Former Minister of Finance and National Planning, Shamsuddeen Usman, says it takes deft navigation of many political manoeuvres to become a minister in Nigeria.
Usman, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday, said there is a lot of “scheming” that makes ministers unable to excellently execute many reforms they loudly propound before their appointments.
He said, “There are a lot of things that you try to do but the political system is set in such a way that is very difficult to get things done properly.
“Public servants are put there to protect public interest but unfortunately for many public servants whether they are politicians, whether they are members of the National Assembly, whether they are in the executive, whether they are civil servants, a lot of people, their interest tends to overtake public interest. And therefore, instead of being agents of the public, they become principals because it is their interests that are primed.”
Usman was Finance Minister from June 2007 to January 2009 under the administration of late President Umaru Yar’adua. He was later appointed Minister of National Planning in January 2009 by Yar’adua, an office he held till September 2013 during the administration of President Gooduck Jonathan. Both governments were produced by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Before his ministerial appointments, Usman was the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from 2004 to 2007.
Taking a trip down memory lane, Usman said he had to rush to his hometown in Kano State to join the ruling party at the time to be confirmed as a minister.
He said, “For example, the day I was appointed minister, somebody alerted me that: ‘Hey, for you to get confirmed as a minister, you have to register as a member of a political party’.
“Because as of that time, I was not a member of any political party, I had to rush to Kano to my ward and register. And there are also some requirements by the Senate before you can get confirmed. Those tidbits I gave were to highlight that the life of a minister is never simple, straightforward, get the job done. No, unfortunately, there are some political issues that you have to handle, scheming and all.”
The ex-minister said it took some work for him to get senators from his state to support his nomination during his screening by the upper legislative chamber.
“The first thing you learn as a minister is to learn how to manage the territory,” he said, adding that a minister must stay close to the programmes of the president to be successful.
“Stay close to the programme of the president because that is very critical because you are not there in your own right; you are there as an appointee of the president and is therefore very important to ensure that what you are implementing is not your business but the business of the president. If you do that, you will be very successful,” Usman said.
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