The federal cabinet
may roar back to life soon as Acting President Goodluck Jonathan is set
to retain some of the 42 ministers relieved of their jobs following the
dissolution of the Executive Council of the Federation (EXCOF).
We learnt the list
of the 21 nominees to be retained will be forwarded to the Senate
anytime from now for confirmation. We also learnt that the Presidency
is considering six names as likely replacement for Professor Maurice
Iwu as Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
According to
sources in the Presidency, names being considered as likely replacement
for Iwu include Attahiru Jega, a former president of the Academic Staff
Union of Universities; Jibrin Ibrahim; rtd. Ishola Williams, retired
Major General and president of Transparency Nigeria; Dora Akunyili,
immediate past Information and Communications Minister; Abubakar Umar,
former Military Administrator of Kaduna State; Olisa Agbakoba, Senior
Advocate of Nigeria and former Nigeria Bar Association, NBA president.
Dora Akunyili? Who
will want to appoint Dora into any sensitive position in Nigeria again?
Have we not seen enough of her? The Akunyili I know now worship power,
and she worships it with her whole body, her whole heart, her whole
spirit and, in fact, her whole being. For her, nothing is too small or
too great to do to acquire power and flaunt it. Her love of publicity,
is part of her endless scheming for power. Once she grabs it, Mrs
Akunyili immediately and unceremoniously abandons all who helped her.
Our Dora at every turn reminds me of the proverb about the man who on
using a ladder to climb to the top quickly destroyed it so that no
other person could benefit from it. If she can betray the Yar Adua’s
that appointed her as minister, why say she won’t betray Goodluck
Jonathan .
I have been on one
of Dora’s fans when she was head of NAFDAC. I was prepared to die
defending her. But honestly, since she accepted the office of the
Information Minister for President Yar Adua led government in her
desperation to continue to be in office, she has become a shadow of
herself. She went about telling Nigerians lies upon lies, defending
government failures and deceits with pride. Even when there was
billions of naira budgeted to provide us with darkness, she kept
defending the government. Then she was never guided by the Holy Spirit
to tell us the truth.
Remember when she
came out shamelessly to tell the world that as a minister for
information, her job was only to help the Nigerian Television Authority
(NTA) carry their files to the president without making an input at
all. This was when she desperately attempted to exonerate herself from
the high level fraud that greeted the contract award for procurement of
broadcast equipment for NTA for the just concluded U-17 FIFA football
tournament hosted by Nigeria. That is the ‘saint obi’ of a woman.
As if that is not
enough, she was the same person who came openly to defend the so-called
cabal’s insistence on President Yar Adua’s right to govern from
anywhere in the world. That he is medically fit and all there was to be
told. But about some weeks ago, Professor Akunyili wrote a memo to her
cabinet colleagues asking them to make Vice President Goodluck Jonathan
the Acting President in accordance with Section 145 of the
Constitution. Nothing is wrong with making Jonathan the Acting
president but it was a dramatic volte face for someone who had on two
previous occasions after the Executive Council meetings addressed the
press where she strongly defended Yar’Adua’s fitness for the country’s
leadership.
Dora made it the
first time in our history where council Memo became public knowledge no
sooner than it was written, let alone submitted. Even directors in the
Ministries who normally prepare such memos swear to an oath of secrecy
before working on them.Dora broke the oath of secrecy . Dora’s reasons
for sending her memo to every media were for her to be seen as a
fanatical supporter of Dr Jonathan—the new kid on the block– so that
she could retain her cabinet membership, and to regain her public image
which has been declining disastrously since she became the Minister of
Information. Not satisfied with the plethora of articles she and her
numerous aides have been churning out every second eulogising her for
her so-called courage in breaking ranks with her colleagues over
Yar’Adua’s health status, Mrs Akunyili went on a whistle-stop campaign
of media interviews castigating her colleagues dubbed by the press as
the cabal for hiding the president from everyone.
There is no serious
government anywhere in the world where cabinet members attack
themselves in the open. The doctrine of collective responsibility, for
instance, makes it mandatory that ministers defend government policies
in public, including those they may have opposed strongly as
individuals during cabinet discussions. Dora when she got facts that
president Yar adua was not to recover on time to resume office as they
expected, immediately tried to outsmart Nigerians by defecting to the
winning siding claiming to be standing for the truth and insisting the
Nigerian Constitution be complied with after serving Nigerians with
lies. This is crass opportunism and greed for power.
After the 2009
Anambra governorship election which saw the lost of PDP, the world was
shocked to see Dora Akunyilli summon and sponsor a so-called Anambra
State PDP stakeholders reconciliation meeting where she passionately
regretted the loss of PDP and begged them to walk together for the
progress and interest of PPD alone. Is this the kind of person that
should replace Iwu as INEC boss? How can she then lead INEC to deliver
free and fair election that will ensure the rejection or failure of PDP
if Nigerians so insist and desire?
In her desperation
to remain politically relevant, she has only few days ago got the
Catholic Women Organisation to honour her with an Award of
“Incorruptible mother”. Who conformed that she is incorruptible? EFCC,
ICPC or NASS? Has she been investigated? How did she manage the
billions of naira spent so far for her Nigeria “rebranding” campaign?
This is very important to Nigerians to know how she disbursed the funds
and to who she gave the contracts. How transparent was it? Honestly,
for me, Akunyili has failed and hurt Nigerians so badly that she must
never be allowed to lead any organ or agencies of our father land again.
-Kenneth Uwadi writes from Mmahu-Egbema, Imo State, Nigeria
Leave a Reply