BY Tony Edike
ENUGU — AS ministerial lists submitted by state chapters of Peoples Democratic  Party, PDP, continue to generate controversies, a socio-political group, the South-East Revival Group, SERG, has advised President Goodluck Jonathan to  ignore political jobbers and go for technocrats who could help drive his  administration’s transformation agenda.

The group warned that Nigerians would not accept anything short of the best among the hordes of names being paraded for the ministerial job, as Nigerians had suffered and exercised enough  patience.

Coordinator of the SERG, Chief Willy Ezugwu, who made this known in a statement  issued, yesterday, said Nigeria had enough qualified manpower to hold  political offices and perform to the admiration of all.

According to Ezugwu, who is also the General Secretary of Conference of Nigeria  Political Parties, CNPP, “the best brains are being sacrificed at the altar of  political patro-nage and, therefore, there is need for President Goodluck Jonathan  not to make political patronage the major consideration for appointment, especially into sensitive and critical offices.”

He stated that his group was of the belief that it was the need for appointment  of the right qualified persons that made the President not to rush the  appointment into offices which ordinarily did not require the National Assembly  endorsement.

Such position as Chief of Staff to the President and some advisers whose  appointees would not need the Senate’s clearance, Chief Ezugwu stated, should be  time-tested hands whose appointments would add value to governance and help in  the transformational task of the present government.

In this respect, he explained that SERG was in support of the move to appoint  personalities such as Professor Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Olisa Agbakoba and Dr.  Godknows Boladei Agali, the present Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Water  Resources because of his antecedent in the civil service as a technocrat and  sound bureaucrat.

Describing some of the names being bandied around as having been screened by the  State Security Service, SSS, as those who have performed below average in the  their duties as ministers in the immediate past administration, SERG urged the  President to look in the direction where Igali was coming from.

Chief Ezugwu, however, tasked President Jonathan to be wary of those pestering  him for appointment noting that ultimately, “the success of his administration  would depend on his choice of Ministers and other aides.”