Post by Onyango Oloo on Oct 12, 2015 17:23:38 GMT 3
EXCERPT:
After balancing political interests and restructuring ministries, the most urgent issue facing President Buhari is economic strategy
At his self-imposed eleventh hour, President Muhammadu Buhari submitted his list of 21 ministerial nominees to the Senate on 30 September. On 8 October, the Senate was to start vetting the names but it will not know the portfolios that Buhari intends to give to his nominees. That means that most of the questions will be about personal integrity and political loyalties rather the technical competence required in a specific portfolio (AC Vol 56 No 9, APC to lead with a leaner team).
The list is the outcome of a tricky political balancing act which has taken far too long – he was inaugurated on 29 May – but has at least succeeded in not alienating critical constituencies in the political and business worlds. In addition to the complexity of mediating among and sifting through the myriad interest groups which descended on Abuja to press their claims to run ministries, Buhari has been trying to restructure the government at the same time. Not only does he want a leaner government – the 21 nominees are likely to be the substantive ministers and the next 15, so far unnamed, will be the deputy or state ministers – he also wants to cut the ministers' scope for patronage.
That is why many of the boards and managements of state-owned companies have been reconfigured in the last few months. In theory, this should allow the new ministers to concentrate on their portfolios and public administration rather than dealing with the pressure to find jobs and contracts for their supporters.
Yet the biggest question about the Buhari government – its economic strategy or lack thereof – remains stubbornly and worryingly unanswered (AC Vol 56 No 16, Fighting graft, Buhari-style). A halting performance by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele on 5 October at the Financial Times Africa Summit in London failed to convince many of his fellow bankers. Emefiele, who has plenty of enemies in the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), insisted that the government's costly defence of the naira, using billions of dollars of foreign reserves and putting restrictions on the availability of foreign exchange, was sound economic policy.
www.africa-confidential.com/article/id/11252/At_last_a_cabinet%2c_and_now_for_the_policies