Okenyi Kenechi
The Ninth senate headed by Ahmed Lawan has shown itself to be a sick joke. The handling of the endorsement of mediocrity currently being conducted by that senate in the name of ministerial screening is a farce and a waste of everybody’s time, including Nigeria’s money. Our political system is designed for compensation and not for progress and growth.
The 8th senate had passed a resolution mandating the executive to send a list of ministerial nominees with their portfolios. Members of the 8th Senate had argued that such an arrangement would enable the lawmakers to know the specific questions to ask the nominees. It would also help them to check the history of the nominees and match them with the position they want to occupy but Ahmed Lawan, a stooge of the executive jettisoned the resolution and has chosen to endorse mediocrity through his bow and go method.
Watching the screening of Mrs Hillary Clinton as Obama’s secretary of state in a Democrats dominated Congress, no one asked her to bow and go. She was questioned and grilled. The United States’ Congress cannot allow a CJN who does not understand what legal technicalities are all about to be in charge of its judiciary but Lawan’s senate did. This is why we are where we are.
Festus Keyamo who explained the problems of Nigeria’s judiciary system will likely end up as minister of youths and sports or chieftaincy while Malami who mumbled throughout the entire process would end up as AGF. That is the beauty of democracy under Buhari.
The endorsement by Lawan is the lamest exercise in the history of Nigeria’s senate. The 9th senate has shown itself to be a rubber stamp senate. Why did the senate president block senators from asking Rotimi Amaechi his achievements in the last four years? Why were nominees not asked questions on their areas of strength and how to bring it to bear in governance?.
Despite the huge economic crisis Nigeria is currently struggling with, there is no single political economist, neither a Development Economist in a list of 43 men to form the next level cabinet. One only hopes to be alive to see what magic President Buhari wants to use in fixing Nigeria’s economy that’s long on the brink.
Oh, by banning Forex on Milk? Incredible.
Nigeria is a wonderful country running around a circus. Nigeria, big as it is, has no economic projection where it would be or expected to be in 50 years to come. Mapping out such projections allow countries to formulate policies which will serve as road maps to achieve the expected projections. In my short foray into project management, a project manager works with scheduled tasks to effectively manage an assigned project, then pen down lessons learnt etc and move on. Nigeria is a project without a project manager. The resources in the project run around without direction and 58 years after independence, things are going from bad to worse.
The CBN a few days ago said it is considering imposing forex restrictions on milk importation in a bid to allow local production to grow. But no government has achieved economic growth without planning, fiscal policy and monetary policy. The command and control method of this present government has not been of any help as the wealth gap is widening daily. Middle-class Nigerians have virtually been wiped out, the rest are fleeing the country in droves.
Yet among the things that forex should be restricted on or banned outrightly, milk is not one of them. How come no one has banned the importation of refined petroleum product in order to encourage local refinery; or ban the importation of generators to encourage electricity generation? ditto the importation of militant herdsmen from all over Africa who kill farmers and destroy economic crops? They want Ruga for them!
A CBN governor is only as intelligent as the president. The CBN cannot do everything through a backdoor of forex policy. It will lead to crises.
The government cannot select which sector will grow and that which can wait. I have said my own.
