President Bola Ahmed Tinubu last week sent names of ministerial nominees to the Senate for screening and approval, as required by the constitution. All but two nominees were approved by the red chamber. Their screening has been put off till August 16, 2023 because their names got to the senate late. The names that were forwarded in two batches of 28 and 19 respectively put to rest weeks of speculations and circulations of fake lists of prospective nominees on the social media.
WHILE not unmindful of the herculean task that is before the President to substantially take care of members of his huge political followers, watchers have vigorously counselled that President Tinubu should not allow political patronage to blur his commitment to underscoring competence in his considerations for political appointments.
THE foregoing is as the president has clearly stressed the need to compensate loyal party members that made notable contributions to the victories of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the polls. Apart from the leverage Tinubu has to appoint Special Advisers, which are considered to be technocrats with track records of successes in their various careers and professions, the constitution, however, prescribes that one minister should be appointed in each of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), totalling 37. Till date and in all, Tinubu emplaced 47 names before the Senate for clearance.
WE are miffed by the fact that Ogun and Lagos States have more than one ministerial slots each, with the former curiously parading three. While The Hope acknowledges the discretion of the President to make appointments, we are, nonetheless, of the view that certain parameters should have been brought to bear in his considerations.
IT is our considered opinion that Ondo State deserves an extra ministerial slot, more than any other state in the Southwest, at least, considering the massive support Tinubu got in the State.
THE 369,924, representing 67% of total votes cast in the presidential election in the State, was a clear testimony that the people of the State reposed unquestionable confidence in Asiwaju, leading them to invest their trust in him through their votes.
WE are reminded of the notion that politics is a game of numbers, and the fact that to whom much is given; much is expected. We do believe, therefore, without any equivocation that Ondo State should get more slot than Ogun and Lagos States in the ministerial equation, particularly out of the 10 slots that are outside to the constitutionally prescribed allotments.
TO this end, one would have thought that Ondo State should have been the initial and primary beneficiary of the extra slots given to the Southwest, to compensate for the resounding support extended to President Tinubu, as it was obvious that some states got more than their contributions.
THE HOPE is further worried about the fact that Ondo State had been short-changed in ministerial placements in recent past, with nominees from the state assigned Ministers of State designation.
THE last minister from Ondo State that got the position of a substantive minister was Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, as the Minister for Housing and Urban Development about 16 years ago.
IF ministerial nomination is about state representation, the subordination of the ministers from Ondo State, over the years, must have denied the State certain deliverables, with the people left to bear the negative consequences of such a development.
So far, we are not too excited by the feedbacks that got to us about these ministerial nominations, and we are hoping that something would be done very soon to ameliorate this negatively skewed political order, to adequately reward the support Asiwaju got from the good people of Ondo State in the last presidential election. Ondo State cannot afford to play a second fiddle in this dispensation having hugey fulfilled our political obligation to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his glide to Aso Rock.
