Dons Eze
PAROCHIALISM OR COMPETENCE?: EXPERTS ANALYSE TINUBU’S ECONOMIC TEAM
Within a spate of 24 hours this week, two key developments occurred in the Nigerian economic sector.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu confirmed the appointment of Shamseldeen Ogunjimi as Accountant-General of the Federation while the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) appointed 16 new directors as part of reforms within the apex bank.
The appointments did not come as a surprise to many as Ogunjimi had been nominated for the position since 2024, even before the expiration of the tenure of Oluwatoyin Madein, the outgoing accountant-general.
Similarly, the CBN had placed an internal advertisement for the post of directors following the retirement of the previous directors.
What, however, came as a surprise is that the appointments followed a particular pattern that conforms to allegations that under the current administration, a particular section of the country- the South-West, is dominating the economic landscape.
Ogunjimi, like President Tinubu, hails from Lagos State, and is taking over from Madein, who is from Ogun State and from the same geopolitical zone and ethnic group as the president.
If this was a coincidence, the appointment of 16 new directors at the apex bank makes it look otherwise.
Of the 16 new directors, eight are of the same ethnic affinity while the remaining eight were picked across the remaining over 200 ethnic groups in the country.
Those that share one ethnic affinity, Yoruba, include Ojumu Adenike Olubunmi, Director, Medical Services; Makinde Kayode Olanrewaju, Director of Procurement and Support Services; Isa-Olatinwo Aisha, Director of Consumer Protection; Yusuf Rakiya Opemi, Payments System Supervision; Vincent Monsurat Modesola, Strategy Management and Innovation; Akinwunmi Akinniyi; Banking Supervision; Adedeji Sikiru, Currency Operations and Branch Management; and Solaja Olayemi, Other Financial Institutions.
Others from other ethnic nationalities are Abdullahi Hamisu, Director of Banking Services; Jide-Samuel Omoyemen Avbasowamen; head, Information Technology; Sike Ijeoma, head, Financial Policy and Regulation, while Monetary Policy Formulation will be overseen by Oboh Victor Ugbem. Nakorji Musa is to head Trade and Exchange; Farouk Muhammad, Reserve Management; Hassan Umar, Development Finance Institutions Supervision (OFISD); and Okpanachi Moses, Director of Statistics.
This, coupled with the previous appointees from the South-West zone, has raised the question of ethnic favouritism at the expense of other parts of the country and has made the president’s economic team to appear lopsided.
This tendency was noticed very early in the life of the current administration when the president named Yemi Cardoso as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and Zacheus Adedeji as the chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). All of them are Yoruba from the South-West.
Groups speak on appointments
Noticing this trend, some Nigerians attempted to call the attention of the president to the lopsidedness of appointments into positions that have to do with finance and economic wellbeing of the country.
As early as 2023, when the president was just months in office, a group, The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), accused him of nepotism, alleging that most of the key appointments in his government were allotted to Nigerians from his ethnic group.
In a statement issued by its coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA faulted the appointments of the CBN governor and the FIRS chairman.
Speaking in the same vein, the national publicity secretary of the apex northern socio-cultural and political organisation, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Professor Tukur Muhammad-Baba, also criticised Tinubu for giving sensitive and “lucrative” appointments to persons from his southwestern part of the country.
Muhammad-Baba, a professor of Sociology, said this should not be encouraged in a “deeply fractious federation” like Nigeria.
Even the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, in November 2024, also saw reasons to caution President Tinubu over what it described as his bias and preference for the Yoruba in federal appointments.
The group made this known in a statement by its then leader, Ayo Adebanjo and the national publicity secretary, Justice Faleye respectively, in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
Part of the statement reads: “We can never condone the outrageous bias by Tinubu to make the Yoruba heads of all arms of the criminal justice system (EFCC, DSS, Attorney-General and Chief Justice); the economy (Coordinating Minister of the economy, CBN, Finance, Blue Economy, Digital Economy, Trade, Industries and Investment, Bank of Industry, Solid Minerals); as well as the forces (army, police, customs, immigration).”
Economic analysts observe that the president, having appointed himself minister of petroleum and made his long-time associate, Wale Edun, the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, he should have spread the other slots on the economic team to other parts of the country since the two positions are central enough to determine the swing of major policy decisions.
The position of the coordinating minister of the economy gained popularity under the Goodluck Jonathan administration, when the minister of finance, apart from overseeing affairs at the core ministry, coordinated other ministers to work in tandem with the economic vision and policies of the administration.
The petroleum ministry is seen as very important due to its control of the activities in the petroleum industry, which is responsible for the country’s earnings.
Under the current administration, in addition to the position of the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, the bulk of the portfolios that have to do with the economy have been placed under the supervision of people from the president’s part of the country.
Gboyega Oyetola from Osun State is the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy; Jumoke Oduwole is Minister of Trade and Industry; Bosun Tijani, Minister of Innovation and Digital Economy; Adebayo Adelabu is Minister of Power, while Dele Alake is the Minister of Solid Minerals Development.
It was observes that key agencies that either control the country’s finances or economic development are also mostly headed by people who share the same ethnic affinity. They include the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Adewale Adeniyi; Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Kemi Nandap; the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chairman, Ola Olukoyede, and chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele.
Even when the president constituted a 31-man Presidential Economic Coordination Council in March 2024, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Edun, was made the chairman of both the 19-man economic management team emergency taskforce and the 14-man economic management team.
President Tinubu also established the Economic Management Team Emergency Taskforce (EET), which also has the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance as chairman.
The economic team usually designs the policies to introduce and guide the development of the economy. It also controls the bulk of the resources of the country due to the substantial amount domiciled in the ministries and agencies under its supervision.
Those in the team are considered very powerful as the economic prosperity of the country rests squarely on whatever they decide for the president.
The floating of the naira, categorising power consumers into bands and the tax reforms bills are believed to be some of the direct influence of the economic team.
‘There’s lopsided distribution’
The programme coordinator of the Social Development Integrated Centre (Social Action) Nigeria, Mr Isaac Botti, agrees that the composition of the president’s economic team is one sided. He said, “We need to transcend ethnic biases and see how we can work with the right set of people as a country – those who really understand what needs to be done to revamp the economy.”
Dr Aminu Hayatu, a political economy researcher/analyst and senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science, Bayero University, Kano, said that merit should trump any other consideration in the composition of an economic team.
He said: “While I acknowledge the importance of inclusivity, economic policy should ultimately be driven by capacity rather than regional or ethnic considerations.”
He, however, added that in a diverse country like Nigeria, broad representation could help ensure that economic policies reflect the realities of different regions.
Blast from the past
Meanwhile, some analysts have pointed out that the immediate past leader of the country, Muhammadu Buhari, started the lopsidedness during his administration. But facts on ground show that it was slightly better during the previous administration.
In September 2019 when Buhari constituted an Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to replace the administration’s Economic Management Team, he named Prof Doyin Salami as chairman; Dr Mohammed Sagagi, vice chairman; Prof Ode Ojowu; Dr Shehu Yahaya; Dr Iyabo Masha; Prof Chukwuma Soludo and Mr Bismark Rewane as members, while the secretary was Dr Mohammed Adaya Salisu (Senior Special Assistant to the President on Development Policy).
In his cabinet, Buhari appointed himself Minister of Petroleum; the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment was Niyi Adebayo; while Isa Ali Pantami was Minister of Communication; Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance; Sabo Nanono, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development; Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Works and Housing; and Olamilekan Adegbite – Minister of Mines and Steel Development.
Nigerians should be concerned about competence – Presidency
The Presidency, while reacting to the development, said there’s nothing wrong with the appointments since they are all Nigerians.
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, told our reporter that once the appointees are Nigerians and they are qualified, then the matter is settled.
“I don’t see anything wrong with the point you are raising. Are they not qualified?” he asked.
On the appointment of the Accountant-General of the Federation, he explained that it was earlier announced, but when it was pointed out that certain rules were not followed, it was stepped down.
“And they now went through a rigorous selection process. More people were invited, and at the end of the day, the man still came tops. So, I think that as Nigerians, we should not be looking at the appointment from the prism of region, ethnicity, religion or something like that, what we should be thinking about is whether they are qualified or not. Are they square pegs in square holes? That should be the issue.
“That is why we keep missing it – we always emphasise the wrong things. Are all those people not qualified? Is the FIRS chairman not doing well? Is he not bringing more revenue to this country?
“Is the CBN governor not doing well? Look, we should be looking at competence and ability to perform. I think that’s what should matter, not where somebody comes from.”
