It was the first President of the United States of America, the legendary George Washington who admonished his cabinet members as follows on April 30, 1789: “Be courteous to all but intimate with few and let those few be well tried before you trust them.” Recently, in what could be termed a major cabinet reshuffle aimed at re-invigorating his administration with a view to engendering trust and fast-tracking his Transformation Agenda, President Goodluck Jonathan shoved aside four ministers and three ministers of state and with the speculation that many more would follow.
There is a saying that the only constant thing in life is change. Flowing from this assertion, in governance, cabinet reshuffle or to put it more bluntly, hiring and firing of cabinet members is as normal as the rising and setting of the sun in the east and west respectively. It is always a welcome development so that those who are not measuring up to expectation are eased out and replaced with hands that are willing and capable to clinically execute government’s agenda.
While it is the prerogative of the president to effect changes in his cabinet, it is also advisable that in doing that, due diligence and caution be exercised so as not to throw away the baby with the bath water, in a manner of speaking. At this juncture, even as speculations are rife that another shake-up is imminent in the Federal Executive Council (FEC), it is important to stress here that there are some members of the cabinet who have been adding value through good governance in terms of quality service delivery. It is germane that this genre should be retained if the President’s Transformation Agenda is to have a longer lasting and meaningful sanitizing effect on the citizenry.
It is a well-known fact that in this clime, our inability to keep fidelity with continuity in policies and programmes has turned the nation into one huge cemetery of abandoned projects, something that calls for sober reflection. That is why it is highly necessary to allow any public functionary that is publicly adjudged to be performing to continue at his/her duty post.
One of such persons that have been generally adjudged to be living up to the expectations of the public is Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, the incumbent Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. But before my intention for writing this piece is misconstrued as a desperate attempt to curry favour from the minister, it is necessary that we take a holistic view of his performance in office in the last three years to see whether my advocacy (of Bala’s retention in the cabinet) is necessary or not.
Keenly aware that the task ahead of him was enormous, Bala, on assumption of office in April 2010, immediately hit the ground running. As one of the most legitimatizing factors in the Jonathan administration, the first thing he did was to break the vicious cartel of land racketeering by placing an embargo on land sales. He quickly followed it up by booting the Director of Lands and Registrar of Deeds and instituted a probe into the activities of AGIS, a development that helped to restore sanity at the hitherto corruption-ridden AGIS.
Using the Senator Saidu Dansadau Committee’s report as a handmaiden, the Minister was able to upgrade and reposition land administration. Equally worthy of mention are the removal of illegal structures and annoying road bumps foisted by his predecessor as well as wagging a frontal attack on prostitution, all of which combined to improve the ascetic beauty of Abuja.
Another commendable achievement of Bala was the review of the concessionaire of the Eagle Square and the International Conference Centre to private facility managers thereby enhancing their status and easing mounting security concerns.
In terms of road construction, the Minister in the last three years has accelerated the development of the FCT through construction of flyovers; expansion of Airport Road; Zuba/Kubwa/Tipper Garage from two to ten lanes; provision of sewages and infrastructural facilities like the on-going multi-billion naira Katampe infrastructure concession; introduction of a comprehensive transportation policy premised on multi-modal land transportation and the intrepid transport policy banning ‘araba or danfo’ from within the city centre; tackling of traffic snarl in the city centre; addressing of environmental challenges through prompt waste disposal and clearance of beggars from the streets; extension of mass housing estates to the area councils.
He has also spectacularly succeeded in getting the multi-billion naira Abuja light rail project off ground. It is to his credit that the first phase of this pivotal project has today attained over 30 percent completion level and is primed for completion within the first quarter of 2015.
It is equally to the Minister’s eternal credit that his principal, President Jonathan and other Abuja residents can now sleep with both eyes closed, a function of synergy the FCT Administration under his leadership has been able to forge with all security agencies. And that is not all. He has also succeeded to a considerable extent in enforcing Abuja’s Master plan; raised the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) profile of the FCT; attracted foreign investors in the expansion of the $700million Abuja Botanical Gardens and Parks.
Above all, the most audacious of the Minister’s achievements is the introduction of Land Swap Policy aimed primarily at accelerating the infrastructural development of the FCT. It entails ceding portions of land to private investors in lieu of provision of infrastructure.
It is in view of the foregoing developmental strides and several others that the FCTA was recently honoured with the prestigious United Nation’s Award of Excellence on Public Service Delivery in Bahrain.
In terms of loyalty to the president and fidelity to the administration’s transformation agenda, Bala towers poles above his contemporaries. His loyalty, from all intents and purposes, is total and undiluted. This accounts for why he is widely seen as a veritable link man for the President and a stabilizer in the capital city that strategically hosts the three arms of the Federal Government. Bala is also known to have an unimpeachable team spirit with his ministerial colleagues and his National Assembly former co-members a development that has earned him so much respect from fellow cabinet members.
It would be recalled that prior to his appointment as Minister, Bala and fellow dogged senatorial colleagues were instrumental to the invocation of ‘Doctrine of Necessity’ that paved way for Jonathan’s ascension to the presidency.
Even as a devout Muslim, his relationship with adherents of the opposite religion, Christianity is superb. This much was recently reaffirmed by no less a personality than the President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Bauchi State Chapter, Rev. Lawi Poki during a visit to the Minister at his office in Abuja. The top clergyman expressed the appreciation of Christians in Bauchi state for all that the Minister has done for them.
In the last two years of his stewardship as Minister of the FCT, Bala has initiated several developmental projects; some of which are on-going and they require his presence in the FEC to bring them to fruition. All these explain the resonating celebration in the territory and the clamour for the continued retention of Senator Bala Mohammed as the FCT Minister. Truly, a good music deserves an encore.
· Ochela is a media consultant based in Abuja.
