Name Your Ministers Now, You Have No Time To Waste, Agbakoba Tells Tinubu

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to delay in appointing his cabinet members.

Agbakoba made the call on Arise Tv while giving an opinion on his expectations for the new administration.

Tinubu was inaugurated on May 29, 2023 to take over the mantle from former president Muhammadu Buhari.

Tinubu inherited an economy with debt profile estimated at N76trn; inflation has reached 22.22 Per cent in April while unemployment is expected to rise above 40 per cent by the time the National Bureau of Statistics publishes its report.

It is believed that Tinubu’s ability to turn around the fortunes of the country will rely on the capable hands he would appoint to run his government.

He suggested the replacement of Godwin Emefiele, the current Central bank of Nigeria Governor with either Mustafa Chike-Obi, the Chairman of Fidelity Bank Nigeria or Dr. Yemi Cardoso who is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Citibank Nigeria.

Agbakoba said, “We need to talk about a limited government. The government is too big, he needs to have good people. In the CIA they are called ‘top assassins’. My number one top assassin for the Attorney General position will be either Babatunde Ogala or BRF (Babatunde Raji Fashola); for the SGF, I will say that someone like Governor (Abubakar Atiku) Bagudu should be appointed to the position of the SGF.

“The timeline for an appointment is absolutely today. Today, I will think he should be making critical appointments, I will just give a couple of names: Mustafa Chike-Obi (Chairman of Fidelity Bank Nigeria) or (Chairman of the Board of Directors of Citibank Nigeria) Dr. Yemi Cardoso. I will like to see the transport ministry reorganised into four sub-ministries of rail, road, shipping, and air with the secretary of transport organising this.

“Works should seize to be a ministry and they should go onto transport ministry. By 6:pm today, the challenge for President Tinubu will be to name at least four or five critical ministers, because there is no time to waste.”

He argued that asides from scrapping the Transport Ministry, Nigeria needs to introduce a Maritime Ministry in order to tap into the potential of the maritime sector.

He added, “The issue concerning the economy is there is no money. The debt-to-revenue ratio is horrible. We earn N100 and we use it to pay debt. So, there is nothing he can do. Quickly, he must look for how to generate revenue. I’m sitting here in Apapa, this is a goldmine. The port here produces N20bn every day yet this place is abandoned. I would like to see the president propose to the National Assembly an emergency regeneration bill for Apapa. It may cost N10bn to N15bn but it will be worth it because we get a lot of money from Apapa.

“There are 56,000 broken projects that are uncompleted. We need to see legislation going to the National Assembly so that those broken projects can be quickly completed and bring out money for us. The maritime economy has been glossed over by all presidents in Nigeria. It needs to form the central and key part of the president’s agenda and I want to see the president appoint a minister for maritime affairs.

“Nigeria is a very huge country, outside of the oil and gas, the maritime sector is the second largest yet there is no minister. There is the minister of aviation which is smaller than the maritime industry. So that is something that should be done. Analysts have shown the maritime sector can produce up to N7trn or N8trn a year.”