SYNOPSIS
Age and infirmity aside, that the President is an alien in his own country is an understatement. In terms of human resources development and organizational behavior, he is not IBB and he is not Abubakar Atiku, either. And he makes no pretense about that. The President knows his major disability – irredentism. A quintessential ethnic bigot. That he is relying on his Daura brethren is not by accident, and it is not exclusively a function of nepotism or bigotry. He doesn’t know Nigerians. Period.
Which makes the principle of delegated power and authority that he espouses commendable. Unfortunately, the beneficiaries of his delegated authority do not comprehend the essence of the authority, because of the ridiculousness of the vetting process. For instance, Mr. Fashola didn't know what to make of the three powerful ministries handed over to him to manage during President Buhari's first term in office.
DEBATING THE LIST
About two weeks ago, President Buhari inaugurated a President Task Force on Corona Virus, headed by Mr. Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Federal Government of Nigeria. Below, is the entire list of the Task Force.
Age and infirmity aside, that the President is an alien in his own country is an understatement. In terms of human resources development and organizational behavior, he is not IBB and he is not Abubakar Atiku, either. And he makes no pretense about that. The President knows his major disability – irredentism. A quintessential ethnic bigot. That he is relying on his Daura brethren is not by accident, and it is not exclusively a function of nepotism or bigotry. He doesn’t know Nigerians. Period.
Which makes the principle of delegated power and authority that he espouses commendable. Unfortunately, the beneficiaries of his delegated authority do not comprehend the essence of the authority, because of the ridiculousness of the vetting process. For instance, Mr. Fashola didn't know what to make of the three powerful ministries handed over to him to manage during President Buhari's first term in office.
Nigerians might have forgotten that a Presidential Task Force on Corona Virus was set up by the President about two weeks ago until they saw the members trooping like elementary school children to patronize Mr. Abba Kyari at the Presidential Villa following the news report that he tested positive to the virus. What have they being doing since all these days? Where is their footprints on the ground? None. That should have been a national scandal. But not in Nigeria. We are so focused on a President who is physically and emotionally detached from his people, that we have failed to turn our searchlight on his subordinates who have become unproductive and untouchable. Today, the concept of oversight has beome an aberration in Nigeria. No accountability. No productivity evaluation. And no censuring or firing.
Therefore, Nigerians should hold his recruiters (those packaging the appointment for the President) responsible for making a mockery of a Progressive mandate, which they stole at birth. They are our worst nightmares and they are the focus of this essay.DEBATING THE LIST
About two weeks ago, President Buhari inaugurated a President Task Force on Corona Virus, headed by Mr. Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Federal Government of Nigeria. Below, is the entire list of the Task Force.
a. Mr. Boss Mustapha (SGF) – Chair
b. Dr. Sani Aliyu – National Coordinator
c. Hon. Minister of Health
d. Hon. Minister of Interior
e. Hon. Minister of Aviation
f. Hon. Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Services
g. Hon. Minister of Education
h. Hon. Minister of Information and Culture
I. Hon. Minister of Environment
j. Director-General, State Services
k. Director-General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control
l. WHO Country Representative
Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is not a practicing Physician, a trained Medical Doctor, a Pharmacist, a Chemist, or a Biologist. Going through the names on the list, as always, exposes the emptiness and the abysmal level of organizational dysfunction at the Executive branch of Government.
First set of questions: WHO COMPILED THE LIST? What is Mr. Mustapha (SGF) doing on the list? How come he has not stepped forward since all these days to live up to the demands of his new position and do the mandatory daily briefing? How come the Minister of Health or the Director of Nigeria Center for Disease Control was not selected to lead the Task Force?
The second set of questions: What are the following Ministers - Aviation, Education, Environment, and Information and Culture doing on the list? And what is the role of the DG of the State Service on the Task Force? And how come that a Task Force that boasts of Twelve highly paid individuals stayed silent when the whole country has been crying for somebody to step forward and lead?
By the way, what is the justification for populating the Task Force with Ministers, in a country of more than Two Hundred Million people? Also, you abandoned the UN-Sponsored Ogoni Clean-up Exercise as if that was not a national priority, and brought in the Minister of the Environment as part of the Covid-19 team.
By the way, what is the justification for populating the Task Force with Ministers, in a country of more than Two Hundred Million people? Also, you abandoned the UN-Sponsored Ogoni Clean-up Exercise as if that was not a national priority, and brought in the Minister of the Environment as part of the Covid-19 team.
ANALYSIS.
It is worth repeating that age and infirmity aside, the President is a foreigner outside of the Daura - Kano axis. He is not IBB and he is not Abubakar Atiku, either. He repackaged more than half of his first term, not because of their stellar performance, but because the President and his kitchen cabinet have the faintest idea of who we are. That he is relying on his Hausa/Fulani folks is not by accident. It is not exclusively a function of nepotism or bigotry. He doesn’t know Nigerians. Period. And he told you.
To manage that acute deficiency, he embraces and espouses the concept of delegated power and authority to outside consultants. That was his modus operandi for the two times he was at the helm of affairs at our Petroleum industry. He relied on consultants, mostly Hausa/Fulani privileged professionals, friends, and family members he could trust and who trust him back.
What is different this time, is that he is the President of the whole country; thus, making it practically difficult for him to replicate the model he adopted as the Petroleum kingpin under two Military Heads of States. As President, he cannot surrender the management of Nigeria to outside consultants. So, in place of consultants, you now have the Cabal, the Daura Mafia, Ministers, Administrators, and Advisers. And these are the President Men who have failed him and failed the nation.
Let’s be realistic, we know that President Buhari has innumerable problems with communication. He knows it, and that explains the underlying push for a Task Force that was inaugurated two weeks ago. And that was where Mr. Boss Mustapha and Dr. Sani Aliyu were expected to shine. Indeed, we want to see and feel the empathy of our President at this trying time. But as I said elsewhere in the essay, we know who he is. Mr. Boss Mustapha failed the President and failed the nation. Dr. Sani Aliyu failed the President and failed Nigeria. They left Nigeria in the dark when we yearned the most for someone to lead us, to feel our pains, to tell us to feel strongly that help is on the way. They never did.
The people who compiled the list failed the President and failed Nigeria, as well. We can continue to accuse this President of Bigotry and Nepotism if we like, but he is not alone. Those behind the recruitment for this President are the bigots and the enemies of progress. That we cannot boast of at least six outstanding Professors of Medicine in the caliber of the late Olikoye Ransome Kuti on the Task Force is a slap on the wrist of Nigerian academics. A country of more than Two Hundred Million people, President Buhari's recruiters couldn't find Twelve qualified Physicians to lead a Task Force! Sad.
CONCLUSION
Granted, unease lies the head that wears the crown, but to be weighed down by the uneasiness of the crown, you must be apprehensive of the crown on your head. We don't have a President in the real sense of it. And all the President's men are conscious of that vacuum. The earlier Nigerians shift attention from this man and focus our anger on his Ministers and his Advisers, the better for our nation. That there is a vacuum in the system is not debatable. That the Vice President should come out from his self-imposed physical isolation to oversee and coordinate the efforts and activities of the Task Force similar to what President Donald Trump is doing in the States right now is in the national interest. I cannot emphasize this enough; the earlier Vice President Osinbajo steps up and takes the lead the better.
No comments:
Post a Comment
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.