New ministers are Nigeria’s third eleven: - says HURIWA

A prominent civil society platform – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has criticized the decision of president Muhammadu Buhari not to appoint real tested and trusted statesmen/women and hard core patriotic technocrats as members of his cabinet but chose to nominate party loyalists most of whom failed as either state's governors or ministers in the last cabinet.

HURIWA said that with the possible exception but a few, the remaining bunch are politicians with irreparable brand damages and persons who lack the desired qualities to turn around the battered economy if Nigeria and put the nation on the oath of economic growth and technological advancements. How can persons who were unable to consistently improve their people as Senators and governors be able to achieve the lofty ideals of actualizing sustainable economic development which is what the Next Level mantra of President Muhammadu Buhari claims to be about?"

The Rights group further carpeted president Muhammadu Buhari for padding up his list of cabinet level officials with an unwieldy and unusually expansive number even when public opinions over the years have been to the effect that the constitution be amended to trim down the mandatory number of 36 ministers from all the states of the federation to a manageable number with a view to cutting down the costs of governance. "Some of these political liabilities will simply be sleeping on duty and gulping billions of national resources without adding any value to the body polity. Is this legacy of waste and redundancy what Mr President promised us?

“We wonder what the likes of erstwhile Osun and Bayelsa states governors would be doing in the soon to be inaugurated cabinet when in the case of the former Osun state governor he could not pay civil servants in Osun state for nearly two years and still could not discharge this obligation even after picking up generous paris club refund courtesy of the magnimity of his party leader and president of Nigeria. We will like also to know what has become of the encounter between the former Bayelsa state governor and the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission or has the president also glossed over these issues the same way he openly undermined the prosecution of senator Danjuma Goje the moment he (Goje) accepted to step down and not contest for senate presidency against the president’s boy senator Ahmed Lawan? What about the extremely large number of allegations of fraud running to nearly $100 billion made against Akpabio by EFCC as governor of Akwa Ibom state or has he been forgiven because he left the PDP to APC?”.

HURIWA has also faulted the retention of some never-do-well cabinet level members in the last cabinet such as Babatunde Fashola who as power minister brought the worst kinds of nation-wide darkness never seen before since the amalgamation of southern and northern Nigeria by the British in 1914. Also the former works minister failed spectacularly to deliver any good measure of road infrastructure across the country apart from those media creations called roads which Babatunde Fashola brandished as his achievements. Transportation sector is in comatose, what then is Chibuike Amaechi coming to do since he could not even deliver on his mandate as transportation minister?”

HURIWA has also warned against making a rabidly partisan lawyer such as Festus Keyamo as the Federal Attorney General and minister of justice nor is there merit in retaining Abubakar Malami under whose watch court orders were violated by president Buhari with reckless abandon just as the Rights group carpeted Buhari for nominating Chris Ngige who by all accounts lacks the composure to organize the Labour sector.

HURIWA RECALLED THAT THE Full list of Ministerial Nominees sent to the Senate by President Buhari With their states of origin ARE AS FOLLOWS:

Ikechukwu Ogar – Abia
Mohammed Musa Bello – Adamawa
Godswill Akpabio – Akwa Ibom
Dr Chris Ngige – Anambra
Sharon Ikeazor – Anambra.
Adamu Adamu – Bauchi
Maryam Katagum – Bauchi
Timipre Sylva – Bayelsa
George Akume – Benue
Mustapha Baba Shehuri – Borno
Godie Jerry Agba – Cross River
Festus Keyamo – Delta
Ogbonnaya Onu – Ebonyi
Osagie Ehinare – Edo
Clement Agba – Edo
Adeniyi Adebayo – Ekiti
Geoffrey Onyeama – Enugu
Ali Pantami – Gombe .
Emeka Nwajuba – IMO
Sulaiman Adamu – Jigawa
Zainab Ahmed – Kaduna
Hadi Sirika – Katsina
Abubakar Malami – Kebbi
Sabo Nanono – Kano
Maj Gen Bashir Saleh – Kano
Ramatu Tijani – Kogi
Lai Mohammed – Kwara
Gbemisola Saraki – Kwara
Olorunnibe Mamowora – Lagos
Babatunde Fashola – Lagos
Subairu Dada – Niger
Olamilekan Adegbite – Ogun
Tayo Alasoadura – Ondo
Rauf Aregbesola – Osun
Sunday Dare – Oyo
Paulen Tallen – Plateau
Rotimi Amaechi – Rivers
Mohammed Maigeri Dengaji – Sokoto
Saleh Momoh – Taraba
Abubakar D Aliyu – Yobe.