Editor’s note: Nigerians have long been waiting for Buhari’s cabinet to be formed. The highly-anticipated list of ministers has generated controversies, and the drama still rages on. Perhaps the reason for this delay is that in over 170 million people, there is a dearth of saints. This Day contributor Magnus Onyibe seems eager to see President Buhari perform the miracle of “new wine in old wineskins”.
Saints with skeletons in their closet
In a bid to ensure that Nigeria is in safe and secure hands for socio-economic and political regeneration promised during his campaign, president Muhammadu Buhari has spent the better part of four months into his new administration scurrying around the country for Nigerians, incorruptible and professionally competent to serve in his cabinet.
For a country located at the bottom rung of Transparency International, a global corruption perception rating index, finding thirty six (36) good men to fit the lofty expectations of PMB in consonance with his high integrity persona is akin to identifying the cleanest dirty shirts in the laundry.
Although the task is as arduous as seeking for a needle in a hay stack, it would appear that PMB may be on target to accomplishing his mission as he prepares to roll out the list of the Change Agents that I would like to refer to as his economic “husbandmen” in the coming days. Already, security agencies have been putting the potential candidates in the crucible and quite a number of names floating around in the mainstream and social media seem to have passed the litmus test.
Sinners set standards for salvation
In a country where people are judged based on ethnic bias and religious inclination rather than from the prism of their character and content, PMB, the APC and indeed Nigerians should brace up for the flurry of criticism that would trail the official release of the names of the “few good men” to the National Assembly for scrutiny and approval as ministers.
One way of vitiating the associated agony and stress is for PMB to take solace in the wise counsel of a philosopher, John Adams, who posited: “Politics, as a practice, whatever it’s professions, has always been the systematic organisations of haters”. The quote above underscores the fact that political hate is not peculiar to Nigeria.
While the aphorism that one can never be prepared enough, holds true in almost all instances, a counterstrategy against the aforementioned onslaught of ethnic jingoist and religious bigots that would seize the media space to literarily slay the president as soon as the list is released, may not be a media management master stroke, but suffice it to say that the initiative would evince similar benefits realizable when measures are put in place to mitigate an anticipatory response to an uncommon policy.
By that I mean that president Buhari’s spokesmen and the APC’s reputation managers should proactively hedge against any backlash by preparing upfront, information underpinning the principles behind the choice of the candidates and the values they are bringing to the table.
As image and crisis managers would agree, the efficacy of preemptive actions is undeniable and one way of justifying the appointments is by engaging their principal, PMB rigorously in dialogues that would elicit reasons for his choice of the candidates for the cabinet positions-professionally, ethnically and religiously.
Call the qualified and qualify the called
In a highly polarised country, where divisive factors such as the tongue, tribe and worship pattern of candidates were freely used as commodity, currency and fuel during campaigns for the general election, appointments into public offices have assumed an equally combustible dimension, so one can never be too careful.
For instance, two of the recent appointments made by President Buhari that generated the most public opprobrium are the military service chiefs and his choice of Secretary of Government of the Federation, SGF and Chief of Staff. While the appointment of his Chief of Staff and SGF were later explained – he choose people he can trust having worked with the appointees over the years which was deemed treasonable – his explanation that professionalism was purely the criteria applied in choosing the top brass of the three arms of forces – Army, Navy and Airforce – has been received with skepticism.
Dissenters believe that it is unlikely that in the entire armed forces of Nigeria, no south-east or south-south candidates were qualified enough to fit the bill. Against the foregoing background, it would be deft if detailed professional competence and political balancing factors that came into play in selecting the proposed cabinet members are availed members of the public to enable them judge for themselves, the rigor invested in the exercise by the president and how altruistic his intentions are.
The idea that the National Assembly should also be furnished with the proposed portfolio of the list of nominees being sent for clearance (recently canvassed in an editorial by a newspaper) should also be given due consideration as such facts could serve as public enlightenment that could take the wind off the sail of critics or those who may have some axe to grind.
Beware of serpents that speak softly
As we all know, putting a round peg in a round hole can hardly attract sustainable criticism and fundamentally, facts are antidotes to rumour mongering. Expectedly, there would be the tendency for some hawkish advisers to contend that the president does not owe Nigerians such detailed explanation, but such people would be misguiding PMB because the ultimate objective of any good politician is to carry the populace along in his policies and programmes.
In my experience from studying politicians over the years from Winston Churchill’s (1940-45 and 1951-55) war time exploits in Great Britain encapsulated in his “battle of Britain” speech to parliament before the war against Germany; Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR(1933-45) “New Deal” to Americans during the great depression and Deng Xiaoping’s (1978-92) introduction of “Four Modernizations” in China after the Cultural Revolution, nothing engages the mind of a great politician and leader more than how to get his voting stakeholders to buy into his programs and policies.
To achieve that objective, a lot of what is today referred to as Emotional Intelligence, EI had to be invested. Emotional Intelligence being the ability to recognize one’s own and other people’s emotions is the skills required to better understand, empathize and negotiate with others.
Churchill relied on it in Great Britain, when he made the famous speech to parliament that Brits should prepare for “the battle of Britain” that enabled the country hold out against Germany and thus led them out from the brink of defeat to victory.
Roosevelt deployed it in the USA, when he re-established hope during the Great Depression through his pursuit of the three Rs policy of Relief, Recovery and Reforms conveyed in the New Deal and Xiaoping adopted it in China, when after the calamitous Cultural Revolution, he had to deftly negotiate with the communist party leadership to allow a bit of openness in order to introduce the “Beijing Spring” that allowed criticism of government and enabled him pursue the policy of ” Four Modernizations” which entailed the opening up Chinese economy to foreign investments in the economy, agriculture, scientific and technological development and national defence.
Chip of the old block
Now, PMB had mentioned in his Chatham House, UK, presentation in February that one event that significantly inspired his change of ideology from autocracy to democratic system of governance was the fall of the Soviet Union. So, I assume that PMB has abiding interest in history of how nations leap forward or collapse. That’s why I chose England, USA and China as references in my analogy as models for success.
It might interest PMB to note that in more ways than one, he is like Winston Churchill of Britain, as both were soldiers and both also ruled their country twice – first as soldier and later as politician. Let me elucidate: after being appointed prime minister in 1940 by King George Vl to lead Britain in war, he reigned for some time after he won the war but was thereafter defeated in a general election due to his radical approach to leadership. Winston Churchill switched parties and in 1951, he became the prime minister of Britain again through election. Recall that PMB ruled Nigeria 1983-85 before his incarnation in 2015.
PMB is also to some extent, like Deng Xiaoping of China who sought to foist radical changes to leadership and fell from grace only to return to power later. It is on record that Deng Xiaoping was “purged” or expelled three times by the Communist Party due to his independent mindedness before he was pardoned and accepted back into the party after which he cleverly took over the party and subsequently led the country into prosperity through his policy of one country two economic philosophies. PMB seized power in 1983 and was toppled in 1985.
The Nigerian leader is also basically similar to Franklin Roosevelt of the US as both governed their countries in the period of economic recession. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR defeated incumbent president Herbert Hoover in 1932 ostensibly due to the economic depression in the U.S. as is the case in Nigeria today with Buhari, who defeated incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan as a result of the decision by Nigerians for a change in how an equally debilitating economic recession is managed.
Remarkably, it is FDR’s economic recovery policy in the mid-1930s, that has given rise to modern day Keynesian economic policies of STIMULUS-injection of funds into ailing industries, which is still in practice till date – currently driven and given public face by renown economist, Paul Krugman, Nobel laureate and New York Times columnist. It is worthy of note that PMB’s policy of releasing bailout out funds to the 27 insolvent states in Nigeria and financial stimulus packaged as intervention funds to other sectors of the economy such as aviation and textile amongst others are derivatives of the FDR economic recovery policies of the Great Depression era.
In a nutshell, PMB has many great leaders to emulate and benchmark.
Don’t make them in your own image
For the avoidance of doubt, I’m not averse to positive and radical changes in the Nigerian polity as enunciated by the APC and the postulations in my articles are not rendered as an adversary of PMB’s government, but rather as a patriotic Nigerian stakeholder-leader, who is independent-minded and leading from the streets as a public intellectual who does not play to the gallery.
In the meantime, before PMB releases his much-awaited list of cabinet members, he might want to consider the merits or demerits of VISA credit card co-founder and former CEO, Dee W Hock’s admonition: “Never hire or promote in your own image. It is foolish to replicate your strengths and idiotic to replicate your weakness. It is essential to employ, trust and reward those whose perspective, ability and judgment are radically different from yours. It is also rare, for it requires uncommon humility, tolerance and wisdom”.
Ultimately, it is hoped that from positive contributions in the form of critical analysis being unleashed on a daily basis into the public arena by patriotic Nigerians like us who strive to air their views against all odds, that viable solutions to Nigeria’s myriad challenges would be wrought and PMB’s name would be written in gold at the end of his tenure in 2019.
This intervention would be incomplete without pleading with the major players in the political arena to exercise more caution in the way they assail the integrity of some of our leaders and country in the media. Need I remind politicians that every diplomatic office in Nigeria has a team collecting data and sending same back to their home countries which is analysed and used to gauge Nigeria to make them simmer?
Pots must cease calling kettles “black”
Given the bile in the brush with which some of us are tarring our countrymen and women black as we accuse ourselves of mind-boggling financial embezzlement that portray Nigeria and Nigerians in the media as a country of artful thieves, we don’t need a rocket scientist to remind us that our rating by Transparency International would drop further and to the extent that the international community could demand that every Nigerian be literarily put in the laundry for a clean wash to make Nigeria an attractive place to live and do business by international investors again.
It is my hope that we don’t descend to the ugly past when Nigerian government through the CBN bought advert spaces in the Financial Times and the New York Times to warn foreigners of Nigerian scanners. What a disservice because it’s tantamount to washing Nigeria’s dirty linen in public. The aftermath of that negative initiative was that Nigerian travelers were separated and subjected to humiliating experiences at airports abroad and they were also targeted by law enforcement agents in foreign countries for persecution because Nigerian government had alerted those countries that her citizens are fraudsters and criminals.
Vicariously, and as a result of the flawed process, along with the few “bad eggs” that the warning was meant for, hard-working Nigerian aeronautic engineers in NASA and hordes of medical doctors contributing positively to their host societies and academicians imparting knowledge in renowned institutions of higher learning in their communities of abode, amongst other professionals resident abroad became victims.
Some may argue that despite all the opprobrium being heaped on the economic team of the immediate past administration, most of them are getting appointed into top positions in global and African financial organisations: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala appointed chairman of the GAVI foundation and advisor to Lazard bank, one of the oldest investment (merchant) banks in the US; Akinwunmi Adesina, CEO of Africa Development Bank; Arumah Otteh, vice president/treasurer of the World Bank; and Bright Okogwu appointed executive director at ADB. But it may be too early for the damage being done presently to Nigeria’s image to take its toll.
Without further equivocation, let it be known that my contention is not that financial misconduct should not be punished, but, let it not be said again, that in the bid to be holier than the Pope or Imam, Nigeria practically threw away the baby and the bath water. After all said and done, there is a lot of good in Nigerians, but as in all things in life, there are bound to be imperfections, so there is room for improvement.
That’s why we all probably need to literally put in the laundry our minds from where all our actions are initiated and of which change is needed the most.
Read Magnus Onyibe’s full column, Buhari’s Cabinet: Cleanest Dirty Shirts in the Laundry?, on This Day.
Magnus Onyibe
Magnus Onyibe is a development strategist, futurologist and former commissioner in Delta state, an alumnus of Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Massachusetts, USA.
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