Nigerians online and offline appear to be of the opinion that a cabinet reshuffle is one of the things President Muhammadu Buhari needs to do 2017. We don’t know if he will heed the call or not, but what we know is that his cabinet needs regular assessment to evaluate their performance.

We have set up a ranking system where ministers from Babatunde Fashola to Isaac Fawole to Solomon Dalung are placed on a scale and weighed – let’s show you how they stand.

– This list is from best to worst in descending order.
1. Abubakar Malami, Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation

He spearheaded the arraignment of Senate President, Bukola Saraki, for alleged falsification of asset declaration and moved for the SSS arrest and detention of seven judges for alleged corrupt practices. But there is no denying that the justice sector needs to be reformed, especially disobedience of court orders is commonplace.

2. Aisha Al-Hassan, Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development

She engineered the creation of a 24/7 Desk in the ministry to deal with the Chibok schoolgirls issues and facilitated the release of N150 billion for women entrepreneurship development in Nigeria.  But violence against women still prevails and the gender disparity gap still widening.

3. Mansur Mohammed Dan-Ali, Ministry of Defence

In all fairness, there is substantial reduction in terrorist activities in the north-east, but the fact that there are pockets of bombing might overrun this achievement. The minister needs to tackle allegations of extra-judicial killings by the military and contain militancy in the Niger Delta.

4. Chibuike Amaechi, Ministry of Transportation

Here is the ministry that made Amaechi less of a talker. He succeeded in completing the $1.457 billion Abuja-Kaduna Rail line conceived by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, but the transport sector isn’t adding anything substantial to the Gross National Product and airports aren’t in their best conditions.

5. Abdulrahman Dambazzau, Ministry of Interior

He obtained permission for N3.5 billion to procure 320 Made-in-Nigeria vehicles to aid prisons and signed an agreement with UK on Immigrants Return to enhance profiling of the nationalities or migrants through the use of biometric and biographic data. There are still several awaiting trials, a number of jailbreaks and more illegal immigrants getting into the country – all of these issues should trouble the minister in 2017.

6. Amina Mohammed, Ministry of Environment          

The ministry began the Clean-up of the Ogoni environment and took further steps to enhance rapid response to oil spills and prevent the further degradation of the environment. It is saddening that despite Amina Mohammed’s antecedents, solid waste management remains a challenge and the menace of erosion, desertification and deforestation still persist.

7. Kayode Fayemi, Ministry of Mines and Steel Development (Solid Minerals)

The ministry said it will make solid minerals the vehicle to diversify Nigeria’s economy. It has recorded some achievements like putting an end to the ownership crisis of the Ajaokuta Steel Company and proposing a bill to create an independent regulatory agency in the mining sector to the National Assembly. But the solid minerals sector is yet to add much to the GDP

8. Lai Mohammed, Ministry of Information and Culture

Always there to put up a staunch defence for the federal government, Lai Mohammed has not fared badly at all. He, alongside the president, initiated the “Change Begins With Me” programme to change the attitude of Nigerians. But it is really worrying to hear him say that the APC-led federal government had fulfilled all its campaign promises to Nigerians.

9. Geoffrey Onyeama, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The ministry secured the release of Nigerians detained in Turkey and digitized the ministry’s communication. For instance, Geoffrey Onyeama is active on Twitter. The delay in appointing non-career ambassadors isn’t doing the ministry any good.

10. Chris Ngige, Ministry of Labour and Employment

The minister is yet to address the scourge of unemployment it promised to tackle, but it has succeeded in resolving several labour disputes, including the one between the Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing and the National Union of Electricity Employees.

11. Professor Isaac Adewole, Ministry of Health

The minister’s “Better Health for all” initiative seems to be producing quick results in the lives of Nigerians. But there is still a huge issue in the health sector as more and more Nigerians are seeking medical attention abroad. Also, there is no cancer machine currently working in Nigeria and infant mortality rate is still on the rise.

12. Mohammed Bello, Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT)

Bello said he will make Abuja a better place than he met it and create 10,000 jobs by the year 2020. It was he who ordered the end to cattle grazing in Abuja. And it is him who will answer questions concerning the deplorable condition of roads in all the satellite towns and why most traffic lights in the city are not working.

13. Usani Uguru, Niger Delta Minister

Uguru set out with the promise to address problems created by lack of even development in the oil-rich region, and he is not faring badly in the construction of roads and water supply in many communities. However, the insecurity and militancy still buffets the region.

14. Ogbonnaya Onu, Ministry of Science and Technology

Onu said he would close technological gaps to advance national development. However, there is still low patronage and support from government for inventors and Nigeria’s automotive industry is yet to compete favourably with foreign companies

15. Adamu Adamu, Ministry of Education

Adamu’s top achievement is his roadmap for radical change in the education sector between 2016 and 2019. However, Nigeria’s literacy level has not reduced and other issues like funding, quality, labour disputes and the staggering number of out-of-school children are yet to be addressed.

16. Suleiman Adamu, Minister of Water Resources

He commenced the auditing of all the ongoing water projects in the country. But it is worrying that over 50 million Nigerians do not have access to safe water.

17. Babatunde Fashola, Ministry of Power, Works and Housing

Meet Nigeria’s de-facto Prime Minister, Babatunde Raji Fashola. The former governor of Lagos did a great job in Lagos and so he fits the aphorism that the reward for good work is more work.

He promised to implement over 40 road project and bridges in 2016. Despite billions of naira injected into the ministry, Nigeria is still grappling with bad roads, lack of power supply, and no visible improvement in access to affordable housing.

 18. Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State of Petroleum Resources

Top gain for the ministry is the adoption of work plan to reactivate the refineries. But the NNPC monthly financial and operations report in August showed that some refineries are not meeting expectations and importation of fuel still persists.

 

19. Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development

The ministry promised to reduce the $32 billion spent on annual importation of food. But Nigeria still spends between $3 billion and $5 billion annually on food importation, with rice importation alone amounting to $6 million daily. It wound up producing a roadmap “The Green Alternative: Agriculture Promotion Policy, 2016-2020,” to boost food production in Nigeria.

20. Okechukwu Enelemah, Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment

Of all his promises, none got people talking like Enelemah’s promise to improve the ease of doing business in Nigeria. But the fact that at least 272 companies – shuttered in the last one year and imports continue increasing make mincemeat of every other achievement he has recorded.

21. Adebayo Shittu, Ministry of Communications

Under Shittu’s watch, the telecommunications sector increased Nigeria’s GDP by 8.7 per cent in 2015 and the ministry also generated over N500 million from Radio Licensing. However, Nigeria still loses about N78 billion annually to cybercrime and mobile phone users still receive unsolicited messages and forced to pay for unsuccessful services.

22. Udoma Udoma, Ministry of National Planning

The ministry started working on the 2017 budget early and got approval for a timetable for the budget. It didn’t shock many when Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu called for the sack of Udoma Udoma over allegations of incompetency in part for the poor preparation of the 2016 budget which was trailed by several controversies.

23. Solomon Dalung, Ministry of Sports

It is fair to contend that even though his ministry recorded some achievements like a bronze medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics, the National U-23 team, Dream Team VI coached by Samson Siasia won the 2015 Africa U-23 Championship in Senegal and the Falcons recent victory in Cameroon, Solomon Dalung is struggling to prove that he is fit for the ministry. For one, Nigeria failed to qualify for 2017 AFCON.

24. Kemi Adeosun, Ministry of Finance

Adeosun looked promising at the early stage when she promised to improve the economy. But, it will go down in history that the economy glided into recession under her watch. It is also noteworthy that Nigeria is proposing to borrow a whopping $29.960 billion, the biggest borrowing by the country. This is surely not an impressive performance by any chance.

 

– Editor’s note: No minister of state is included in this list except Ibe Kachikwu who supervises the Petroleum Resources ministry.