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Politics Overriding Nation Building In Nigeria – Ugwumadu

A Nigerian lawyer, Mr Malachy Ugwumadu, says the recent cabinet shake-up showed that politics is increasingly overriding the more serious consideration of nation building. Giving … Continue reading Politics Overriding Nation Building In Nigeria – Ugwumadu


A Nigerian lawyer, Mr Malachy Ugwumadu, says the recent cabinet shake-up showed that politics is increasingly overriding the more serious consideration of nation building.

Giving his opinion, on Tuesday as regards the cabinet shake-up in Nigeria, Mr Ugwumadu insisted that the sacking of some ministers was long overdue.

He said that the ministers were relieved of their appointments when so much had happened in the negative to undermine the democratic process.

“Quite a number of other persons that naturally would have merited the relief of appointment are still staying.

“We are wondering why the minister of petroleum should not go.

“The Supervising Minister of Education should not remain in office after the crisis in the university during the Academic Staff Union of Universities’ strike.

“This is a man who woke up one day and removed the pro-chancellor of a university. Under the act establishing all the Federal Universities in Nigeria, it is only the visitor that has the right to remove a pro-chancellor. A pro-chancellor is not a cleaner,” he stated.

There have been several comments that the former Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, had done so much in the sector and should not have been removed, but Mr Ugwumadu insisted that she was only doing what she was appointed to do.

He questioned what Ms Oduah has done to give her a superlative qualification.

“If you renovated an existing airport for instance, what else would be your duty if you did not do that?”

He gave an instance of a bad landing experience he had on-board an airplane in Nigeria, insisting that the industry still had issues that Nigerians should not be excited about.

Mr Ugwumadu also mentioned the 250 million Naira armoured car scandal that is still hanging around the former minister and the shady circumstances that surrounded the investigation of the issue.

He questioned her integrity and insisted that she violated the laws of the land.

He, however, said that there were some ministers that were doing their job well, but stressed the need for political leaders to have a clear vision of what they intend to do before they come into office.

“Collectively, however, they have all failed. I do not admire anybody that is involved in this wobbling called governance.

“We do not have a president that is well wired for this job. We have seen so many people who prepared themselves for the presidency of the country and we have seen so many that came to power unprepared,” he stressed.

The lawyer said that the flip side of the issue was that the nomination that had been made by President Goodluck Jonathan was also centred on political interest and not on nation building.

“There are questions of criminal trials against one of the nominees, Boni Haruna.

“It should be done in a way that the integrity of the whole process should be seen,” he said.

He was of the opinion that the nominees should be screened based of the ministry that they would oversee.