On Monday, seven new ministers were sworn in as replacements for the five that were recently dropped. One is designated to fill the position of the newly created Ministry of Livestock Development. The Ministry of Nigeria Delta Development has been renamed the Ministry of Regional Development to oversee the activities of all the regional development commissions. The Ministry of Sports Development is now scrapped, with its functions transferred to the National Sports Commission. The Federal Ministry of Tourism has also been merged with the Federal Ministry of Arts and Culture to become the Federal Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy. At the occasion, President Bola Tinubu said despite the prevailing challenges, the administration was on the right track on the job of re-engineering and retooling the economy.

Indeed, the president sounded upbeat. “It is my joy and honour to be part of you to be responsible for over 200 million people in this country. We have taken the bull by the horn. We have stopped the scavengers. We are going to stop completely the profiteers and smugglers of our resources across the country,” the president told the new ministers. “We are not going to run away from our responsibility, we are going to face it, and we have been facing it head-on.”

Without a doubt, there were strong grounds for the president to rejig his cabinet. Many policy analysts and social critics had canvassed this, contending that the administration needed to reboot if it wanted to acquire the capacity to fast-track the delivery of its basic programmes. But rather than harken to the general clamour for a better and more efficient administrative hands, the president has only managed to do a cosmetic change. Had the president’s reason for the cabinet review and expansion been in tune with public mood, many of the current ministers would not have been retained. Like we predicted last year, the expansion of the cabinet has only led to the bloating of the executive arm of government while increasing the cost of governance in an economy that is challenged on several fronts.

However, as the president himself admitted, the challenges at hand are enormous. Following the removal of fuel subsidy and merging of the foreign exchange rates, Nigerians have been groaning under soaring prices of items, particularly consumer goods. Basic staples, ranging from rice, proteins, grains, cereals, bread, carbohydrates, and beverages have been priced beyond the reach of most citizens. In the security sector, scores of people are killed daily in different parts of the country either by terrorists, bandits and sundry other cartels of armed gangs. Also, the rule of law reigns substantially in rhetoric. Healthcare delivery is still poor and educational standards continue to slide and a large chunk of the population still live below poverty line.

We are delighted that the president alluded to some of these challenges while pledging his administration’s resolve to tackle them. But the underperformance of the cabinet might have been worsened by the failure to constitute the governing boards of a retinue of parastatals that are meant to guide the implementation of policies tailored to engender the much-needed good governance. For instance, more than a year after recalling the ambassadors from their missions abroad, the president is yet to nominate their replacements thus leaving Nigerian embassies abroad rudderless. We hope the president will redress that situation soonest.

While we join in welcoming on board the new ministers, we hope the president himself will lead by example. (THISDAY Editorial)