Your Ministers Are Too Rude, Jimoh Ibrahim Shocks President Jonathan

Nigeria’s billionaire businessman, Jimoh Ibrahim, has slammed President Goodluck Jonathan, saying his ministers are too rude.

He shocked President Jonathan, his ministers, top government officials and captains of industry when he pointedly told the President at a closed door  interactive meeting with Nigeria’s business community on Monday in Lagos that his ministers were rude and disrespectful to private businessmen.

“I don’t like the language of the public sector. It is very embarrassing. Don’t humiliate us in the private sector. We must be commended for what we are doing,” he said at the meeting which took place at Eko Hotel on Victoria Island.

The event was attended by President Jonathan and some of his key ministers, including those of petroleum resources, foreign affairs, agriculture and National Planning.

Jimoh Ibrahim, who owns Global Fleet, a petroleum marketing company, Great Nigeria Insurance Company, NICON, EAS Airline and Air Nigeria, also spelled out to President Jonathan the criteria the President should use in picking his next team of ministers.

“Your next cabinet, Mr. President, should be filled with the right people. The attitude of government officials and regulators is not right. Let us drop the military tactics.

“I am not a happy person. Nigeria is a terrible place,” said the independent petroleum products marketer.

Dressed in simple green ankara buba and sokoto, Jimoh Ibrahim, who said he employs 22,000 people in his different companies, said that Nigerian regulators “are to regulate and not to destroy people.”

Earlier in his presentation, Usman had asked rhetorically if the private sector wanted to perpetually remain as “receivers of patronage or agents of change and transformation.”

Meanwhile, President Jonathan said on Tuesday that barring any unforeseen circumstances, the new federal cabinet would be ready two weeks after his inauguration.

Jonathan disclosed this in Lagos during an audience with a delegation of General Electric (GE) Company led by the Vice Chairman, John Rice, at the State House, Marina.

He said the time would have been shorter, but for the fact that the new National Assembly would come on stream only on June 6.

Jonathan also reiterated his determination to make his four-year mandate meaningful to Nigerians.

“I want the next four years to be very beneficial to Nigerians and for effective delivery of democracy dividends and not for talking.

“I promised myself to pick the few things I can do and say that these are what I have done,” he said.

The president identified power and rail transportation as crucial to the transformation of the economy, saying without railways, “our roads will not last.”

He said his administration’s plan was to link the rail system to anywhere a major industry like cement factory was located, adding that the arrangement would reduce the pressure on roads.

Jonathan expressed interest in GE’s preparedness to train Nigerians and provide infrastructure for the country’s rail system.

He also urged the company to establish a maintenance centre for electricity turbines and transformers in the country that would serve as a hub for the West African sub-region.

Rice congratulated Jonathan on his election, saying his company was prepared to deepen and fast-track the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on oil and gas, rail, energy as well as health care signed by the two countries in 2009.