Get all the latest information on businesses and companies in Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Comment on the Ministerial List

Femi Meyungbe-Olufunmilade had a very good comment on the Yar’Auda’s minsiterial list. In my opinion, it was very unbalanced. All the top posts were awarded to northerners while the less powerful posts were awarded to the southerners.Read his comment below:

Yar’Adua’s cabinet gaffe
By ‘Femi Meyungbe-Olufunmilade

SINCE my letter “President Yar’Adua and The Ministers List” appeared in The Guardian of Sunday, July 29, 2007, my mail box has been inundated with rejoinders from diverse walks of life - both home and abroad. That has precipitated the need for me to add some footnotes to the letter. Before then, however, I wish to reproduce the entire text as I have absolutely nothing to correct from it.

Most of the letters concurred with me, one of which came from the editor of internet-based Nigeriannews.com and conscienceDaily.com. The letter goes: “Dear President, I went through your list of ministers and was alarmed about its lopsidedness in terms of ethnic\geo-political balancing. The Yoruba, for instance, have no major portfolio. Major portfolios in Nigeria’s context refer to senior ministerial posts in: Defence, Finance, Energy, Foreign Affairs, Interior and Transportation. How could you make such a great error when you’re talking of Government of National Unity (GNU) and had given the impression that the delay in constituting your cabinet is to ensure you carry all of us on board? I’m afraid what we just got is like the pregnancy of an elephant giving birth to a rat!

“Again, how come a northerner is still the National Security Adviser and you now appoint another northerner the Minister of Defence. Both positions were held by northerners under President Obasanjo. Like it or not people expect that what is good for the goose is also good for the gander. Now you’ve positioned another northerner, Taminu Kurfi, as Deputy Chief of Staff to take over from another northerner, Gen. Abdullahi Muhammed, who was in the saddle throughout Obasanjo’s administration as Chief of Staff. Why is the FCT minister perpetually a northerner?

Is Abuja not the home of all? Why then sustain the impression in people’s psyche that it is an exclusive northern territory - you in whom we had invested hope of change? Afterall, your dad (a northerner of northerners) of blessed memory was the Minister of Lagos Affairs at the very nerve-centre of Yorubaland. This is the kind of insensitivity or oversight that made it difficult for past northern leaders to succeed only in galvanising southern opposition instead of mobilising all for national development.

I wish we have a country where merit is the watchword and the issue of one’s place of origin is down-played. However, that will for a long time to come be a pipe-dream. Even in the U.S. people still talk of who is a Jew or Black in cabinet appointments. The issue is about giving people a sense of belonging in a government. Some northerners even complain that the key portfolios for the north are in favour of Fulanis!

Believe me, Your Excellency, I am a good friend of my country and that makes me your friend. If you do not embark on an adjustment immediately, you may end up failing to achieve your set goals but have saboteurs aplenty, who don’t see you as representing their interest but the arrow-head of Fulani oligarchs and their narrow agenda. You may have good intentions but public perception must be favourably married to such intentions. A stitch in time saves nine!”

That aphorism ends the letter. Let me now add the footnotes, which are five in number. One, as one whose ambition from secondary school has been to become the president of Nigeria, later proceeding to study political science towards that end, I realised early that in a heterogenous country like Nigeria you need to acquire the persona of a father-of-the-nation in whom each ethnic group sees its interest as represented if you want to succeed in mobilising them to achieve the as yet unattained goal of national development. In acquiring this persona Federal Character must not only be reflected in your appointments and allocation of resources, but must be seen as reflected. Otherwise, you will be running a thug-of-war kind of government where instead of pulling in one direction, you find people flexing muscles in opposite ways. That has been the curse upon Nigeria since independence. That is the error I wanted Yar’Adua to avoid. The contents of my letter only represented the feelings of many Yoruba people of my acquaintance and Southerners in general. It is only President Olusegun Obasanjo and Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, whom I know quite well, that tried to be truly Nigerian in their public postures to an appreciable extent.

Secondly, I want a father-of-the nation persona for Yar’Adua because I wanted nothing to hinder him from succeeding as president. Despite my reservations on the flawed election that brought him to power, I am impressed by his legacies as the Governor of Katsina State. I conducted a vox populi in Katsina city en route Abuja from Niger Republic, where, through an invitation via His Excellency Elhadji Ibrahim (Niger’s Ambassador to Nigeria), I was a guest of the government of President Tanja Mamadou at Republic Day’s celebration (14-18 December, 2006), shortly after the PDP primaries that produced Yar’Adua as the party’s presidential candidate. I was impressed about the level of infrastructural development, staff welfare, agricultural progress, thrifty management of resources, etc Katsina had witnessed under Yar’Adua.

I was surprised that unlike his colleagues in other states, many of whom have turned out to be thieves of public money, he did not set much store by publicity. I was glad and told myself that, whichever way the pendulum swung in the April presidential polls, Yar’Adua’s way or Gen. Buhari’s who was my man for the job, Nigeria was going to have an upright and resourceful president. In a nutshell, I am presenting people’s view on Yar’Adua’s cabinet to him so that he would not fail. No Nigerian, be they Yoruba, Ijaw, Fulani, Hausa and what have you, stands to gain anything from his failure as president. His failure, God forbid, would be Nigeria’s failure, which we can ill afford, having failed often. Personally, Yar’Adua has made history to have attained the office of president. But we as Nigerians need him much more to make history for us by transforming our country into a developed nation. The least we can do to help ourselves in this regard is to warn him when he falters.

Thirdly, I feel constrained to state that I am not merely posturing as having goodwill towards Yar’Adua presidency. Prior to this time, I had sent him series of position papers on the dual subjects of peacemaking in our fractured polity and accelerated industrial development through his sister-in-law, Zainab Yar’Adua, and our mutual friend, Former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, apart from forwarding same straight to his personal email. But I had to go public with the letter at issue, which I copied him, because it requires urgent action, and reactions have proved my judgment right.

Fourth, the arrogance of some of our northern folks in boasting of northern imminent reclamation of so-called lost grounds under President Obasanjo requires vigilance as Yar’Adua is human and not altogether immune from influences around him. These are times that reverberate the wisdom of my late mentor and boss, Chief Bola Ige (whose killers while serving as Attorney General and Minister of Justice of Nigeria under Obasanjo, are yet to be brought to justice), in warning that Nigeria may never know progress till the country is restructured into a proper federation via a Sovereign National Conference.

I know for sure that lots of ethnic pressures are piled on Yar’Adua daily from his kinsmen, but he is supposed to belong to all of us. So people like us cannot but be vigilant. Voltaire says, “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance”. A Yoruba adage also says, “If a man hears shouts that a lethal load should be dumped somewhere, and fails to join the dumping gang, the load might be dumped in his backyard”.

Finally, what is wrong in Yar’Adua appointing southerners as Senior Ministers of Defence and Federal Capital Teritory Administration (FCTA), as well as National Security Adviser? Afterall, he was prompt in appointing a northern political figure in the person of Ambassador Babagana Kingibe as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, a position hitherto held under Obasanjo by Chief Ufot Ekaete, a Southerner from Akwa Ibom State. Is anything really bad in giving to the goose what was good for the gander?

Technorati Profile

Share/Save

Yar’Adua’s style of leadership

Below is an interesting article by Reuben Abati on Yar’Adua’s style of leadership: 

Yar’Adua’s emerging style

By Reuben Abati

TO say that a new leader’s style and/or persona is different from that of his predecessor may amount to a statement of the obvious. But in Nigeria, style in this context acquires a significance that is instructive beyond what may seem to be given. And in attempting a preliminary assessment of President Umaru Yar’Adua, what is emerging is the realization, now generally acknowledged that his style is so far a radical and refreshing departure from what Nigerians experienced under former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Already Nigerians are breathing a sigh of relief as Yar’Adua in the past two months has now begun gradually and certainly to show that he is his own man. The style is the man.

What defines the man conditions what he does, or says or how the public responds to him. If there is any concrete change in the Presidency that we can speak of, for now, it is the change in Presidential style.

President Olusegun Obasnajo was an authoritarian leader who left no one in doubt that he was in charge. For him, every occasion provided an opportunity to advertise the supremacy of his office. Even when this was absolutely unnecessary, he went out of his way to behave in an imperial manner. It was as if the then President needed to reassure himself of his achievement and pre-eminence at every hour, every minute and every second. Discussions with him often ended up, it was said, as a monologue in which he alone was the wise one. Any sign of independence or expression of an alternative view point was shot down from the imperial throne.

There were many demonstrations of this style in the public arena. Obasanjo once asked a Christian cleric, a high-ranking official of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to shut up. On another occasion, he threatened top flog someone who disagreed with him publicly. At a meeting in London he also reportedly threatened to slap a fellow for asking a question that he considered rude.

Journalists who took part in “The President Speaks” media encounters suffered terribly in his hands. He bullied them, booed them or asked them to sit down, stand up or get out. This the leader-knows-it-all tendency and style soon became a key factor in that government’s policy processes. The Presidency became the nation’s centre of gravity. It overruled the courts of the land, obeying the courts only when it was convenient to do so. Special advisers were advised to keep their ideas to themselves. Political appointees were constantly reminded that they were at the mercy of the President.

One other Nigerian leader had been described severally as being Machiavellian but I suppose no other leader in Nigerian history has been more Machiavellian than Obasanjo. Between 1999 and 2007, he was in many ways, the archetypal Prince.

One major advantage of his style though is that Obasanjo provoked civil society into action and expression. By pushing his own views and choices so vigorously without any care in the world, about whose ox was gored, about the popularity or otherwise of his actions, Obasanjo energized the rest of us to challenge him, to counter him, to knock him heavily in a battle of ideas and wills. We were invariably playing his own game but the gain was the creativity that his style unleashed in the public arena, with the more progressive camp insisting on the right of the people to know, to be heard, to choose, and to live in an open and good society under the rule of law. Our protest against the Obasanjo style was tiring as the man was unyielding till the last moment.

This curious leader-people dynamic was further complicated by the emergence of mini-Obasanjos in the corridors of power. A group of Ministers and Advisers, hidden economic hit-men, self-promoting patriots, the know-it-all gang which also thought that the best way to serve the people was to bully them. Their arrogance was insufferable and infuriating. They were poor imitators; for they differed from Obasanjo in an essential respect: they lacked Obasanjo’s common touch, his wit and humour, his predictability, naturalness and native intelligence which often won him the admiration of even his most ardent critics. Obasanjo’s style may have been ambivalent, his methods may have been vague, but for the most part, the people knew where they stood with him. There wasn’t much that he did that surprised the average Nigerian.

With President Yar’Adua, there appears to be some form of clarity and simplicity and the public appears to be somewhat excited. The new President may not be a fantastic campaigner on the political platform; he may not make quotable statements that would be transported from lips to lips for weeks on end. He may not be bale to break out in an expansive dance in response to the rhythms of drum and song; he certainly may not have great stories to tell about the past and the future of Nigeria.

But we can conclude that this is not a President who will threaten to slap, flog or frog-march people. He does not look like the kind of President and he is not behaving like one, who will walk people out of his office. Or ask people to shut up, sit down, or stand up as if these were the nicest words in the English dictionary. His manners are mild. In close to 60 days in office, no one can trace any act of viciousness or word of antagonism to him. President Obasanjo had hardly settled down in office when he told everyone who supported his election campaigns not to expect any favours from him! Umaru Yar’Adua does not even hug the limelight. He is so self-effacing, so soft-spoken, you may be tempted to sympathise with him.

He had assumed office on May 29 with the promise that he will be a servant-leader. He seems to be working hard at this aspiration. His body-language is according to his early admirers, pleasant. You could miss him in a crowd of his assistants. Nobody could ever miss Obasanjo’s swagger, imposing presence and power-grunts. It is perhaps a function of Yar’Adua’s style that in two months he has been able to handle a number of controversial incidents, including the quiet dismantling of Obasanjo’s spheres of influence without attracting much attention to himself or his likely long-term motives.

After what seemed like an initial bout of stage-fright, he reversed the increases in the pump prices of petroleum products and VAT.

The sale of the Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries had also raised much dust. Without making the powerful owners of Bluestar Consortium lose face, Yar’Adua provided them a soft landing by allowing them to withdraw their purchase of the refineries with a threat that they were giving the NNPC one year to turn around the refineries “or else”. But or else what? Quietly also, Yar’Adua managed to put an end to the face-off between government and ASUU. When the Supreme Court gave a ruling which rendered the April 2007 Gubernatorial elections in Anambra state null and void, the Yar’Adua Presidency made no attempt to stand in the way of the apex court. Under Obasanjo, either the Presidency or the ruling party could have overruled the Supreme Court.

Yar’Adua has also ordered the release of the remaining part of the withheld funds due to local councils in Lagos state. He has also named Lagos one of the two Presidential retreats that will be used by his government. This is the same Lagos that President Obasanjo dismissed as a “jungle” and turned into a victim of partisan politics.

It should not be too difficult indeed to see why President Umaru Yar’Adua appears to be winning in the style department. But style is not enough. What matters is substance: in terms of performance and quality of service delivery. If the Obasanjo government had succeeded in delivering the much demanded “dividends of democracy”, not many people would have complained about style; they would have been satisfied with a trade-off. Mild manners and simplicity may make a leader attractive but that is no guarantee of quality performance in office. In the First Republic, Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa was a simple and modest man. But under his watch, Nigeria imploded.

In the Second Republic, President Shehu Shagari was a man of few words and excellent manners.

But his government, right before his eyes, was hijacked by a profligate and influential cabal. General Buhari as Head of State was reticent, his second-in-command Tunde Idiagbon did more of the talking, and yet the rule of law suffered under his government. When General Babangida first showed up, his toothy smile endeared him to Nigerians, but his government ended up mortgaging Nigeria’s future. General Sani Abacha was so taciturn, everyone considered him the dumb General. But he soon showed Nigerians that no one should judge a book by its cover. Human history is full of so many leaders who started their careers as men of style and decorum but who ended up as terrible rulers. Are we not trusting President Yar’Adua too early, too soon? President Obasanjo had in fact foreseen the comparison that is now being attempted when he declaimed as follows: “Umoru does not talk. His style will be different. But he will react.”

President Yar’Adua style as defined is actually a reaction to his environment, his circumstances, and the grandeur of his office.

Could he be that he is treading softly, knowing that there are cases in court which still have to be determined before he can sit confidently as Nigeria’s President? Is he so gentle and so self-effacing because he is still having stage-fright? He is carrying out the most important assignment of his life. He is now on the big stage. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and everything that he ever did in his life came to him on platter of gold.

He inherited houses from his father and his brother. He went to school as a privileged child; he was made a state commissioner even when he did not want it. He became Governor of Katsina state for eight years without any hassles, and his brother’s friend decided to make him President of Nigeria. Is it not possible that what is being termed style is actually the case of a man still trying to adjust to his new surroundings?

Running Nigeria is such a complex assignment that can bring forth hitherto uncharted depths of a man’s character. Yar’Adua is a leader we still need to watch closely, lest his style sways us and we abandon our role as sentinel.

Share/Save

At last, ministers in Nigeria

At last, a total of 39 ministers will be sworn in. That is after almost 60 days without any ministers.But I have to wonder, why do we need up to 39 ministers?

Share/Save