[OPINION] Believe Me, This Buhari Cabinet Isn’t Flying – By Dele Momodu
Fellow
Nigerians, let me start by thanking all the blogs, WhatsApp groups,
Facebook and Twitter wizards who make the incredible efforts and
sacrifice to mass-circulate my Pendulum column every week. I’m sincerely
grateful for your abiding faith in the written word. Let me assure you
that you push me to write this piece regularly no matter how tough.
I must also salute all those who reach out to me via emails, SMS and
telephone calls offering their appreciation of my humble contribution to
nation-building. I’ve just received one such call from a businessman
who believes so much in Buhari but feels the man has been encircled by
desperate political jobbers who are not bothered whether he fails or
succeeds. They are only interested in the allure and lucre of power, he
says and he may not be far from the truth.
I truly appreciate the men and women of power who see my weekly
sermon from the perspective that I mean no harm but that I am determined
to prop up a government I helped bring to fruition in my own little
way. It is impossible to forget and ignore my own critics who can never
agree with my position on any national or international issue. Unknown
to them, they keep me on my toes and force me to hone the elementary
logic I learned as an undergraduate student at the then University of
Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.
I wish to say categorically and with all emphasis at my command that
the Buhari government is flailing. And only the ubiquitous hypocrites
and cheer leaders would fail to say it as it is, that the grunts of the
people are fast turning into deafening lamentations. No amount of
approbation by a President Obama can detract from the plaintive
suffering and cries of the Nigerian people. Indeed, much as I love
Obama, we must remember that his primary interest is America and the
fight against corruption which is a sub-plot in America’s fight against
terrorism.
In case our dear President is unaware, and he feels only the wailing
wailers are grumbling, I wish to assure him that this is not the case.
Some of the President’s friends and supporters are deeply worried at the
sad turn of events. They are wondering what went wrong and what can be
done to turn the dangerous slide around. In fact, everything looks to
them like a bad dream, a nightmare in reality. But on a personal note, I
don’t think the situation is as irredeemable as it seems. The solution
lies squarely on the President’s table. Only he can salvage his
government from this stupendous slump from grace to grass.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s biggest equity is in his legendary
incorruptibility. He must have assumed that this equity is rock solid
and unassailable. But while the people truly want a reduction in the
level of corruption and general indiscipline, you must replace something
with something. Buhari’s team believes the problem they have is as a
result of waging a relentless war on corrupt people and the freebies
that have suddenly frozen up for their friends and acolytes. Not so
simple folks. Where are the jobs to occupy and engage the innocent
beneficiaries of corruption? A lot of those who had jobs have lost their
means of livelihood. Companies are sacking their workers, as if with a
vengeance. Foreign investors are running helter-skelter and many have
closed shop already running back to wherever they came from. Everyone
wants stability and not sermons. And there is no stability, either in
the polity, in the economy, in our currency or indeed in our social
life.
Unfortunately, this government has been very high on proselytising
and low on performance. Their swansong has become abysmally boring. The
people are now less interested in the results of President Jonathan’s
recklessness in office but more in President Buhari’s remedial panacea.
It is shocking that 16 months after our friends took over power they are
not yet tired of moaning and groaning about Jonathan. But we sacked
Jonathan because we knew and felt his case was very bad. We supported
Buhari because of the mystic that he had the magic wand. We didn’t want
to be accused in the future of wasting yet another best President
Nigeria should have had, after Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief Moshood
Kashimawo Olawale Abiola. That is why we worked assiduously for a man we
had rejected serially in the past. We must beg this government to wake
up from its deep slumber. It would be a huge embarrassment and an
unmitigated disaster if it fails. So many Nigerians risked everything to
midwife this change. I’m willing to support this government to the very
end but they should please listen to our pleas and humble suggestions.
The President needs to re-energise his team. Nigeria is too big and
too bold to be controlled by a timid cabinet. We need eagles who can fly
high. We should be able to find them in a country of nearly 200 million
people. There is no doubt that President Buhari has some good hands in
his team but most of them have refused to fly, because they are scared.
Many have melted into oblivion and irrelevance. We do not need to
mention names. Some jobs are so visible that we do not require
masquerades to handle. Some jobs require common-sense and not loquacious
rabblerousing. Some members of the team have attracted public odium to
this government. They make Buhari look so pitiably bad and that should
not be so.
The human rights records should also have been better handled and
managed during this second coming after the massive damage he suffered
in the past. Fighting wars on all fronts from day one distracted and
occupied the government. That game-plan was clearly faulty. They should
have known that the temperament and tone of a democratic government is
ostensibly different from that of a military junta. I once read that too
much anger sometimes beclouds reasoning. The government failed to take
certain steps to mitigate against the expected backlash of its many
wars. It did not reason that hungry people are not always reasonably
tolerant of the cause of their social conditions.
No one is sure if President Buhari was ever inclined or advised by
his team to plan its offensive well or if he thought he had the same
omnipotent power he had from 1983-85. He would have waited a bit and
stabilised his government before unleashing mayhem against the enemies
of state. I’m told surprise is one of the deadliest strategies in
warfare. Most of the looted resources would have remained in our banks
if government had not shown its fangs too early. As a lay man in
Economics, I will never understand and appreciate the decision to ban
people from paying dollars into their own accounts. What did it matter
if dollar was paid in cash or by transfer? That was the beginning of the
free-fall of our currency down the economic ladder. A large chunk of
the money looted has invariably vamoosed into foreign vaults or under
some beds or dug-up holes. Shame!
I strongly recommend that the President rejigs his cabinet,
especially his economic team and even replace some of the members. This
is what a bank would do if some of its managers were not meeting their
targets. No manager is too big to be fired by football clubs. There is
nothing new under the sun about this approach to governance. There are
so many global examples. In 2014, when Saudi Arabia experienced a surge
after the outbreak of the deadly Middle East Respiratory
Syndrome-Coronavirus (MERS) disease, Saudi King Abdullah fired his
Health Minister Abdullah al Rabeeah. In July this year, President Raul
Castro of Cuba removed his Minister of Economy Marino Murillo from his
portfolio amid the economic hardship that was plaguing the country. Just
two weeks ago, Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos fired the
country’s Finance Minister Armando Manuel. Manuel had presided over an
economic recession caused by a sharp dip in oil prices that weakened
dollar inflows, hammered the Angolan Kwanza, leading to heavy government
borrowing.
The President should borrow from such examples and do the needful
without further delay. I’m happy that even the National Assembly is
thinking along the same lines. The government does not have time on its
hands and at its disposal. Two years would soon evaporate and the third
year will come knocking. It has to start working for those Nigerians who
put their fate and faith in the hands of Buhari. We have had enough of
the blatant excuses that sound more like expressions of hopelessness and
helplessness, thus leading to deja vu.
A few priorities must be tackled speedily. None is greater than the
issue of power generation which is already witnessing appreciable
progress. I believe the Minister of Power, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola,
should be allowed to concentrate strictly on power and give his other
portfolios to equally competent people. I would love to see a former
Governor Donald Duke take over works. I do not care WHICH PARTY HE
BELONGS. I have deliberately mentioned this great Nigerian who could
easily have been our own Obama if we were a country where merit and
achievement catapulted people into the highest office. This government
would do well to consider a government of National Unity. Since the
suffering we are enduring does not discriminate along Party lines, the
solution should not ostracise any capable Nigerian.
On the economy, President Buhari should invite and involve the best
brains at home and abroad including non-Nigerians. The Bank of England
brought in an expert from Canada as its Governor. Dubai invited a Briton
to run one of the most ambitious airports on planet Earth. The London
Gatwick Airport was sold to a consortium led by a Nigerian. Ghana has
just built a world-class Cargo section by Swissport. Before our very
eyes, Ghana is attracting the biggest aviation businesses in West
Africa. The world has moved beyond our jejune and archaic style of doing
things. Our parastatals have become too unwieldy and totally wasteful.
We have so many agencies all over the places managing nothing but eating
everything. That does not mean a wholesale sale of our national assets
but recourse to effective and efficient lean management wherever that
may come from. I say emphatically, nothing would change unless we change
our retrogressive ways.
Instructively, the National Assembly and the Executive arms of
government must cut down on government expenditure drastically. The
National Assembly is making sense with some of its recommendations but
it is has to go beyond that by actually implementing those
recommendations and putting pressure on the Executive to do the same.
All the legislative aides, executive aides, delegations to foreign
assignments and government’s fleet of aircrafts and motorcades are
atrociously over-bloated and unnecessary. I stumbled on a video footage
of President Vladimir Putin of Russia’s motorcade. It had nothing more
than four (4) vehicles accompanied with escort motorbikes. In 2012,
President Putin even went as far as announcing that he and his prime
minister will work more from home to cut the disruption caused by their
motorcades in the city of Moscow. That is Russia, a global super-power
making an effort to run a leaner and more effective governance
structure.
In Ghana where I have lived for over a decade, I have seen the
simplicity of the Presidential system of governance from Rawlings to
Kufuor to the late Atta Mills and now John Dramani Mahama. Her Majesty,
the Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth II in all the glory of her
monarchy goes around in a simple motorcade of usually two or three
vehicles. The accompanying vehicles are oftentimes unmarked. But the
case of Nigeria is a stark contrast. It sometimes looks as if we are war
with some imaginary alien foe. Every security outfit competes to
feature in the entourage of our respective leaders. Then there are the
support vehicles, including ambulances, bomb disposal vehicles and
anti-tank machines!
Everything is collapsing except the business of politics. Every
government that comes to power seems to be in competition with previous
governments in the craze to practice capitalism without capital.
Clearly, this is not sustainable and we cannot continue like this.
Something has to give. President Buhari must restore confidence again by
allowing the change millions of Nigerians voted him for in March 2015
to begin from his desk. It is commonly said that, “desperate times call
for desperate measures.” Our time is now.
