A Timely Warning

While swearing-in the newly appointed ministers recently, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu gave them what we consider a timely warning that if abided by will go a long way to healing the country, bruised and divided, by forces that were not sufficiently nationalistic.

At that inauguration ceremony, he urged them to prioritise the interests and welfare of the entire nation, its diverse population and resist the temptation to indulge in parochial issues relating to their region of origin and religious affiliations. Similarly, he told them to eschew ethnic attachments and other such mundane considerations that pose a threat to efforts at nation-building.

Tinubu did not mince words when he admonished the ministers to always bear in mind that they were not appointed to oversee the affairs of a particular state, colony, region, or ethnic nationality. “You are a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” That, in our view, must continue to resound in the psyche of these 45 or so ladies and gentlemen who were privileged to attract the attention of the President in a country of more than 240 million citizens.

The President also reminded them that “In this moment of abundant promise and peril in equal measure, all of you that have been sworn in have been called to distinguish yourselves. Nigerians are highly expectant of excellence in service delivery, accountability, and transparency.”

As a newspaper, we are immensely thrilled by this presidential reminder issued as the new appointees get set to face the challenge that comes with the confidence reposed in them by the President and the high expectations of Nigerians hard pressed and in need of relief.

This admonition by the President brings to mind the sad realities of the Buhari administration and the harrowing experience brought about by its nepotistic tendencies that left so many Nigerians outside the loop of governance structures and benefits. During that period, government officials saw themselves as representatives only of their geopolitical linkages, a tendency that was accompanied by sickening groveling to the Commander-in-Chief of that ignoble era.

It became fashionable for top government officials to either site projects in the home state of the then president or their own state. Projects financed through public funds. At that time, brothers and uncles and their families were competing for space with the First family in the seat of government. At that time, too, appointments were largely influenced by considerations that were alien to any known national fervour as provided for in the constitution of the country.

The result, in our opinion, was a failure of governance with its manifestations of insecurity, abysmal non-attainment of the key performance indicators (KPIs), debt crisis, corruption, unemployment and other factors that kept the economy and the nation down.

We are enthused by the realisation that President Tinubu himself is aware of the negative implications of any attempt to fall into the trap of resorting to those base inclinations that help no one, least of all, the Nigerian state and its people. It is the hope of this newspaper that he will show good example and abide by the sermon he delivered on that inauguration day. That is the only way he can match words with action and so elicit fidelity by the ministers themselves. We would want to assume that he, by now, must have done away with his campaign slogan “it’s my turn”. Politics, we dare to emphasise, is over. It is time for the serious business of serving the people and actualizing their aspirations. 

It is important to stress this point because it is humanly impossible to appoint officials to represent every shade of opinion in the country. Therefore, it behoves on the lucky ones who are favoured to understand that, Nigeria and Nigerians, come first in the design and implementation of policies and programmes.

However, we are not unmindful of the pressures that come with the appointments into public offices, particularly, from the people, relations and friends, who erroneously interpret such otherwise national call to service as an opportunity to plunge into the miasma of self-aggrandisement. Much as it is practically difficult to distance oneself from such demands from those who insist that they have IOUs to claim, it is our candid opinion that an equitable distribution of services and favours will assuage the hurt that may accumulate as a result of not yielding to such inane interests.

What this entails, in our view, is for that coterie of hangers-on to give the officials a breather. The ministers, on their part, will be well-advised to conduct themselves in ways that will not create the wrong impression in the minds of the people that it is a ‘come and chop’ affair.