SIR: Last week, the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation in a press release stated that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the establishment of a Presidential Transition Council, for facilitating and managing the 2023 transition programme, and also signed Executive Order No. 14, 2023
A key feature of the Presidential Executive Order No. 14 of 2023 is the institutionalization of a legal framework that would enable a seamless transition of power from one presidential administration to another – which is part of President Buhari’s legacy.
With the setting up with the transition committee, barring any unforeseen developments, President Buhari will leave office come May 29 and another cycle will begin.
As Buhari prepares his final departure, his kitchen cabinet would also be preparing for the next step. Let me add quickly that politicians are not really so bad, it’s just that 99% of all politicians make the rest look bad. And I am sure for the next four years that will be the case for the next president.
Because from the onset, the song may be – now we have power, what are we gonna do with it, and early permutations show that despite the hope going into the general elections, we may start with a “combination of contradictions”.
Whoever wins, someone somewhere will suggest and demand, or the party hierarchy will nominate, for whatever position; the incoming contraption is faced with a conglomerate of jobless politicians, jobbers and ex-this and that, who require settlement of one form or the other.
Can they be damned?
How will we create balance with intellect, hard work and patriotism in the zoning thing that has led us nowhere and sadly one of the banes of the outgoing administration? What can thrill Nigerians is becoming hard every day.
For example, the questions to be answered will be what will the Ministry of Water Resources do differently, as many Nigerians would want to see water run from a tap courtesy of their effort? Beyond politics, doctors and health workers strike, what will the new health minister do? Will we see another Olikoye Ransome Kuti?
Apart from the Civil Defence, Immigration and SSS, really the interior ministry’s visible task has been to announce public holidays and prison breaks! Without bias, will the new group facilitate a collection of the best brains without recourse to godfather, mother and uncle, without recourse to politics of convenience?
Ministers who failed as governors, governors who failed, legislators who contributed nothing and persons who lost elections and others whose father and mother were ‘former-this’ and ‘former-that’ will return.
After a tightly contested election, Nigerians want ministers, advisers, and aides, legislators that are born again. For a nation that suffers expectation fatigue, and has a very low expectation ratio, for sure we are ‘not’ asking for the impossible from the next man, considering the rot he has to contend with.
As Buhari prepares to leave, politicians are not really trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems – of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two. Whatever is number three is far behind!
•Prince Charles Dickson, PhD,
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