Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon Yekini Nabena, has said the calibre of people appointed as ministers by President Bola Tinubu is a source of concern.
Speaking in an interview with Sunday Sun, Nabena, who maintained that he is still an APC member, expressed disappointment at the crop of people that will make up Tinubu’s cabinet.
He said he was expecting Tinubu to replicate what he did in Lagos by appointing persons of character and competence into his cabinet.
“I want to put on record that I am still a member of APC till tomorrow, but as a member of the party, I will tell you that I am disappointed with the calibre of persons President Tinubu assembled. President Tinubu has always boasted about the quality of persons he assembled as the governor of Lagos State. And you can truly see how they have been nurtured to become influential leaders.
“But as far as the capacity of the people he assembled as ministers are concerned, he got it completely wrong. Yes, I know he has no choice because he cannot wish them away since they worked for his victory in their various states, especially the governors. The fact that politics has become the only business they know how to do, he cannot shut them out because they want to perpetually be in the corridors of power. I have always said that Lagos State cannot be the same as the whole country because some of his political allies are equally powerful persons in their states.
“At the national level, there are desperate politicians that don’t want to leave the corridors of power. People are angry that he went for former governors. Some of them are governors that failed in their states. Almost 90 per cent of the governors Tinubu appointed minister failed their people in the state.
“They have nothing to offer at the federal level. What will even anger Nigerians more is that these failed governors are coming with the same crop of persons they worked with in their states to the national level. I have the feeling that the circle of failure will continue at the federal level because the governors are coming with the same mentality of doing things. Another fear is that they are coming with the same in-charge mentality and if they don’t strike a balance, there will be a conflict of interest very soon.
“Most of them are supposed to be in jail, but they have been appointed ministers. How do you justify that? Many of them did not give an account of the funds given to them as governors. Most of the former governors appointed ministers are supposed to be in jail. They cannot even show what they used the funds given to them to do as state governors. Many of them, especially from the northern part of the country collected money from the CBN as agricultural loans to subsidise fertilizer and other farming implements, but they have nothing to show for the loans because they did not give to the farmers that the money was originally meant for.
“They gave all manners of flimsy excuses including the one that flood ravaged the farms. Yet, these are the same crop of party leaders that President Tinubu has assembled as his ministers. My concern is that I don’t even know the magic Tinubu will perform with these sets of human beings. Yes, Asiwaju has shown that he is ready to work, but how is he going to perform with people that are an authority unto themselves as former executive officers in the states they are coming from? Will they be loyal to him or will they start to hatch plan B to run down the government? If he had brought fresh people be sure they will give him their maximum best, but not these old brigades that will come with the same set of people, including the contractors they used as governors. So, we should not expect the best brain to do the work”
