It has become customary with different countries, or
even communities, to remark on the first few days of newly elected or appointed
citizens in office. Usually, the period adopted is the first hundred days in
the new position. However the present situation is so full of expectations that
one may attract sympathy, rather than criticism, for jumping the gun, as it
were. The expectations pertain to the volume as well as the quality of
effectiveness in the discharged duties.
To consider or contemplate on the achievements or
insufficiencies of new office-holders in this manner may tend to give room to
ugly intentions. To raise so much dust as to the declaration of assets publicly
by the newly elected President and his Vice sounds a bit censorious within a
period of some hours after the inauguration. A few days’ period would not have
been inadequate, if only to confirm the unwillingness of the two gentlemen to
respect the Constitution they had just sworn to uphold.
There was also some unbecoming observation from some
quarters about the absence of both high officials at the Presidential Villa in
Aso Rock on the first day in office. The presidential duo obviously preferred
the low-key resumption in the Defence House where they had been working to the
excitement that was waiting for a celebrated entry into the office of the
President on his first day in office.
President Buhari gave notice of his style as being
unconventional when he named the former Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi
Adesina, who has just been elected President of the African Development Bank,
as one of his spokesmen. Buhari had led the lobby for that appointment in his
customary open manner, lifting quite a number of eyebrows because Adesina was a
cabinet minister of the Peoples Democratic Party. There have also been unhappy
or anxiety-laden comments already about his deciision to reject any move by the
State Governors to recommend nominees for his cabinet.
Many people believe he has taken the right step in
this matter, however, since it curtails any undue incursion into the government
structure of the federation. The three compartments of governance in the
country are distinct and clear. Any undue overlap of influence from one over
any other is sure to lead to a distortion of the line of authority. This will
be a direct result of the “godfather” element which had been nurtured down the
years. A good point has also been made for the President’s position by those
who point out that cabinets of State governments are not composed with interference
of the Federal Government, nor are Supervising Councillors influenced by State
governments. In fact, local government councils complain incessantly against
the practice under which their allocations are channelled through the State
governments.
It must be added that those who are uncomfortable with
the idea of Buhari selecting his own cabinet are striving under the
misapprehension that he would lock himself up in a room where he would nominate
all the ministers of his government by himself. They talk about “inputs” from
other sources, as though all the other sources are covered by the governors
alone. But several other sources are available to the President, and he will be
relying on them. What many people cannot believe is that Buhari is a team player.
But that is why he finds it easy to appoint a man from the opposition party as
a spokesman.
Some so-called security experts have also dared to
openly controvert the decision of the President to move the Command
Headquarters of the anti-Boko Haram campaign from Abuja to Maiduguri. One of
them, who spoke passionately on television, fortunately did not drop his
antecedents, so we did not know where he was coming from. However, it was very
clear that he was not on the same terrain with any right-thinking person,
especially a General. He spoke as though to remove the centre of operations of
a particular Command to another site, especially near the centre of the theatre
of war, was to transfer the headquarters of the entire army to the proposed
area. Having actually seen action in a war situation from a command position,
Buhari’s perception should differ from that of an armchair warrior—and there
several of them around.
His acquisition of 15 special advisers right away,
will throw some light on the nature of his cabinet which is beginning to excite
a lot of anticipation already. But he is not communicating in definite on that
particular subject thus giving rise, naturally, to wanton speculation. We hear
already that he would hang on to the Ministry of Petroleum Resources. He could
do worse, and would not be the first President to do that. The mess in that
area might need the personal involvement of the President. Happily enough, he
had once been in charge of Nigeria’s main revenue earner, and doing another
stint later in one of the agencies could only have enlarged his understanding
of what has gone wrong to turn what should be a goldmine into a cesspit.
The new President has also shown that his
administration would be for justice and fair play. In that regard, he has
warned that no one should be barred from travelling abroad. Some
over-enthusiastic officials had, on their own, earmarked some officials as
unworthy to leave for a trip abroad, just in case they were trying to abscond
from the sticky arms of the law. The President however instructed that anyone
who was not under an indictment was free, and should be able to exercise his
rights as a Nigerian citizen.
Within these past seven days, Buhari has also taken
his first open measure to contain the Boko Haram insurgency. The terrorist
group have also dared him in their typical manner by increasing the tempo of
their attacks in the past seven days. But Buhari remains cool. He has held a
briefing session with the security personnel in the country, while he has also
paid a visit to Chad to emphasize the role of co-operative efforts among the
countries affected by the scourge of Boko Haram. And he has repeated his vow to
crush the menace.
Those whose business it is not to appreciate
established order within their nation having installed a permanent jaundiced
veil over their opinions of a leader’s efforts, would sneer at whatever has
been achieved. But we say, all of that in seven days? And no sweat! But, of
course, there is so much more to be done. So much and we know almost all of
them by heart; corruption in every phase of our transactions; budget of
under-development; chronic unemployment; fuel subsidy riddle; rigid poverty
level etc. The list is not endless, as we know, since a superlative success
in the combat against one would tend to affect another in a benign manner. So,
which is first? Maybe we shall know in the next seven days.
Time out
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