This week, perhaps on this very Wednesday that you are reading this, President Muhammadu Buhari would assign portfolios to the ones that must be considered lucky of the 36 ministers-designate. There have been media reports of anxiety among the ministers-to-be as to which of them would be lucky to be assigned portfolios.

This followed the President’s remark that not all of the 36 would be assigned offices. While the Constitution recommends that the presidential cabinet must have at least one minister from each of the 36 states of the warped federation that is Nigerian, the president argues the Constitution does not compel him to assign portfolios to all of them. This is Buhari’s not-too-ingenious way of keeping to his promise to run a lean administration while respecting the constitutional stipulation of one minister per state.

That this constitutional provisional is a ‘federal character’ requirement to give all Nigerians from different parts of the country a sense of belonging is not in doubt. What has never been tested, until now perhaps, is the continued relevance of this provision in the face of gross abuse by Nigerians. Of course Nigerians deserve to be given a sense that they are all part of any government of the day.

This is especially important now that people from different sections of the country display a heightened sense of dissatisfaction with the present structure of the Nigerian state. This sense of neglect that finds expression in cries of marginalisation swings from one part of the country to another.

Following the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, it was the Yoruba that spearheaded the marginalisation movement. After Obasanjo emerged president, the Hausa-Fulani took over with their call for the implementation of sharia while militants of the Niger-Delta fought their own battles on the side. After Umaru Yar’Adua took over as president the militants of the Niger-Delta moved into the vanguard of the marginalisation clamour.

But they would soon be supplanted by a reinvigorated movement of misguided fundamentalists that would in due course scale up its activities into the murderous Boko Haram insurgency that our military is now doing its best to send into oblivion. But since Buhari emerged president six months ago, it’s the Igbo of the South East that are now belting the marginalisation song with a rather extremist wing within the region taking up the separatist call of a return to a hitherto comatose Biafra nation.

These therefore are desperate times requiring that all be given a sense of belonging. It would seem therefore that Buhari’s move to cut down on the number of persons in his administration was not well thought through.

But the step the president has taken to appoint ministers without portfolios may not be as foolish as it may appear placed side by side of the kind of questions it would raise; namely, the wisdom of running a large cabinet at any time at all, to say nothing of a time of austerity. Yes, to name ministers without portfolios may seem a blind adherence to the letter of the law (in this case the Constitution) that the Bible in a related context tells us ‘killet, rather than the spirit of it’.

But Buhari has taken this apparently ridiculous option in a bid to drown out the more damning accusations of unjustifiable violation of a constitutional provision that the opposition would be too pleased to trumpet. We may also need to ask ourselves the significance of appointing people into office simply on account of their ethnicity irrespective of whether they are true representatives of their ‘people’.

Perhaps, this latest state of affairs may force us to reconsider the idea of a large administration of public servants that end up serving their personal interests while increasing our national overheads. When we have ministers without portfolios who function as leeches on the national treasury, we may need to question their continued stay in government.

Buhari is on the right path provided he ensures that those of his ministers assigned portfolios work for Nigeria and not their little enclaves. His determination to cut down the cost of governance is one that should earn national support. For many years now the very cost of governance, of maintaining the jet set lifestyles of public officers, has been identified as one of the main sources of wastage of public funds.

While countries far richer than us put strict limits on the amount to be spent for the upkeep of public officers, we adopt the irresponsible position of squandering our limited resources on government officials. People now go into government simply to partake of the loot that is guaranteed in public office.

Our presidents envy and ape the extravagance of the American presidential system, and the apparent comfort that an American president enjoys in total ignorance of the disparity that exists between the American economy and the Nigerian state whose national budget for a year is probably less than what an Ivy League University appropriates for a year.

Things were taken to the worst possible extent under the PDP government that was sacked by Nigerians last March. Under that administration, we had a president that had what must rank as perhaps the largest fleet of presidential aircraft in the world. Aside billions of Naira spent to maintain the presidency- on food, fuelling vehicles, buying newspapers and maintaining the fleet of presidential limousines, ministers had their own sets of hangers-on, advisers, personal assistants and others without definite designation beyond their association to the ‘Oga patapata’.

And these surely had their own sets of advisers and personal assistants too. You can imagine a personal assistant to a minister with his own personal assistant and advisers, all directly or indirectly paid from public funds. That was what governance and public office, corrupted beyond words, was reduced to- personal service.

But now we hear ministers will have to make do with far less. Gone, hopefully, would be the long list of security guards, convoy of vehicles and the general atmosphere of ‘bigmanism’ that is built around public officers. We need to return to our modest past when public officers rode Peugeot cars to office.

There is no reason why a public officer who lives in a house provided by the state, uses guest houses reserved for both legal and illicit purposes; rides fleet of vehicles provided and fuelled by the state, is fed by the state and enjoys many benefits on the bill of the state- there is no reason why such an individual should earn a salary more than an average senior civil servant.

This belt tightening measures should be extended to our idle National Assembly that spends more time on recess than on making laws. Public office should be for service, not a means for wealth acquisition.

Source:http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/11/buharis-ministers-without-portfolios/

The way my sai Buhari is moving this nation, i see it becoming great once again.

Sai Buhari

From the portfolios already given to permanent secretaries... For sure ministers for finance, defence and petroleum will go to the North!!.. He who keeps Money and power (guns) keeps everything.

still waiting 4 change

Even minister of justice willl go to the North. However, how do you expect PMB to give joiucy portfolio to people that gave him 5% and expect him to win after 2019. Abeg SAI BABA joo !!!!

25 ministries for 36 ministers

Baba go something.

Pathetic!

All we want is Biafra.

Finance, justice, petroleum, COS, SP, all goes to the parasites we ar forced to live with. The only reasonable position a weakling from the other side has, they ar fighting to collect it by all means yet they ar chanting one nigeria.The Sun Shall Rise

I came here to read names. Not even one name was mentioned. Mtcheww.

Eeyaaa, my brethren will surely frown at this.
Buhari(Pharoah), just let them(my people) go

Ok

My take is that it is going to be shameful to have ministers without portfolio. Why pay them and not assign a portfolio to them? The constitution also says they have to resign any job they have, before being appointed ministers. Do we now expect people to resign their jobs, just to sit down for FEC meetings? We can always carve out something for each minister and after that the government can send a bill to the National Assembly, asking them to amend the constitution on the amount of ministers. They can ask for just two or three ministers from each geopolitical zone. Please don't make any of them a laughing stock, when there is so much work to be done. We can also cut cost by reducing advisers and assistants to the ministers and also overseas trips.

.

Police man without gun lol

Good one from MR President, Baba go slow....now Baba go fast.
Like my comment if you thinks Biafrans are not retards

Buhari ministerial nominees have being screened and confirmed , but now the argument is when will he assign portofolios to them, when will they start working and how are ministers without portofolios going to work
it almost took buhari six month to come up with his ministers then how long will it take him to get them on duty. See what some nigerians says
· President muhammadu buhari's policy of ministers without portfolios is very nice idea and it will definitely help nigerian economy.
· Will ministers without portfolios need official cars, drivers and security, or is it cheaper to pick them up in a big bus each week for fec?
· When "all ministers will be assigned portfolios" becomes a credible news story, you know something is definitely wrong somewhere.
· Nigerians should brace up for ministers without portfolios,#bhere!continue reading

Ok

Bubu For those ministers that won't get portfolio, kindly open a shop for them at Alaba mkt were they can start trading to contribute to our Revenue base..

A novel development. Lets give it a try and see how it works out. I think Nigeria would be better for it. PMB should reduce significantly the patronage system that exists in government. Let us see some modicum of fairness in his administration and bare-faced marginalization of some sections of the country. We always mirror marginalization in this country in terms of the tripod of Hausa, Yoruba and Ibo. The minorities, and indeed the micro minorities are often never in the equation. This is sad.

PMB in a dilemma...have more ministries, wailers will wail and ask why we have so many ministries when the country is broke.

Oya, ministers without portfolio, they will still wail and shout tribalism...

Baba, just do what you like...as long as your mind tells you its right..you have just 4years to win wailers over..

JustOzito:
Finance, justice, petroleum, COS, SP, all goes to the parasites we ar forced to live with. The only reasonable position a weakling from the other side has, they ar fighting to collect it by all means yet they ar chanting one nigeria.The Sun Shall Rise

So when Niger Deltans dey complain about 'parasite', you with precious little oil in your homeland dey add mouth abi?

Those fortunate ministers who would not be assigned particular ministries would be "Ministers for Cabinet Resources." Simply put, their jobs would be to mop floors, arrange chairs, dust/buff tables, decorate the cabinet conference room in preparation for a cabinet meeting. We can live with that!

what will the minister without portfolio be doing? collecting monthly salary and allowances or what?

Ok nah

How about Minister of Biafra. Mr. Nnamdi Kunu a.k.a Dilector.. I heard he did his screening at DSS

Bubu....I'm not surprised.

This our president is just making a mockery of our federal system of government.

I'm totally in support of lowering cost of governance and rooting out corruption from our system...but I'm not in support of the method GMB is applying.

hi