Cabinet size nears 70 as Tinubu ignores calls for lean govt

Despite persistent calls for a drastic reduction in the cost of governance amid dwindling revenue and burgeoning debt profile, President Bola Tinubu yesterday forwarded a fresh list of 19 ministerial nominees to the Senate for confirmation, taking the number of nominees to an unprecedented 47• Sends 19 new ministerial nominees to Senate • Alake seeks stiffer regulations for social media• Bosun Tijani: Young founder of Nigeria’s biggest tech hub makes fresh...

Recall that The Guardian had exclusively reported three weeks ago that barring last minute change, the cabinet will be as bloated as that of former President Muhammadu Buhari, but with major realignments in portfolios. Former President Jonathan reduced his cabinet to 33 but a year to his re-election, in 2014, he reshuffled his cabinet and injected some politicians in what he termed ‘injury time addition’ to shore up his chances of winning the 2015 election. This took up the numbers of Ministers back to 37.

Olawale-Cole said the perks available to public office holders are so enormous that it is difficult for the average Nigerian to understand why they suffer so much and those in leadership are unaffected. The Stephen Oronsaye report was commissioned by the Goodluck Jonathan administration in response to concerns about the size and cost of the Nigerian public sector.

It was therefore an anticlimax when the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, delivered the list to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, yesterday, while the Senate was in the Committee of the Whole, considering the remaining six ministerial nominees. A spark of excitement in the latest list is the inclusion of co-founder and CEO of Nigeria’s biggest tech hub, Co-Creation Hub, Bosun Tijani. Tijani, aged 46, initiated Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg’s first-time visit and received him in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole in August 2016.

Despite the anguish and frustration over impacts of some of the new administration’s policies, a newly introduced Stears Approval Rating released yesterday revealed that President Tinubu’s policies have received twice as many approvals from respondents compared to those of the previous administration.

Senior Governance Analyst, Joachim MacEbong, said: “The Stears survey offers a valuable glimpse into the concerns of Nigerians, and it is clear that urgent action is needed to ease the cost burdens on citizens. Our poll showed that 42 per cent of Lagosians are pessimistic while 32 per cent said they were optimistic about the country’s direction.”

Source: Loan Digest (loandigest.net)

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