Anthony Kila: I’m Unimpressed With Tinubu’s Ministerial List, We Need To Attach Portfolios

Professor Anthony Kila, a professor of Strategy And Development at the Commonwealth Institute of Advanced and Professional Studies shared his concerns about the recently announced ministerial list of the President submitted to the Senate. 

On Thursday, The president’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila submitted President Tinubu’s first batch list of nominees for the ministerial position to the senate. Senate President, Godswill Akpabio read out the list which contained names like Nasiru Ahmed El-Rufa, Dele Alake, Nyesom WIke and  Abubakr Kyari amongst others. Gbajabialmila, stated that the nominees on the list are  a balance between “political acumen and technocrats.” The names where not attached to specific portfolios. 

In an ARISE NEWS interview on Friday, Prof. Anthony Kila described the list as “an elephant giving birth to a rat” saying that he is unimpressed with not only the fact that the President did not submit it as early as anticipated but also with the lack of portfolios attached to each name. 

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

“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.” 

Professor Kila described the cabinet as a ‘cabinet of recovery’ saying, “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. He also requested that they request and declare reasons for nominations with attachments to each portfolio.   

“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 of 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?” 

Glamour Adah.

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