Tonnie Iredia
After the opprobrium of the poorly organized 2007 presidential election, many Nigerians were further dampened by the story that Chief Emeka Anyaoku, the celebrated former Commonwealth Secretary-General had turned down government’s offer to lead a credible electoral commission which the Yar’Adua-Jonathan administration sought to establish.
Whereas there was no official statement indicating that the offer was actually made to Anyaoku, what stuck was the rather strange idea of a Nigerian turning down a lucrative job. No one does that in our clime just as no typical Nigerian would resign from public office. Instead, people usually trample on one another in search of government appointments which seem to explain why some citizens at 80 years and above are still part of those struggling to be made ministers or special advisers by successive governments.
Last week, another story of a Nigerian turning down a privileged offer to serve, emerged. This time, it was a report that billionaire industrialist, and chairman of the BUA Group, Abdulsamad Rabiu had declined to be part of a powerful 34-member finance committee set up by the ruling All Progressives Congress APC. Rabiu was reportedly nominated into the committee alongside some other top businessmen.
According to a statement credited to the BUA Group, the ruling party did not consult Rabiu before including his name in the list. BUA made more profound statements. First, it stated that both the Chairman and BUA Group have consistently adopted an apolitical stance over the years in line with the nature of their business. Second, with no consultation before the appointment was made, the party foreclosed the likelihood of the nominee’s inability to commit time to the assignment due to his usually crowded and demanding work schedule
Many lessons can be learnt from the disposition of the BUA boss. To start with, Nigerians need to imbibe the spirit of avoiding to lobby for or to accept assignments they are ill-equipped to handle because it would almost be impossible for them to make any mark in dealing with such assignments. Instead, we should all restrict ourselves to tasks which we can effectively conclude.
To take on too many assignments at the same time would obviously be at the expense of efficiency. For this reason, it is probably time to dissuade our national assembly from the habit of creating more committees than the numerical strength of its membership just to give each member so much to do. This is because a proportionate deployment strategy would put our national assembly committees in a better position to, on their own, promptly discover poor performances of agencies they are supposed to monitor.
Another lesson which today’s subject throws forth is that there is a difference between a ruling political party and the government set up by it. President Bola Tinubu as the president of all can adopt an inclusive government approach by inviting anyone including opposition figures to play roles in national development.
But the APC which is nothing more than a political party cannot under the guise of inclusivity surreptitiously coerce non-party members into the APC fold by appointing them to serve in any of the party’s committees. It is worse that in the case of BUA’s Rabiu, his consent was not sought before his name was included in the party’s finance committee thereby imputing to the world at large that the billionaire industrialist had joined the APC.
Nigeria like every other democracy consists of a variety of people with different professions, occupations and vocations. We have politicians, doctors, farmers, traders, artisans etc. who must assiduously play roles that match their acclaimed professional expertise for the nation to robustly grow. Every profession including politicking is important; for instance, no matter how great our politicians are; politics alone cannot uplift the nation.
Our lawmakers may turn out great laws but it is only through the handiwork of farmers that the nation can be well fed. The health of the nation can best be left in the hands of medical professionals and not in the hands of politicians. Therefore, no one is obliged to be a politician or to first join the ruling party or indeed any party in order to be able to contribute meaningfully to national development. Thus, the urge of politicians to politicize every segment of the nation is ill-advisable.
In times past, the role of the politician in each public institution was well laid out and delineated such that societal institutions would always be strong enough to hold the nation together. In the past, the appointment of politicians was usually restricted to governing councils and boards but that has since changed. Today, in order to placate or reward political jobbers, they are now appointed into technical and professional positions that greatly weaken the management of our institutions.
A principal officer on grade level 12 for example can resign from his position to play more roles in a political party that would later return him to the same organization as chief executive to now supervise his erstwhile professional superiors. Yet, he has acquired no extra managerial skill to justify the arrangement. This is worrisome because all that anyone wishing to grow in a public institution does these days is not excellence in productivity but politics.
The rate at which political parties are taking more control of every sector in the nation is capable of distracting those in government from excellent implementation of public policies. Many activities that are purely partisan in nature are increasingly finding their way into the presidential villa which ordinarily is a government venue and not a political party platform.
During the Buhari administration, members of the ruling party assumed it was an achievement to get the president of the entire nation to be seen as the president of one political party. Each party squabble had to be resolved there. It was the failure of party leaders to lead the party well that pushed Buhari to install the governor Buni led extra-ordinary caretaker committee to illegally run the ruling party for longer than makes sense. Considering the current precarious state of the nation, one can only hope that Tinubu would also not be so distracted
Instead of distorting the free flow of governance, the ruling party can use the election-free season to focus on effective party management. There is more than electioneering among political activities that is begging for better handling. Party membership registers for example have remained tardy just as the number of party members has remained inaccurate. Making a political party more viable is a better contribution than the unending scramble for political offices. Put differently, APC party leaders should stop derogating from the position of president the way the PDP during their tenure reduced the nation’s president to just the president of the PDP. For now, president Tinubu has more than the APC to satisfy.
Indeed, the president of a developing nation especially one who inherited a poor economy would find it easier to write his name in gold not by how well he placates politicians but the extent to which he improved upon the development of the nation. All those wishing to support the president’s development efforts can do so without necessarily decamping to the ruling party as the former governors of Ebonyi and Cross Rivers States did during president Buhari’s administration. By decamping to the APC when their people voted for them on the platform of the PDP, they merely pulled Nigeria one step forward to a one-party state. But if they had supported Buhari’s development efforts while remaining PDP governors they would have gone into history as apostles of collaborative federalism.
Consequently, the cordial relationship between president Tinubu and the Chief Executive of BUA as well as other industrialists should not be appropriated by party leaders. The reduction of the price of cement that has been done is quite commendable although the distributors of the product have not allowed the reduction to make the desired impact. Such industrialists or other benevolent citizens need not be blackmailed to join the ruling party. All patriotic citizens should support the government of the day. Opposition politicians are also free to continue to canvass alternate policies that can energize government to improve the living standards of Nigerians.
