Challenges before in-coming ministers

AS Nigerians continue to hope for a miracle delivering cabinet following President Muhammadu Buhari’s submission of the list of some proposed ministers to the Senate, the prospective ministers have been charged to key into the agenda of the President and not just coming to feather their nests

Special Adviser (Political) to the Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole, has said patriotism should be the focal point for the ministers noting that with such characteristics, Buhari’s objective of bringing the needed change would be achieved.

Speaking with journalists on his 62nd birthday in Benin City few days ago, Charles Idahosa said, “I think he has taken enough time to pick his ministers and I do know he is going to bring people that are patriotic, people who love Nigeria and people who will not do things with impunity, and following the system he has used, most ministers will be very careful because he took his time. He has been briefed by the respective ministries, he has an idea of what is going on there if he had appointed his ministers immediately, he would have had no idea and he will be depending on the ministers but he has an idea of everything that is going on in the respective ministries and I think the right people will be there.

“Technocrats or politicians we have a lot of people that are qualified eminently in terms of experience and exposure to manage the affairs of this country as ministers both in the party and the bureaucracy. It is prerogative and he will consult with the party and he will get the best hands to help through his programmes.”

Idahosa said despite criticisms that the president has been slow, “he is doing very well and I think he is on course. One thing most Nigerians don’t know is that this is the first man who has become president in Nigeria who wanted to become president. This is the first time we are having a Nigerian President who prepared himself and said I want to be president. He tried three times and got it the fourth time so he has his blueprint and knows what he wants to do, he is just taking his time but Nigerians forget easily.

“Shagari said he wanted to become a senator and that they forced him to become president that he wasn’t ready. Obasanjo not out of his personal wish and desire, he was made president. Jonathan wanted to concentrate as deputy governor. I read about a week or two ago when Donald Duke former governor of Cross River said he was there with Obasanjo when he came to beg Obasanjo that he doesn’t want to become president. So now, we are lucky to have a man who worked, planned and programmed and he became President.

“We are happy that Buhari is there now, Nigerians should understand that within the short period that he has been there he has brought his integrity to play. The fear of Buhari is the beginning of wisdom; people who were lackadaisical and not bothering are now doing their job which was not happening before. People are afraid that if they get into trouble, there is no hiding place so people are doing what they are supposes to do. That is the beauty of it and I am happy he is doing very well.

“Every day we hear of pipeline vandalism, when last did you hear of pipeline vandalism? Stealing of fuel as if they were stealing goats or chicken those things are very rare now so I think Buhari is on course now but we should be patient with him he has four years to go in the first instance and I am sure Nigerians will be glad that the All Progressives Congress (APC) made the right choice immediately the merger was able to take place, I knew change has come.”

Idahosa said at 62, life has been kind and he is happy that the change he and others worked for was becoming a reality in his life time. “The most joyful thing that I am happy about on my 62nd birthday is the change in the country. Change in the sense that Nigeria now has a direction, we now know where we are going and we now have a man who is upright. Nigeria has been able to win the confidence of the world again, the world now recons with Nigeria and most importantly I am so happy that at 62, that I am part of that change. The joy I have today is that the dream I have so many years ago has come to pass.

“The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was in power for 16 years, I knew it was a matter of time that they would crash. In 2004, I resigned as commissioner and member of the state executive council in Edo state under the PDP and I joined like minds to form what was then ACD under the National Chairmanship of Chief Amielo. A few of the people making waves today were there with us like Lai Mohammed and many others. What started as ACD became the biggest part of the APC that is ruling the country today so you can imagine my joy that what some of us saw at that time have come to be realised and the PDP has been pushed off the track.”

He said despite the challenges that be-devilled Nigeria, he never gave up on the country just as he commended Oshiomhole for what he has done in fixing Edo state unlike in the past where governors were caged by some “powerful individuals”.

He said the continuous criticism of Oshiomhole by the opposition PDP was uncalled for. “We knew how the state looked like when he came and at the end of the day he has turned it around. What do the PDP has to say to criticize him? I don’t think they have anything for them to say because Oshiomhole has not done them well.”

On expectations for next year’s governorship election in the state, Idahosa said the governor has said it publicly many times that he owes the Binis a lot for the support they gave him and that he will try as much as possible to make sure that a Bini man becomes the next governor “and we are very happy but as we speak today the Esan people are agitating over their interest in the governorship, and their argument make sense, that they have not done eight years, while other people have done eight years, and demanding they equally be given the same opportunity to do eight years. Some of their leaders have spoken to me and I said yes, there is no difference between the Benin and the Esan man, the advice I have given to them is that we are all one, in fact, there is no difference between any Edo man, every one of us can trace our origin to the Benin palace, even Agbor, Warri and some places outside the state so what we need to do is to seat down and negotiate”.