How does a President achieve national healing by pretending to be blind
and deaf to the cries and complaints of the people he is ruling?
Buhari’s obsession with sectional favouritism has been undermining
fairness and public faith in his government. Does anybody still doubt
that?
There is no doubt that it is the President’s prerogative which he has
been exercising to the fullest to appoint whoever he wants to wherever
in his government and does not owe anybody any explanation for his
actions. So first, we may need to ask whether it was the President, Gen
Mohammadu Buhari that sacked the Director General of the Nigerian
Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dakuku Peterside one
week to the expiration of his tenure replacing him with Bashir Jamoh an
erstwhile executive staff of the agency.
This has become necessary because even till this very hour, the
Presidency has not said anything concerning the trumpeted displacement
at NIMASA and that raises serious questions as to who originated the
story and leaked same to the media.
The tenure of the incumbent Director General of the agency, Dakuku
Peterside was supposed to expire on the 10th of March 2020 only for him
to be replaced or rather sacked just one week to the date on flimsy
reasons of some trumped up allegations and politically motivated
petition. How do you reconcile that? Even if the President (real or
surrogate) had the intention of not renewing Peterside’s tenure,
couldn’t there have been more decent way of easing him out?
How else can anybody describe the gaming in the alleged baton change at
NIMASA if not to say it was another manifestation of the acts of a
grossly diminished Presidency?
Dakuku’s tenure has ended and another person has to fill the space,
that shouldn’t be an issue at all but why didn’t they let him
complete his tenure after all he has just 5 days left?
The agency has had 12 director generals since inception. Is it not
curious that this is the first time a president will leak to the media
reasons for sacking his appointee? It is very clear that some people are
playing not-too smart politics in this NIMASA issue.
Curiously also, barely few hours after the revelation of the change of
baton at NIMASA, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) rushed out a
congratulatory message which was even more insulting than the complaints
against Buhari’s skewed appointments.
How has maritime business and NIMASA become MURIC’s concern that the
Islamic organisation was the first to rollout a media statement few
hours after the rumoured sack congratulating Bashir Jamoh the new DG? Is
it not clear that there is a clear agenda to rubbish whatever efforts
Peterside must have put to reposition the agency with the ultimate goal
of making the replacement look better and the renewal of the former’s
tenure a near impossibility.
As said, “MURIC commends President Buhari for manifesting visionary
leadership in his choice of Bashir Jamoh for the position of Director
General of NIMASA. We are waiting for wailers and their
characteristically divisive outcry against every appointment made by
this administration. It is either nepotism, Islamisation or
Fulanisation. But they did not see Afeniferisation when Dr. Folashade
Yemi-Esan was appointed on Monday, 2nd March, 2020 as the new Head of
Service (HOS). Yemi-Esan succeeded Mrs. Winifred Ekanem Oyo-Ita, another
Christian and Southerner. But the Muslims have not cried foul. Neither
have the Northerners screamed blue murder.
“There is indubitable evidence that balance has been maintained in the
choice of Bashir Jamoh. The outgoing director general, Dr. Dakuku
Adolphus Peterside, is a Christian and a Southerner while his successor,
Dr. Bashir Jamoh, is a Muslim and a Northerner.”
How come some people in this country no longer care about the
sensibility of others? What’s exactly the interest of this MURIC in
NIMASA? So appointment in NIMASA has become a religious: Christian
versus Muslim thing? What was the essence of the MURIC’s satanic
verses in what suppose to be a congratulatory message? From MURIC’S
statement, it is not difficult to know the sponsors of the plethora of
media reports of allegations some of which are outrightly baseless and
most clearly stupid are coming from.
Be it as it may that Peterside’s tenure as Director-General of NIMASA
was not renewed by President Muhammadu Buhari because of the inability
of the former DG to develop indigenous shipping thereby losing industry
operators’ goodwill; failure to curb piracy and armed robbery at sea;
and failure to maintain a harmonious relationship with federal lawmakers
as alleged. So by appointing Jamoh from Kaduna who could be said to be
the second in command all these while in the agency, all the alleged
lapses would be ameliorated?
If Peterside failed to achieve what was alleged, was that not an
indictment on the top management of the agency including Jamoh himself,
or was Dakuku a dictator in the place?
If Jamoh had so much fire to give as MURIC and the rest are insinuating,
why did he not unleash it when Peterside held sway at the agency? Or
should we believe that he and some other people deliberately withheld
their experiences and expertise since he was the executive director
Finance and Administration in the same agency under Peterside? So you
see the reasons given are as stupid as they are unintelligent.
Why are the operators of this government blind to the obvious
implications of their acts? This regime has been inundated with
complaints of lopsidedness in assignment of lucrative agencies of
government to only a section of the country and even a people in that
section. These are factual.
This is not knocking Jamoh as he’s said to have all it takes to run
the place but the worry is about precedence. If all the major revenue
generating agencies are headed by people from one section of the country
then it’s a cause for worry.
Supposing government changes hands tomorrow and another region or people
start replaying this music that Buahri and his people have taught all of
us, would there be protest or they will be ready to accept it that way?
Despite the agitations, this same impunity is repeated every now and
then that the need to change any incumbent whether by sack or expiration
of tenure arises. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporationn, Federal
Inland Revenue Service, Nigerian Ports Authourity, Customs, NCAA, FAAN
and now NIMASA among other money spinning agencies of this government
are restricted to one section of the country and one people in that
section except the CBN which is not even a revenue generating agency.
To the small minds, they may say it is not factual even though they know
it is. But let’s even say is it not but what happened to tact?
In all these neptic appointments, the most worrisome thing is this
single-minded disinclination to sooth those complaining at least to
allay their fears even if they be paranoid. And if these appointments
were based on any objective moral principles they could be excusable.
Why is the President not making any effort to balance appointments if
only to reduce the bitterness in the polity?
Is it really possible not to view the sharing of political appointments
and other perks of office in a divided society like ours outside the
prism of North/South? Why is General Buhari not bothered about the
concerns of the mass of informed Nigerians who are sufficiently
convinced that his appointments are at best skewed and at worst nepotic?
Whether anybody wants to hear this or not, there is a limit to which you
can bruise the sensibilities of others without getting the repercussion
which most times come with grave consequences. The earlier we begin to
learn to pretend well that we are one nation, the better for all of us.
God bless Nigeria!
(IFEANYI IZEZE WRITES FROM ABUJA: IIZEZE@YAHOO.COM; 234-8033043009)