About the Shadow Team

The continuing state of weakness of opposition politics confirms the point about the crisis of performance not being limited to the government in Abuja. On the part of the Yar’adua government his public profession of respect for the idea of opposition is one of the more comforting developments of the last year. The practice remains to be seen.

Certainly there is an easing of the tense state of the nation from in the years before May 29th, 2007 when the government was in a state of war even with the idea of organized opposition and used methods within and outside the books to decapitate opposition and pressure Nigerians into a state of surrender and feeling powerless. Approach to elections by PDP during the last year persists in reflecting little regard for the electorate and the idea of a loyal opposition meaning loyalty to the cause of the Nigerian people, and so not a sabotage of those serving their interest, in position’s of Authority, yet distinctively different from current corporatist tradition of settling opposition chieftains.

Opposition efforts, where they have not succumbed to material lure of being in bed with the party in power, have generally not shown much depth of understanding of issues and evidence based suggestions of options to drive the common good. Where we have made effort it has been at very teething stages. Fortunately we are able to announce today a series of developments that should elevate the quality of opposition just as we commend the Common Wealth Secretariat for scheduling a workshop on opposition politics for West Africa to hold in Abuja in June.

Several months ago we announced the institution of shadow team to serve the Nigerian people to provide competing views of policy at the federal level. Drawn from a coalition of willing political parties outside of the PDP. Today the web portal of the shadow team www.shadownigeria.org will be up life. Citizens can be part of a participatory e-government from the opposition side. The build up of the portal will continue until its final formal unveiling on October 1st when it will allow many kinds of governance initiatives not thought of till now.

Even though the pending cases at tribunals have delayed the announcement of the full complement of the shadow team we must pay tribute participants of the inaugural meeting with Adams Oshiomole, Jimi Agbaje and Dr. Kayode Fayemi and the work of the shadow team’s economic working group that has been a mix of hot young economists from academia and older troopers like Dr. Kalu I. Kalu. We must also acknowledge the health team that will have Dr. Leke Pitan as Spokesperson; the Transport and Aviation spokesperson Engineer Ibrahim Usman, and the many others who have worked hard at this project without public praise. Other Ministerial teams with spokespersons in the main federal shadow team include Education; Health, Infrastructure; Employment, Entrepreneurship and Poverty Alleviation, and Cabinet Ombudsman and Citizen Participation.

Further ministerial departments include International Trade and Industry (MITI) which will be assigned the enterprise of developing six factor endowments based industrial parks and new cities to emerge around them; Labour and Management and Budget Monitoring; Finance; Energy; Niger Delta and Special Projects; Defence, Water Resources; Foreign Affairs, Police Affairs and Law and Order; Women Empowerment and Gateway Cities designed to make Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja and Kano dual responsibilities urban centres with federal involvement. Youth Empowerment, Niger Delta and Special Projects also constitute areas of special attention. We are also recruiting from Nigerians around the World into a start up team of a Think Tank, we hope will grow to the stature of the Brookings Institution.

When a health care sector that is so absent that surveys suggest the neighbourhood Chemist is the anchor of Nigerian’s healthcare system and as much as four hundred million can be unspent in the Federal Ministry of Health in one budget year, with consciences so limited in sensitivity that people can agree to pocket such public funds in the ministry, the crisis we face are very obviously monumental. We cannot blame the Yaradua’s regime for it all. But the buck must stop at the desk in Aso Rock. The need to act before the cup boils over is the imperative of the moment.

Shadow Ministry Contacts

• Agriculture and Fisheries: agric[at]shadownigeria.org
• Attorney General and Justice: justice[at]shadownigeria.org
• Cabinet Ombudsman and Citizen Participation in Governance: ombudsman[at]shadownigeria.org
• Communication and Information Technology: ict[at]shadownigeria.org
• Defence: defence[at]shadownigeria.org
• Education: education[at]shadownigeria.org
• Employment, Entrepreneurship and Poverty Alleviation: eepa[at]shadownigeria.org
• Energy: energy[at]shadownigeria.org
• Finance & Fiscal Federalism (hosting the Fiscal Federalism Commission): finance[at]shadownigeria.org
• Foreign Affairs: foreign[at]shadownigeria.org
• Gateway Cities (Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Kano): gateway[at]shadownigeria.org
• Health: health[at]shadownigeria.org
• Housing: housing[at]shadownigeria.org
• Infrastructure: infra[at]shadownigeria.org
• Integrated Rural Development: rural[at]shadownigeria.org
• Labour: labour[at]shadownigeria.org
• Ministry of International Trade and Investment (responsible for Industrial Development/Industrial Parks & City): miti[at]shadownigeria.org
• Niger Delta and Special Projects: special[at]shadownigeria.org
• Police and Law & Order: police[at]shadownigeria.org
• Social Mobilization and Values: values[at]shadownigeria.org
• Solid Minerals: minerals[at]shadownigeria.org
• Tourism: tourism[at]shadownigeria.org
• Transport and Aviation: transport[at]shadownigeria.org
• Water Resources: water[at]shadownigeria.org
• Women Empowerment: women[at]shadownigeria.org
• Youth Affairs and Future Concerns: youth[at]shadownigeria.org