I’m Not Impressed With Tinubu’s Ministerial List – Anthony Kila

A Professor of Strategy And Development, Anthony Kila has expressed his concerns about the recently announced list of ministerial nominees submitted to the Senate by President Bola Tinubu.

Recall that the President’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila submitted Tinubu’s first batch list of nominees for the ministerial position to the senate.

Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, stated that the nominees on the list are a balance between “political acumen and technocrats.”

The president of the National Assembly also asserted that the names were not attached to specific portfolios.

In an ARISE NEWS interview on Friday, Kila said he is unimpressed with not only the fact that the President did not submit the list as early as anticipated but also with the lack of portfolios attached to each name.

He stated that doing this would have raised the bar for future administrations to take note of, especially for a “political animal” such as President Tinubu.

He said: “The real essence of the screening should be to see as representatives of the people and legislators, those who are going to take the role are going to do things that their own constituency wants.

“This is truly a cabinet of recovery. That’s the strategic thing we should be thinking about. You talk about the next set of people and some said the senate should insist that they come with a portfolio. 

“I agree but you see this is part of the elephant giving birth to the rat here. For a big elephant like this president and this process that we are in, the way it was managed we shouldn’t need to force them to do that. It doesn’t help us raise standards. It is important that from now on when we deal in our public discussion and our institution, we should be visionary, we should be setting precedence. 

“I would expect the president to have started with the second round, thinking ‘what are the issues we want to solve and let us bring those that can solve these issues.” 

The Professor also suggested that the Senate hold conversations with nominees to understand their capacity and not ask to “bow and go.”

He said: “The down side, what people aren’t happy about is the fact that you’re using the same people all over in a country of over 200 million people. It appears these are the few people, the only people, who have solutions to the problem of which they were part in any way. 

“In reality, it’s not enough to say you have experience of 8 years as, maybe, an executive governor. We have to be specific. 

“What exactly did you do that guaranteed you to be in this cabinet and above all, what are we going to use you for?”