CARRIED to power on a groundswell of goodwill and disgust at the
thoroughly corrupt Goodluck Jonathan administration, Muhammadu Buhari
appears bent on political self-immolation. While he received massive
support from across the country to become President, he is by his
appointments, presenting himself as a parochial, sectional leader. For the
sake of the country’s corporate survival, he should rise above primordial
instincts and become a father to all Nigerians.
In his inaugural speech just over a year ago, Buhari promised Nigerians
that “having just a few minutes ago sworn on the Holy Book, I intend to
keep my oath and serve as President to all Nigerians. I belong to
everybody and I belong to nobody.” But too often, the pledge has been
honoured in the breach. Buhari’s sectionalism is not only unprecedented,
it could not have come at a worse time. The reality today is that
Nigerians are deeply divided. Seventeen years of dashed hopes of progress
under a democratic dispensation have reopened the deep fissures in the
polity and polarised the populace into mutually suspicious camps.
Sectarianism and ethnicity have been rearing their poisonous heads. The
presidential election of 2015 was particularly divisive, with some major
actors openly deploying base religious and regional sentiments. Add to
this the terrible state of the economy that Buhari inherited, headlined by
a collapse in global crude oil prices, our main export earner, and the
rapacious emptying of the national treasury by previous governments, and
you have a seething, discontented people.
It is a sad reality of the Nigerian experience that when crisis −
political or economic − hits, segments of the populace retreat into ethnic
and sectarian cocoons. It is in this combustible mix that Buhari
stubbornly presses ahead with appointments that weigh heavily in favour of
his northern regional base.
He struck again last month when he removed Ibe Kachikwu as head of the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to put a Northerner; named
another, Hadiza Bala-Usman, as managing director of the Nigerian Ports
Authority along with three executive directors, two of whom are also
Northerners. Before then, he had ring-fenced himself with appointees from
his northern constituency at the Presidency, thereby deepening the
long-held fears of many Southerners that he has not overcome his
well-known insularity.
But the 1999 Constitution explicitly stipulates in Chapter 14 subsection 3
that the “composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its
agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall…reflect the federal
character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to
command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no
predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other
sectional groups…” Buhari is breaching this with impunity in his
appointments. Apart from this, Nigeria’s plural setting demands that no
group or ethnic nationality is seen as too domineering in critical areas
of governance.
Among his first appointments, even while he dithered on assembling a
cabinet: he recalled a retired officer to man the Department of State
Services; a former army officer to head the Nigeria Customs Service; a
personal acquaintance as Chief of Staff, and loaded the other security and
law enforcement agencies heavily in favour of Northerners. While the DSS
head is from his hometown, Daura, the others are also almost all
Northerners and overwhelmingly Muslims. In spite of public opinion, he
replaced the immediate past Inspector-General of Police, a Southerner,
with a Northerner, an assistant inspector-general whose ascension induced
the retirement in one fell swoop of 21 DIGs and AIGs who were senior to
him. This is beyond absurdity.
We declare emphatically that this is corruption. It is wrong to view
stealing of government funds as the only form of corruption. A former
member of the House of Representatives, Junaid Muhammed, alleges that not
only is Buhari sectional in his appointments, several appointees are
actually his relatives. Nigerians did not vote against the Jonathan
administration’s impunity for corruption, only to be assaulted with
another pernicious impunity for cronyism.
Buhari should be told that sectionalism and nepotism are also acts of
corruption. You do not wage war against financial corruption while
indulging in sectional and sectarian favouritism. It is self-defeating; a
veritable weak link that the formidable ranks of those fighting back
furiously to preserve the existing corrupt order are already capitalising
on. The President simply does not need this. Many are willing to concede
that he is only demonstrating political naiveté; now, however, is the time
to radically change tactics.
The country is in a bad shape, compelling that all efforts be made to
rally all segments of the polity behind measures to reverse economic
recession, defeat terrorism in the North-East, renewed militancy and
sabotage in the South-South zone, Fulani herdsmen’s terrorism in the
North-Central and general insecurity across the country. The government
admitted that the country is technically in recession last week, while
Bloomberg reported that foreign reserves fell to just over $26 billion in
June; oil production also fell to about 1.6 million barrels per day, while
over 4,440 megawatts of power were lost last week, both due to sabotage of
crude and gas facilities by criminals in the Niger Delta region.
Meanwhile, though seriously degraded, Boko Haram terrorists are recovering
their ability to ambush and inflict casualties on Nigerian troops.
More importantly, the South-East and South-South zones voted massively
against Buhari, who is deepening their alienation from his government by
his lopsided appointments. But in truly democratic societies, elected
leaders go all out to unite their people after elections. Apart from
meeting the constitutional requirement that a minister be appointed from
each of the 36 states, the two zones are sparsely represented in the
Federal Government. If some past presidents indulged in primitive
sectionalism, Buhari should not. Olusegun Obasanjo, alone among our last
four presidents, significantly sought to rise above such primordial
instincts. Buhari, also a former military head of state, and senior
citizen, ought to do better, having tried and failed thrice before to win
the Presidency exclusively with Northern votes. His party, the All
Progressives Congress, the National Assembly and civil society groups
should be more vigorous in resisting this trend.
It is time to put an end to this provincial inclination. Nigeria has over
250 ethnic nationalities and wide disparities in culture. If, as Buhari
wrongly repeats that Nigeria’s unity is inviolable, why then does he
alienate many Nigerians with appointments? Until we take the right,
inevitable step of restructuring the country, the minimum expected of a
Nigerian president is to ensure equity in federal appointments.
-The Punch