Replacing Betta, Lalong: Time for a cabinet shake-up?
Political leaders are often encouraged to never let a good crisis go to waste. The simple message here is for them to identify the opportunity in every danger and leverage it. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has applied this thinking one too many times. An obvious example is his decision to put a stop to the oil subsidy scam that bankrupted the country. President Tinubu ripped off the band-aid and drenched the festering sore in methylated spirit. The country winced and groaned. But if financial experts are to be believed, the healing process is progressing smoothly. We are almost out of the woods.
He must now do the same with his cabinet. In a normal situation, talks of a cabinet reshuffle less than a year into the administration’s life would be rightly considered premature. But these are desperate times. Besides, the forced openings in the cabinet, one of which the president is compelled by law to fill, has provided the right opportunity for him to do a double-take.
One opening came as a result of Simon Bako Lalong’s victory in court to represent his people of Plateau South in the Senate. The other opening came as a result of the suspension of the high-flying Betta Edu. Sympathizers of Edu say she was misguided, the victim of a grand conspiracy. Others claim she fell in a war she started because she believed too much in her own invincibility and grossly underrated her foe. Whatever the case may be, her return is unlikely. The investigation of her actions has thrown up some uncomfortable questions. The president is very likely waiting for a final report before putting her to pasture.
Thus, we are left with two openings to fill. There are those who contend that Betta needs no fresh replacement. Her state, Cross River, has another representative in Sports Minister John Enoh. Her station, the Ministry of Humanitarian Services Disaster Management and Social Development, has sadly become a conduit for fraud and diversion and should be scrapped. President Tinubu has constituted a committee to conduct a review and propose a mechanism to help the poor without availing billions to unprincipled political characters.
The committee’s recommendations notwithstanding, Edu’s scandal invited fresh scrutiny of the cabinet. And quite a number of its members have been caught napping. It is difficult, if not impossible, to turn a sector around in eight months. But you can show intent and promise. That has sadly not been the case for some. And the president could use the opportunity of filling the gaps in his cabinet to do some house cleaning. It may be unprecedented, controversial even. The affected will groan. But that is hardly a strange concept in Nigeria. We are all groaning. None is smiling or ‘greeing’ for the other. They are welcome to join the chorus.
