work using transformative judicial interventions to reshape the future of Nigeria, case in point being the Local Government autonomy case which he argued successfully to the dismay of Nigeria’s largely underperforming Governors.

Calls for Replacement

 

The report by this medium argues that these ministers, having fallen short of their promises, should be replaced by more capable individuals. Some ministers require additional hands like the Ministry of Finance who may have slowly constituted themselves to bottlenecks to the administration’s achievement.

The assessment further notes that appointees like the Minister of Power may need to up their game despite just satisfactory performance of late and the Minister of Education and Minister of State Gas falls into this category as well. 

Security Victories Secure Defense Ministers

In recent times, Nigeria has been securing major victories against bandits and terrorists eliminating major leaders upon orders by Mr. president for the service chiefs to relocate to the Northwest region of Nigeria. Thus the Ministry of Defence, led by Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, and deputized by Former Zamfara Governor Matawalle showed relatively better performance, despite the disaster from their police counterparts who have not been able to deliver on the promise of Mr. President of state police and community policing reforms one year into their tenure.

This has led to massive spike in kidnapping, with the military being stretched further to do police work even as two Ministers virtually disappeared into oblivion as the nation faced the worst crisis in decades.

This  contrasted with a chart of Boko Haram killings that is readily in the field of the Military to deal with, which has shown massive decline from last year under the leadership of the two ministers of defense.

The Call for Rethink of Cabinet Criteria

As Nigeria continues to navigate through a challenging period of economic and political transformation, it is imperative that ministries are led by individuals who can enact meaningful change. For one, the era of ghost ministers must come to an end.

Indeed, the President through his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga have already said, “President Tinubu has ordered his ministers to ensure they engage the public by publicising what the government is doing in their various ministries. I don’t have any timeline. The President has expressed his desire to reshuffle his cabinet and will do it. I don’t know whether he wants to do it before October 1, but he will surely do it.”

This ministerial rating by Abuja City Journal is a call for President Tinubu to overhaul his cabinet and appoint ministers with the vision and drive necessary to move Nigeria forward. The cabinet can also be nimbler in tough times. Nigeria doesn’t need more than 36 persons in the cabinet. The ghost ministers need to go.

The future of the nation depends on the leadership’s ability to address its most pressing challenges, and this assessment offers a roadmap for action. Whether President Tinubu heeds these calls for replacement remains to be seen, but the public sentiment is clear: Nigeria cannot afford ineffective governance at this critical juncture.

Source : Abuja City Journal