 President Tinnabee yesterday assigned portfolios to all 45 minister-designates whose nominations were recently confirmed by the Senate ahead of the inauguration on Monday. The assignment of appointees to their respective ministries marked a departure from the past when portfolios were given to ministers on the day of inauguration. The office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation confirmed on Monday that he would be swearing in dates for ministers while the date for the ministerial retreat was yet to be fixed. In a list released by the top presidency official to Newsman at State House in Abuja, former governor of the Bori State, Senator David Umahi was assigned to the Works Ministry as Minister of Works, first as Keanu was given Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development. Former governor of Shun State, Adibu Ila, Uyitola was given Minister of Transportation and Wale Edo was assigned to the Finance Ministry as Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy. Joining us tonight to discuss this is, Ufama Ibramunaki is the head of news at Abuwa Zubia Info here in Lagos and also joining us is Osir Ali, he's the chief team of the People's Democratic Party. Thank you so much gentlemen for joining us and good evening. Glad to be here, good evening. Good evening, good to be here. Great, I'll tell you Ufama because obviously you're a news guy and when the list of names came out even before they were assigned portfolios, a lot of people had several reactions as to the names that made it to the list. Now a few names as we noticed have obviously not made the list finally, the likes of El Rafay and some other people who the Senate was yet to ratify. But now we have seen these names and of course the offices that they will be holding once they have been sworn in. What do you think of these people because we have people who make all kinds of statements about who should handle what and who's a square peg in a round hole. But let's start with the key positions, what are your thoughts? To be very honest with you, I don't know, to be honest the ministerial list, I wasn't surprised, you know, first of all, not also totally surprised with the portfolios they were assigned to the respective persons. And then a couple of people we already knew, you know, what they were going to handle. Ali Patti for example, it was almost obvious that he was going to be the minister of health. But soon Tijani was almost obvious that he was going to handle digital economy. At least those two were almost like a given. I was a bit surprised with, I was a bit surprised with Dalia Laki. I thought he was shooing for information minister. I was a bit surprised to see him in solid minerals development. I was taking a back a bit when I saw the former River State Governor, Jason Wieke, as the Minister for the Federal Capital Territory. I thought he would have been Minister of Works, you know, he's quite famous, you know, for projects, you know, he put up in River State. In fact, he claimed himself Mr. Project, you know, so I thought possibly he would be the Minister of Works. But all in all, I think for me barring a couple of names here and there, it's just a regular chronism, so to speak, you know, same politicians just changing a few names here and there, same of the same. You have an article, Badaru, who, goodness me, some would say in the same society, in the same climes, he should be somewhere in jail, as we speak, but the man has gone from being a senator, you know, to a governor and now he's a minister. But we all know his antecedents and how himself and the late minister of, sorry, the late head of state, Sani Abacha, you know, so I found a lot of, lots of monies from the country. But again, like I said, I think it's just same of the same, barring a few names here and there. So let me come to you, obviously a member of the opposition, the People's Democratic Party, you have a lot to say, obviously, about some of these names that have made the list. There are those who, in fact, I have had conversations over months after the president was sworn in about the kinds of people who would make this list. And many had, you know, spoken to the fact that all because of who the president was when he was a governor of Lagos State, he worked with technocrats, very interesting minds and people who have the best ideas. But looking at this list, can you really say that of the president and the people who he's picked for these offices? I think he has laid that myth to rest. Going into the campaign, that was one of the things that we, they didn't let us get away from, that one of the president's abilities was, you know, the ability to identify and headhunt the best of the best. And so there was, regardless of what you felt about him personally, you always felt that there would be some redemption in the cabinet that he put together. And I think when people saw the initial, there was a lot of disappointment, I think, across the nation and even across party lines, because I would have expected to see a lot more technocrats off the top of my head. I can only think of maybe five, at best six candidates in a list of, an original list of 48. So not only do we have the largest ministerial list ever, but the president somehow managed to pick the worst of the worst of us. And not only that, when he then decided to give them portfolios, he puts, you know, you couldn't have put round-up pegs in square-off polls. Why for instance, yeah, go ahead. No, no, go ahead. I'm just, I'm just listening. I'm saying, so why, for instance, would you have a first-class Kiamo as minister of aviation? Why would you have Badaru and Matawale as ministers of defense and ministers of state of defense? Given that one of the problems Nigeria is facing is insecurity. I saw the appointment of Betah Eddu as humanitarian minister. Nigeria is one of the poorest nations in the world. We have the largest poor population in the world. And then you give medical doctor who basically denied COVID existed and stood in the way of the NCDC of testing while she was commissioner of health in her state. You know, so it does worry me. I don't want to say it's all doom and gloom because there were some standouts. For me as a PDP member, Ophoma has spoken about weak case antecedents in Port Harcourt in River State. I expect him to perform even better as a pseudo governor of FCT because that's what the NCDC is. He sort of exercises some sort of executive power. So I think he will do really well. I know he will go up against a lot of entrant interests. He's the first southern minister in the FCT we're having for at least 46 or 47 years. So he will have to battle those interests when he gets into office. But I think he's more than capable. I have to mention. I'm so sorry to talk over you. Do you think that the reason that maybe the president was very tactful about putting Riki there? Because again, if we go back to the likes of L5 being the FCT minister and you know how daring he was back then under the Ambassador Administration, could this also be one of the reasons why Mr. President had to put a Riki there knowing that he's one who's, for the one to the better way to describe it, is fearless? I think that must in part be the reason why. If you wanted to pick an individual who would go in like a bull in a china shop and you know transform the FCT, it would be Governor Wike. I think a lot of FCT individuals who have built you know without planning having sleepless nights now because you sort of expect that we will go back to strict fidelity and observance of the Abuja master plan. Another standard is Ambassador Tuga. He was Ambassador to Germany. He's a true diplomat, a true gentleman. If we had this cabinet in place, I don't think the missteps we saw Nigeria take with Echoas and Niger would have happened. I think he would have, our response would have been a little bit more considered. Fagbemi as that on the general was an obvious one. He again is a very accomplished lawyer. And so I don't expect to see the types of abuses you would, we saw with someone like Malami you know from Fagbemi. I think he has a reputation to observe. He sort of was a civil society activist on the side. So I don't expect to see, and I'm caveating this being aware of what's happening with Emefeli and Bauer, but I don't see the Nigerian state crack down so hard and take away the rights of the average Nigerians. Bosun Tujani, I don't know how the money to convince him to serve in this government, but he really was a steal. He really has brought, I think, enthusiasm from the tech community and support for these governments because of that singular appointment. Ufama spoke about Patti. He's a brilliant guy, Wale Edun as well as coordinating minister. I expect to see him sort of at the bottom, because he does have the ability to do so. But then, you know, I spoke about Bosun and I said you could see the good will he brought from that community and you know he will grow that digital economy. And politicians are not irrational creatures. Everything we do has to have a reason. When I look at this cabinet, I don't see a cabinet put together to solve Nigeria's pressing economic security problems. I see an election cabinet. I see a cabinet of politicians that sort of are on an election or a campaign footing. You have, I mean, governors, APC, former chairman and woman leader and spokespeople and former senator. That's what comprises the majority of the cabinet. So you're saying that this is more of a reward cabinet? This is more like you work for me and this is what I'm giving you in return? Either a reward cabinet or it's a cabinet that might be have been put together in preparation for a rerun or one. But it doesn't, this is not a cabinet put together to solve Nigeria's pressing problems. Interesting. Let me come back to you, former. I know that aside from you being the head of news for radio station, you also are a sportsman. Let's talk about your constituents. My ex-constitutes. You continuously are a sportsman. But let's talk about the guy who made it. For classmates, this is not necessarily a great feat, being that Senator Juanino has been in the Senate for a while. He's pushed for several interesting bills. He's a very smart and intelligent guy, but sports. Many thought that he should have said no, but I don't know. It doesn't mean that maybe the sports ministry always gets the misses or I don't know exactly because can we really state that this is a win for the ministry of sports knowing that we've had the likes of Dalong and what's the other guy's name? Very interesting guys so far. What do you think about this? Sunday diary. Sunday diary, yes. To be very honest with you, I think I saw a joke on Twitter. Someone said, whenever it's time for these appointments, they divide everything and then it's the last person, the remaining person that doesn't get something that they hand over to sports. I thought Dalong was a disaster. Sunday diary came with, he might not have been a sports person, but he is someone who was quite intelligent and someone you thought could do better. But I thought Sunday diary was also another disaster. I'm not so excited to be honest with that. I hope from proven wrong with John N. O's appointment. In fact, I think it was him on Twitter a few minutes ago, about 30 minutes ago, and I checked it out. He said, farmer and entrepreneur appointed sports minister. He put that himself. It just shows you the irony, so to speak. The funny thing is that Nigerian sports sadly is one of the few things that sort of unites the country. It's that one thing where when it's going on, nobody remembers that Uruguay, Guaosa, or that Osse is from Edo and Delta, even though we are both from the same code, Bandel state, but now we are fighting each other, so to speak. Nobody remembers all of that, but somehow we seem to not always get it right. Like I said, Dalong was a disaster. It was just costing confusion in almost all the sports federations. Sunday diary came and even compounded the issues. So this would more like take him a while to want to get to understand the nitty gritty of how technical sports can be, what needs to be done, all the in-fighting in the different sports federations. Honestly, like I think it was the punch newspaper earlier to the John Wu. I think that was the headline. I love that headline, John Wu, because really... I don't know. Again, we go back to the issue of square pegs in round halls. Now I want to go to something that's very important to Osse, which is really biting. Now we're worried that we've found ourselves in a fixed year as a country because of one statement that was made by the president that subsidy is gone. Let's talk about the Petronium Ministry. Now we know that the minister of state for Petronium is Hanukkah and Lepogry. Now we also know, as journalists and of course as politicians, as Nigerians, following up on this man, he has so many cases to answer, corruption cases, looting and accountability, et cetera, et cetera. This might be detail for a couple of people who've also made this list, but many are plotting that. Oh, great. We now have somebody from the Niger Delta who's seating as minister of state in the Petronium Department, but nobody has really talked about who the Petronium Minister is going to be. Well, the Petronium Minister is the president. Interesting. So is the president speaking up from his predecessor, as he said, because he's predecessor of the Petronium Minister? I think that's what's happening here. We don't need to be told officially before we know. He's sort of divided that ministry into two. So there's the Petronium Resources and then there's GAS. And there are two ministers of states. Sorry, minister, how was it again? Minister, okay, my English failed me there, but you get what I mean. Junior minister, that's the better word for me. So the senior minister, obviously, going by the trend of what his predecessor is himself, the president. But if we want to talk about the issues of corruption, allegations, you know, hanging over the recovery snake, then there are a thousand and one, you know, figuratively now persons on that cabinet who have almost exactly the same kind of issue. The former governor of I think Zampara state, you know, we all know some of the allegations hanging over his neck, but he is, he has been confirmed as a minister. There are quite a number of others too, you know, who have all of those issues. But like you said, that's, it's a very critical sector that we honestly need to, I don't know how we're going to do it, but it needs to be sorted out. The whole subsidy issue, the whole talk about whether or not subsidies are going to come back on then there was a flat denial. You know, yesterday's announcement from NNPC of a $3 billion loan from a bank, you know, so many questions that needs to be asked. One of the explanations they gave to us was that is going to be a fraction of how did the NNPC put in that statement, a fraction of I'm trying to remember the exact words to use, but what is the fraction? Is it 5% percent? Is it 10%? Is it 60%? We absolutely have no idea. Too many questions, you know, in that ministry. This spokesperson of the president talked about how, oh, even if we have all the refineries working, it's not going to really reduce the price of petrol. Is it? Why are we, why have we over the continuously imported petrol into the country when we've spent millions of dollars to do turnaround maintenance on our refineries? And then almost everybody is hoping on Dangotir's refinery, who let's not also forget, I told when he was inaugurated in May, you know, that I was going to start this late last month or this month, you know, August is where in the middle of August and it doesn't look like it's going to happen in December. I think I do regularly in that interview said it would be December. I saw another reporter to be 20, 24. We are just confused. We have no idea what's going to happen. Also, let me come to you still on the issue of the petroleum industry, because Uforma has said if we're going by allegations and corruption cases, then of course we might have to strike everyone off this list. But again, because of this, the urgency that is tied to this, you know, oil and gas sector, should we not see some person, and I'm not saying that we need an angel from heaven, but someone who we think or that seemingly would be showing that they would be able to deal with the corruption in that system, including Mr. President. So Uforma said, I think it's a good thing that they have separated gas from petroleum. I think it's sort of like suggests this government drive the gas agenda as an alternative source of energy for the nation. So that's good. But then when you appoint as your minister of states, Mr. Ekbo, whose previous appointment was Director General of Aquile Bomb Democratic Forum, it doesn't show that you are serious or you want to do anything but pay lip service, or like you said, set to political favors. You know, considering how critical energy is and energy security is to us, and what we are dealing with now as Nigerians with the force of sitting, how do you put, you know, someone who has a look at NGO in Aquile Bomb, you know, and no oil and gas experience as your minister of state for a sector as critical as gas. Even more worrying for me as a former militant from the Niger Delta. My ministry, what happened to my Niger Delta ministry? Where did it go to? Well, I have a quick answer for you because I think the iPad National Chairman, Yagabistan, he said something and I'd like to encourage him. He said that the sector, which is the Niger Delta sector, has been made to look at safe people that should be appointed to that ministry should come from the Niger Delta. And he says it's a wrong signal. In other words, it's not even that important. No, but the problem, you know, and we've been here before, you know, in in when Buhari came into power, if you recall, he suspended the Amnesty program, he was totally against it. And we saw the militants shut down our production in the Niger Delta. And it cost us millions of dollars at a time when we needed it most. If you remember, we're just dipping the economy slowing down at that time in 2015. And so how do you come in? And everybody is agitating. And you are actually showing, we might not be speaking it, but you are showing that you are continuing Buhari's principle of 97% and 5%. The South East, for instance, only have five ministers, four senior ministers, one minister of state. And you can, you know, the president, the president is signaling that, you know, this is because of the results I didn't get from the southeast. And so if that is your position as president, why are you taking away a ministry as critical to your energy security as the Niger Delta ministry? At the time where you need, you actually need to be ramping up all production, you are bringing data and uncertainty into that entire region. It makes no sense to me. I don't know why they did it. I think they'll reverse costs, but we'll see. I forgot to mention something. There's a dark horse minister, Dan Gawa. I think he's minister of housing. He's a seasoned architect and he was, I think, the past MD of the federal mortgage bank. One of the things we're suffering in Nigeria is the housing deficit. And I think there's a time where having someone who understands mortgage financing, who has a professional background in that ministry of housing. So I'm hoping, fingers crossed, I'm hoping that they can somehow make it easier for you and me to get money just to buy houses. Just to add, Marianne, I'm not sure I totally agree with Orsay on the Niger Delta ministry. Are you from the Niger Delta? I'm most likely my get-attacked, you know, from my quote unquote people. But honestly, I feel that the Niger Delta ministry is just a duplication of duties. That's what I think. You already have the NDDC. Why honestly do you need a ministry for the Niger Delta? That's me. I honestly don't think we need it. I would say strengthening the agency you have already. Whatever that ministry can do, I honestly think, you know, can be done by any other ministry. You could even put it under the new one that was created. I wish we had more time, because I wanted to also talk about the duplication of these ministries. And you know, for one, we would think that because of where we are as a country financially and economically, we'd be shrinking some of these ministries, departments and agencies, but we're seeing more and more of these ones being introduced. Again, how are we going to be funding these ministries? Are we going to be seeing our budgets ballooning over time? Because I really am trying to wrap my head around it in closing, guys. Is the irony of it all for me? Okay, go ahead. You are absolutely correct. You know, I started by saying this is the largest cabinet we've ever had at a time where we actually need to be cutting costs and shrinking government. Again, to my mind, politicians will do what's in their best interest. I think Tenubu comes in with a minority mandate. He needs to build elite consensus so I can understand the political thinking behind giving out all these ministries. I can understand that. Okay. Yeah, it's like I said, it's the irony for me. On one hand, subsidy is gone. You know, Nigerians are going through hard times. You're asking Nigerians to, you know, endure the hardship, you know, because it will get better very soon. On the other hand, the politicians who continue to take 70 billion allowance, you know, there's more ministries, there's more appointments, and the cost of governance is still expanding. I honestly don't get it and will never get it. But like I said, there is also a political angle to it. Almost everybody, if you are in issues, will do exactly the same. Well, I want to say thank you. So Nini is the People's Democratic Party chieftain and for my glimmer is the head of news at Coors. There'll be an info here in Lagos. Thank you so much, gentlemen, for being part of the conversation. Thanks for having us. Thank you for having us. All right, we'll take a quick break. When we come back, we'll be talking about calls and concerns in the reduction of comprise. Many are saying it should not be increased, others are saying reduce it. Stay with us. We'll be right back after a bit.