Buhari’s ‘forgotten’ ministers
Many Nigerians, however, believe that after a year in office Mama Taraba has done little to confirm the high expectations that greeted her appointment as a minister. Geoffrey Onyeama The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, assumed office with high hope from Nigerians that the country’s battered image abroad would be redeemed and the nation would regain its true position in the comity of nations.
Onyeama had been involved in diplomatic shuttles, either with President Muhammadu Buhari or alone, globetrotting the world to meet foreign counterparts to discuss security and economic matters affecting Nigeria.
On assumption of office in Novermber 2015, Onyeama rolled out his strategy to reform Nigeria’s foreign missions, block economic leakages, expand relations with neighbouring countries to address insecurity and work closely with foreign partners to fight corruption and recover looted assets.
He had promised to set the wheel of economic diplomacy rolling, saying efforts would be made to engage Nigeria’s mission abroad and turn them into economic hub for the country’s development.
While the efforts to securing international commitment in the fight against terrorism have been largely successful, such was not the case with the repatriation of stolen assets. Though efforts had been made in this direction with series of meeting with foreign governments where Nigeria’s loots are stashed, this yielded no positive results as no money has been returned to the country.
Also, many Nigerians have always complained of the ineptitude of foreign missions’ officials to address their problems or even swiftly respond to request put forwarded to them. This has not changed significantly one year after Onyeama took over the management of the foreign ministry.
A number of Nigerians abroad have been victims of abuse in their countries of resident with some either killed extra-judicially or suffered injuries due to physical abuse, while the perpetrators, most times, were left unpunished. On economic diplomacy, checks revealed that Nigeria’s foreign missions have been unproductive in marketing the nation’s investment opportunities as there are no substantive ambassadors in place to follow up most of the actions. Okechukwu Enelamah The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah, has been overseeing a sector that is witnessing huge downturns since the start of 2016. Under Enelamah’s watch, several industries have shut down this year and many that are still operating have retrenched many workers.
Data obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that in the third quarter of 2016, real Gross Domestic Product growth of the manufacturing sector slowed by 2.63 percent points to minus 4.38 percent (year-on-year) from minus 1.75 percent growth recorded in third quarter of 2015.
The Minister is also overseeing a trade sector grappling with high inflation rate, jumping from 9.6 percent recorded in January to 18.3 percent as at October, 2016, being the highest rise in prices of commodities seen in Nigeria in the past 16 years.
Until recently when he announced the readiness of his ministry to implement the National Industrial Revolution Plan, the fate of the plan had been uncertain, and the implementation delayed beyond the first quarter of the year.
Even with the announcement of the implementation of the plan, the details have remained sketchy.
Similarly, the Ministry has been dragging foot on the full implementation of the Cotton, Textile and Garment (CTG) policy launched by the then Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, in Abuja, and witnessed by stakeholders in the textile industry and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.
Textile factories still remain moribund as the policy, aimed at developing the entire value chain in the industry with a target of over N566 billion export earnings, gathers dust in the Ministry’s shelves.
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the printing sector