Those who should not be ministers (3)

Lucky Imasuen

The immediate past Deputy Governor of Edo State, Lucky Imasuen, is in the news again. Despite the controversies that colour his profile, he has been nominated by the Peoples Democratic Party to be appointed minister by President Goodluck Jonathan in his new government.

In his political career spanning almost 13 years, Imasuen has built up for himself a reputation of inconsistency and political jobbery, just as he seems to have placed personal ambition over group interest. And besides having spent his pre-political life in the US, his educational and professional qualifications are also not well known. So, it is difficult to say which ministry will best suit his ‘competence’.

Fresh from the United States in 1998, Imasuen fell among the smart Nigerians that took advantage of the disinterest shown by established politicians and professionals in the emerging democratic dispensation and jumped into the political fray midwived by the military. Within a short time, backed with his now receded American accent and a huge war chest, Imasuen soon secured the governorship ticket of the All Peoples Party (now All Nigeria Peoples Party).

He tried to win by playing on the perceived cold relationship between the palace of the Oba of Benin and the Igbinedion family, whose son, Lucky, was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party. His calculations failed and he lost out. His party went to court. Yet, fired by personal ambition, he abandoned the party and its teeming supporters and joined forces with Igbinedion in 2003.

By the time Igbinedion was starting his second term in office in 2003, Imasuen had entrenched himself in his government and was soon appointed the Chief of Staff to the Governor, a position that put him in charge of the administration of Government House. He soon began to work against his master, Igbinedion, when he saw that the governor had fallen out of favour with the national leadership of the PDP.

Rather than sink with him, Imasuen resigned and accepted nomination to be Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor’s running-mate in the 2007 governorship election. Osunbor was then the favoured candidate of Edo political godfather, Tony Anenih, and former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Thereafter, Imasuen benefited from the rigging of he 2007 election and became the deputy governor. But before the government settled down, he fell out with the governor and was said to have worked like a fifth columnist for the Anenih faction of the PDP before they were all flushed out of the Government House by the courts, which declared the Action Congress candidate the authentic winner of the 2007 election.

The only thing that is remarkable about Imasuen is the total absence of any significant contribution from him, to the growth of Edo State.

Baba Shehu Agaie

One wonders what the name of Mr. Baba Shehu Agaie is doing among the ministerial nominees of the Peoples Democratic Party. Curiously, his name is leading those of other nominees for Niger State. Agaie has been occupying the Agaie/Lapai Federal Constituency seat in the House of Representatives for three tenures of 12 years. He, however, has little or nothing to show for it.

Although he is the Deputy Majority Leader of the house, he shows no sense of character and good representation during plenary. He is known to be a taciturn legislator whose only contribution is to second motions. He, is, therefore, seen more than he is heard. When he speaks, the 53-year old is usually very inaudible. His years of representation did not translate to development in his constituency as it remains the poorest area in the state with no potable water, access roads and other basic amenities.

His nomination is believed to be compensation from his party for losing his ambition to move up to the Senate in the April general elections. He was defeated thoroughly at the primaries by the incumbent Senator Hajia Zainab Kure and he was immediately promised a ministerial slot by the party. This is an indication that some politicians simply have nothing to offer the country.

Besides, Nigerians are tired of sacrificing the future of this country on the altar of political compensation. It is believed that that era is gone. Furthermore, he was among the lawmakers alleged to have misappropriated public funds in 2009. He was asked to account for the N130m the House had budgeted to host the Afro-Arab Summit in Abuja in April 2009.

Mohammed Bello Adoke

As the Minister for Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke faced his biggest test in the estimation of many Nigerians in his handling of the $18m Halliburton scandal. Unfortunately, people who expected decisive and consistent actions from his office were thoroughly disappointed.

Were Nigeria a country where political office holders are held accountable for their misdeeds, the greatest odd against him would thus be his alleged consistent unwillingness to prosecute public officials indicted in scams. Many still don’t know why he withdrew charges against indicted multinational companies that include Julius Berger, Siemens Plc, Saipem, Technip and Halliburton Inc.

The AGF had told journalists at a ministerial press briefing that the Federal Government had recovered $170.8m penal fines from multinational companies indicted in the Halliburton bribery scandal in their bid to escape prosecution. He added that after the recovery of these monies, a total of about $255m would have been received as restitution from the affected companies. But critics were quick to say that these fines were considerably less than those imposed by foreign countries involved in the cases.

For example, the US government fined Halliburton $559m. Also, Halliburton former executive, Albert Stanley, was fined $10.8m. Yet in Nigeria, the hub of bribery scandal, the company paid a paltry fine and individuals haven’t made restitutions.

Another issue here is that investigations revealed that within his 10 months of being in office, the AGF got an all-time record of over 25 cases withdrawn by him against high profile corruption suspects. Besides, he has questions to answers over alleged flagrant violation of sections 15(5) and 174 (3) of the 1999 constitution when he set out to withdraw several cases on economic crimes against the public interest, including the case of the Vaswani Brothers who were accused of multi-billion naira tax evasion and forgery.

Compounding this is a curious letter that emanated from the office of the AGF, stopping the trial of the Minister of State for Health, Alhaji Suleiman Bello, over alleged corruption by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission. The anti-graft agency had also accused the minister of conferring corrupt advantage upon himself by unlawfully soliciting for funds from a governor. The minister’s action, according to the commission, contravenes Section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000.

Gbenga Elegbeleye

Gbenga Elegbeleye is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party representing Akoko North-East/North-West Federal Constituency at the National Assembly. He lost his chance to return to the House when he lost woefully to the Labour Party candidate in the April general election. There was instant jubilation among his people, especially the youths in his area, when the result of the election was announced and it was obvious that Elegbeleye, whose nickname is “Oto”, will not go back to the House. Anybody with the smallest quantum of sense can rightly guess why the people were jubilant at Elegbeleye’s loss: he performed below expectation. For instance, despite the fact that he was the Vice-Chairman, House Committee on Sports, he did not attract development to the area.

Analysts say that it took the strong intervention of the Defence Minister, Prince Tokunbo Kayode, to ensure that Elegbeleye was picked as the PDP candidate in the April election when the leaders and members of the party insisted during the primary election that Elegbeleye should not be presented as the representative for the election.

If a politician is voted out of office for non-performance, should he now be rewarded with a ministerial post? The answer that one is likely to get from Elegbeleye’s constituency is a resounding no..