Nigeria: Performance and Political Climate in Their Home States

26 October 2014

INDICATIONS that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) would suffer a major distraction emerged last week. The President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, seems to have accommodated the fact that some of his cabinet Ministers have for long had their eyes trained on gubernatorial seats of their respective states. Though the President reserves the right to hire and fire, as was exemplified by his sack of some ministers late last year, the right to quit seems to be beyond him. In popular psychology, it is held that winners do not quit and quitters do not win. But in the present circumstances, those who are quitting Jonathan's cabinet seem to be going in the quiet confidence that they are winners. The losers, perhaps, are the federal government and Nigerian citizens who repose their mandate on their principal, who after all cannot do the work of governance alone. This should throw up once more the debate over the expediency of parliamentary system and stability of the federal system.

One obvious deduction from the development is that the deserting ministers merely used the opportunity of their appointment to further their desire for political progression and financial enlargement. The exit has left a vacuum, which would not only take its toll on governance but time and needless calculations to fill.

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