Wednesday, February 12, four serving federal ministers were forced to resign in Nigeria — Stella Oduah, Minister of aviation; Godsday Orubebe, Minister of the Niger Delta; Caleb Olubolade, Minister of Police Affairs; and Dr. Yerima Ngama, Minister of State for Finance. This is the second time within six months that ministers will be leaving the cabinet — and Nigeria is not the only African country affected by incessant sacking of ministers.
Ministry Sacks a Trend Across Africa
Last December, the president of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete, also fired the country’s Defense Minister, Shamsi Vuai Nahodha; Interior Minister, Emmanuel Nchimbi; Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Khamis Kagasheki; and David Matayo, the country’s Lifestock and Fisheries minister. They were fired for the abuse perpetrated by the nation’s security forces during a drive which aimed to stop poaching activities in the country.
Similar cases have been reported in the Central African Republic (CAR) where three ministers were fired following an inter-religious violence in December — and in South Sudan, where the nation’s minister for environment, Abdallah Deng Nhial, was fired without an official explanation.
Temporary and Ultimate Consequences of Hire-and-Fire Practices
While change is good and highly recommended, too much change is deleterious to national stability — especially when the motivation for shake up in the administration was political. According to the Federal Government of Nigeria, the ministers were asked to leave the administration in order to pursue individual political ambitions.
Even though temporary replacements had since been announced, the shake up will definitely affect operations at the respective ministries, the aviation ministry is a good example of such. It is currently carrying out airport facility upgrades nationwide with several other laudable visionary plans proposed. With the minister gone, ongoing projects may be altered, faulted or abandoned.
Almost every elected public official and political appointee in Nigeria and many other parts of Africa sees his or predecessor as having done the wrong thing and would now begin a rebuilding process, which often starts with pulling what the immediate past occupant of such position had done. For instance, if the new aviation minister is not in good terms with the former, a new appointee would cancel ongoing projects and re-award the constructions projects.
Policies may be redrawn, staff reassigned and plans redeveloped. This is one of the reasons why Nigeria and other similar African countries, with at will hire-and-fire practices, are not achieving much.
The process of reshuffling a cabinet creates tension within an administration. It is a capital-intensive and energy-sapping process that puts growth on hold and halts development which means retrogression as other parts of the world and continent are not stopping.
Even though sacking serving ministers in inevitable, it should be the last option, not the first as it currently appears to be in some African countries. The process should be made to be more transparent and open to citizens. One of the ways this could be done is by allowing legislators or a publicly appointed independent committee to assess and make recommendations on what actions to take in corruption cases.
Transition is very essential and heads of African governments should begin to consider this before asking officeholders to vacate such position with immediate effect. With a transition period in place, the newly appointed individual gets to get more informed about the new position while the outgoing minister wraps up and hands over properly.
Is Priority a Dilemma?
Since the head of government has the right to hire-and-fire at will, the whole world gets to see what that leader considers a topmost priority. For instance, a leader concerned with insecurity would readily fire any security chief that is under-performing. Furthermore, if the head of government is intolerant to corruption, he or she would readily fire members of the administration that are involved in corruption allegations.
In Nigeria, there were extensive calls for the sack of aviation minister Stella Oduah due to allegations of corruption, wasteful spending and mismanagement of public resources. Despite these calls, she remained in her position encouraging many Nigerians to conclude that the president may not see corruption as a big deal in his administration.
Her eventual resignation, according to president Goodluck Jonathan, was due to her expression of interest in pursuing other political ambitions. The last time nine ministers were sacked, political reasons were also given. This means that on the last two occasions in which Nigerian ministers were asked to leave, political affiliations and ambitions were offered as excuses. This suggests that the incumbent administration may take political loyalty more serious than national security, industrial stability, consistency and tranquility in the ecosystem.
Out of all Nigerian cities, Lagos state is revered as having the fastest rate of growth; moreover, it is one of the fastest developing cities in the world. The reason for this is not the amount of money that is available to the state for developmental projects; it is the presence of stability and continuity spanning four administrations — each spending four years building on his predecessor’s foundation. The same model could be applied at federal and continental levels.
Painstaking efforts should be made when choosing members of a cabinet, firing should not be based on self-serving purposes. And, a transitional period should be given to ensure continuity.
Democracy means people talking and the government listening. What Africans are saying is that they are tired of hearing “you are fired” over and over again, this is not The Apprentice.