Discordant Tunes Over Tinubu’s Appointments

On Thursday, heads of agencies under the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation, were appointed, with Mallam Jibrin Baba Ndace taking over as the new Director-General/CEO of the Voice Of Nigeria, VON; Mallam Ali Muhammed Ali  (Managing Director/CEO of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN); Mr Charles Ebuebu (Director General/CEO, National Broadcasting Commission, NBC) and Mr Salihu Abdulhamid Dembos, Director General/CEO, Nigerian Television Authourity, NTA), among others.

Unlike Monday’s appointments of heads of agencies under the Ministry of Trade and Investment,  that saw a cross-section of Nigerians debating over the appropriateness or otherwise of the new appointments by President Bola Tinubu, many public sector workers  poured into the streets for commendations and condemnations.

Celebrations/protests over appointments

At the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) where a new helmsman was appointed on Monday to replace the sacked CAC Registrar General, Alhaji Garba Abubakar, workers poured into the streets to welcome the development. Carrying placards to express their displeasure at the manner the former registrar ran the affairs of the commission; they described Abubakar’s exit as an exercise that was long overdue.

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Also on Monday, workers at the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) shut down the headquarters of the organisation in protest to the appointment of Tola Odeyemi as the new Chief Executive Officer/Postmaster-General of the Federation. The aggrieved staffers, unlike their colleagues at the CAC, condemned the new boss of the organisation, stressing that her appointment was against their wishes.  The protest by the NIPOST staffers was not unconnected to an unconfirmed news report that the previously sacked NIPOST PGF, Adeyemi Adepoju, had been reinstated.

At the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), the sack of the Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Commission, Dr Ezra Yakusak, ignited anger among critical stakeholders of the non-oil sector who said the former NEPZ CEO worked so hard to ensure foreign exchange earnings of non-oil exports climbed to $4.8 billion last year. Many who condemned his sack reminded the government to spare those who have performed well for development to be sustained.

While discordant tunes ripped across the nation over these appointments, the nomination of a 25-year old young man and son to Kashim Imam, Egr.  Imam Kashim Imam, for the position of Chairman, Board of Directors for the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) was withdrawn by the President. The withdrawal of the nomination was hinged on the public outcry on the need to have an experienced professional to replace Imam.

Though there has been less noise over the appointments of Thursday’s appointment of heads of agencies under the Ministry of Information and National orientation, some citizens are worried that these appointments have caused discord and set tongues wagging. Against the backdrop of economic hardship in the land, distraught citizens, who had embraced the ‘Renewed Hope’ singsong of the Tinubu-led administration, expected that a clear roadmap for Nigeria’s emancipation from the troubles that ail it should have been unveiled by now.

Most expediently, the focus on arresting the resurging insecurity challenges confronting the country should have been made a front burner matter. Yes, the new security chiefs may have achieved some considerable mileage, but what they have achieved is yet to deter criminal gangs and merciless murderers from unleashing waves of attacks on defenceless citizens, thereby making our communities unsafe for habitation.

Is the honeymoon over?

Without any iota of disputation, the remaining hope left after former President Muhamadu Buhari’s eight years of gloom has been replaced by a crippling despair that is growing into a frightful danger for the future. Besides the devaluation of the naira that is now exchanged over N1, 100 for the dollar, fears are rife that the local currency may sink further down. The worry here is not that the naira is in a free fall; the fear is that no deliberate efforts are being pursued to save the local currency.

With no clear economic policies to salvage what is left of the shambled Nigerian economy, the present dilemma faced by ordinary citizens is making life in the country hell on earth. As it is, the road to recovering our nation is long and weary and there seems to be no strategy in place to pull out the nation from the precipice as the clouds of doom and gloom are hovering over our nation’s skies. More painful is the resort to the inability of the new government to assure the populace of the capacity to channel the energies of teeming youths in building a productive country that can provide hope for the hopeless.

Rescuing nations under economic and political turmoil is never a walk-in-the-park exercise or an act of happenstance. The fortunes of nations are improved upon and developed on clear cut policies that unite citizens in defence of shared values for the common good. While citizens suffered crippling distress during the last eight years, no one expected a magic wand from Tinubu.

Can Nigerians trust leadership?

On Wednesday, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mallam Mohammed Idris Malagi, declared the truth that we have always known: Citizens no longer trust and believe in leaders. It was a courageous act from a minister that on resumption of duties vowed those days of lying to Nigerians was over. In a bid to boost the trust and confidence of citizens in leadership, the minister promised to embark on re-orientating Nigerians and rallying stakeholders for a new dawn.

There’s no doubt that Nigeria is the easiest country to be governed. Once leadership can provide citizens with basic infrastructure to survive, my countrymen and women can always fend for themselves. If the Tinubu-led administration can create the enabling environment for power, resuscitate collapsed refineries and provide security for the people; leadership can go to sleep and watch Nigerians grow.

However, it is the absence of these basic requirements that have made the country to remain in the backwaters of development. Once a nation is not secured, both foreign local and foreign investments become illusive as people are constrained to only dwell on survival instincts. For leadership to be what it should be; it must take responsibility for protecting lives and property of citizens and rallying citizens towards walking the path of shared values through collaboration and partnership.

Even when the present administration continues to remind Nigerians that the country is almost down and out in providing funds in running the country, the government has continued to rely on external loans as demonstrated in the planned borrowing of $400 million to support the implementation of the 2023 budget.  For a nation spending over 90 percent of its revenue to service its external debts, what is the wisdom of appointing high numbers of ministers and aides, thereby increasing the cost of governance?

Appointments should serve to facilitate the realisation of the Tinubu-led ‘Renewed Hope’ vision. For now, the current government has not paid its dues to convince the citizenry of its commitment to avoid the path trodden in the past. For this democracy to survive; this administration should revive our refineries and deliver this country from the monstrous claws of criminal gangs unleashing bloodshed and turning our nation into killing fields. Anything short of pulling Nigeria from the brink amounts to postponing the evil day.  President Tinubu should heed the call to rescue our country from imminent dangers caused by present sufferings being experienced by the masses.