The making of Team Buhari’s inauguration

The Presidential Villa came alive on Wednesday with the inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministers. Apparently foreseeing what could happen, the presidency had restricted the number of guests that would be admitted to the venue to two per minister. All guests were asked to be seated latest by 9.30am for the programme that was scheduled to start by 10am. The punctuality prize of the inauguration (if there was anything like that) would have gone to two ministers from the same ministry. As of the time they arrived at the venue almost the same time, I want to believe that they did not know that they would end up manning the same ministry. They are the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole; and the Minister of State for Health, Osagie Ehanire. Both of them and their guests scaled through the last security check at about 8.10am, well ahead of the take-off time. For the first time, about four television stations transmitted the event live. Expectedly, State House correspondents turned out en masse, leaving the media office with no choice than to choose a few people, mostly cameramen, to enter the venue, while others were prevailed upon to monitor the event on the television set inside the Briefing Room of the Council Chambers. Like I mentioned here last week on the approach of the President to time, he arrived the venue at exactly 10am and asked that the national anthem be recited. The President has since dropped the decision of the last administration to adopt the second stanza of the national anthem as the opening prayer of national events. So, he directed the Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo, and the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, to say the opening prayers. With that over, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, took charge as the programme’s anchorperson. He announced that the 36 ministers would take their oaths before the President in nine batches of four ministers per batch. They were called in alphabetical order of the names of their states. The event went on smoothly, but not without some side comments that left attendees laughing. For instance, when Shehu introduced the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and was about to read his citation, some people murmured. The presidential spokesperson took a cue from that and said, “Mr. President, this is the master of our game.” They all clapped for the former spokesperson for the ruling party. Another laughter erupted when somebody observed that from their citations, the four ministers that formed a particular batch taking their oaths at the same time are all lawyers. The four ministers are the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami; the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola; the Minister of State, Labour and Employment, James Ocholi; and the Minister of Information and Culture, Mohammed. All of them, except Mohammed, are also Senior Advocates of Nigeria. Other ministers that attracted loud applause from the audience are the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; and the Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan. Immediately Amaechi, who had it rough with the Peoples Democratic Party senators during his confirmation process was mentioned, there was a loud applause and Shehu said, “That is the GOC of our campaign council.” Amaechi smiled to show that he enjoyed the show. In the case of Alhassan, Shehu referred to her as ‘Mama Taraba’ and did not forget to remind his audience that the minister is a governor-in- waiting by virtue of the recent verdict of the Taraba State Elections Petition Tribunal. Even the President referred to her as “Aisha Alhassan, Her Excellency,” when he was assigning portfolios. Another incident that elicited reaction was when the last batch of four ministers were about taking their oaths and it was discovered that despite the fact that his state popularised Sharia law in the country, the Minister of Defence, Munsur Ali, from Zamfara State, was the only man in the group. The women who joined him were Alhassan; the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Khadija Bukar Abba; and the Minister of State, Trade, Industry and Investment, Aisha Abubakar. Buhari surely knows how to keep secret. He kept the list of portfolios assigned to the ministers close to his chest to the last minute. The last paragraph of his speech at the inauguration read, “The ministries have been rationalised and reduced to twenty-four. These are the ministries and their ministers. Best of luck!” The President probably did not trust whoever was in charge of the speech that he would not leak that critical information, so he refused to include it. When he read it to that point, he turned to another paper to read out the portfolios!