Whether anyone objects or not, two things are evident from President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointment of new service chiefs. One, it is at least a vague indication of how his mind is working, and many people are not going to be comfortable with the workings of that mind. Two, there is yet no visible or consistent framework of how his presidency is to be viewed. The Buhari presidency is, as far as can be made out, still formless. On Monday, the president had sacked the service chiefs and two other sensitive security appointees he inherited from his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, an action that was thought to be long overdue. They were replaced by Maj.-Gen. Abayomi Olonishakin (Chief of Defence Staff), Maj.-Gen. Tukur Buratai (Chief of Army Staff), Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (Chief of Naval Staff), Air Vice Marshal Sadique Abubakar (Chief of Air Staff), Air Vice Marshal Monday Riku Morgan (Chief of Defence Intelligence), and Maj.-Gen.Babagana Monguno, retd. (National Security Adviser).
It takes an inscrutable and independent mind to make such appointments. In making the appointments, the president explained that, except for Gen Buratai whom he met only recently in Chad, all the other service chiefs were unknown to him, and all five Chiefs were appointed strictly based on their records. But as expected, the Southeast, which is yet to be represented in any significant Buhari appointment, has expressed grave reservations over what it described as the lack of fairness and federal character representation of the exercise. Weeks before, some commentators had wondered why of the first 10 or 11 or so appointments made by the president, only one came from the Southwest, indeed the entire South.
Even though he did not allude to these appointments, and only spoke particularly of the National Assembly (NASS) crisis, former interim national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bisi Akande, had suggested controversially that there was a conspiracy by a section of the northern elite to emasculate the Yoruba in the new government in strict disregard of the huge role the latter played in birthing the APC and enthroning the Buhari presidency. Tony Nyiam, a retired colonel who played a leading role in the 1990 Gideon Orkar coup, also wondered in a recent interview whether, all things considered, President Buhari was not in the process of being caged by certain powerful interests from the North. Presidential adviser, Femi Adesina, denied that the president had been or was about to be caged. Notwithstanding these observations, the president had gone ahead to make the new security appointments.
It is undeniable that President Buhari is bold and courageous. What is not clear, either from his recent or last few weeks appointments, is whether he is reckless or wise. His appointments so far have, however, provided analysts a window into the inscrutable mind of this laconic former army general. Of the major security architecture he is assembling, which the president referred to in passing during one of his Ramadan breaking of fast, four of the six service chiefs are of northern origin. They are: Director-General of the Department of State Services, who is of Daura extraction like the president, Army chief (Borno), Air Force chief (Bauchi), and Defence Intelligence chief (Benue). The president’s Chief Security Officer (CSO) and Aide de Camp (ADC) are also from the North.
On the surface, President Buhari gives the impression he is both dispassionate and patriotic. Undoubtedly, his fundamental character is such that he can be relied upon, like the Ottoman emperor, Suleyman the Magnificent, to be just — one who is inured to the shenanigans of using or deploying right and wrong interchangeably. President Buhari, as a general in the army and head of state in the 80s, had a reputation for being blind to tribe or religion. During the war, he also demonstrated that his patriotism and his fundamental make-up are both anchored on a superior understanding of the human essence — the god in us.
If, despite these lofty attributes, he went ahead to make the kind of skewed appointments credited to him in the past few weeks, it may lead analysts to search for other explanations to understand what has happened. One explanation is that his appointments have just begun, and until they are completed, it may be hasty and unfair to form a total picture of him or suggest skewness or otherwise. A second explanation suggests that the appointments probably represent innocent parochialism, a by-product of the findings and headhunting of a group of insular aides. And a third explanation infers that in his desperation to achieve set goals, he would seize on any solution, no matter how insensitive, sectional or irrational some may deem them to be.
Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State may not have realised it, but when he enthused over the president’s appointment of two Borno-born officers (Army chief, NSA) into his security architecture, he was drawing attention to the inexplicability of entrusting so much into the hands of one state out of 36 states. The president talked of merit as an explanation in his appointments, but it is still notable that other competent and suitable officers cannot be found in other states. The president knows that Nigeria’s complex and suspicion-ridden cultural milieu places a huge burden on its leaders to juggle the mix of public policies delicately to accommodate its diverse population. It is unlikely that the intransigence of the Boko Haram revolt and the frustrations felt by the government in tackling it have led the president into resignedly agreeing with the logic that the malaise is best tackled by officers who hail from the epicenter of the revolt.
What is obviously not apparent from the appointments, especially of the service chiefs, is the salutary fact that the president can call his soul his own. How he calls his soul, and whether his ability to command his soul is good for the country, will become obvious in the coming months. President Buhari is known to possess an iron will, and is sometimes inflexible, is a stickler for rules and regulations once they are set, and a passionate leader. These attributes have started to reflect in the president’s policies and appointments. He will, it seems, continue to acknowledge his friends and those who helped him to win the presidency, and also sometimes defer to them and seek their counsel. But in the end, he will make up his mind, often independently and sometimes incomprehensibly, and courageously stick to his decisions.
From his appointments so far, the president will find it tough going to persuade everyone or even a majority that he had acted wisely or prudently, but there is no doubting the fact that he had acted very boldly. He knew there would be flak, for it is implausible that he did not recognise the downside of the appointments. He must also appreciate that those who question his motives do so legitimately and with the best of intentions. But given his nature, he will not be discouraged from standing his ground in this and other matters.
It may, therefore, take a little longer to understand the structure and direction of the Buhari presidency. While his appointments so far give reasons for some disquiet and even unhappiness, as the Southeast is already expressing, he cannot yet be judged on whether he is providing fair and equitable leadership for the entire country until nearly all his appointments have been made. What is a little worrisome, however, is whether he himself understands the nuanced — or perhaps sublime — direction his presidency should be heading. That direction will be determined by the structure of his presidency, not by its organogram and departmental arrangements; and in turn that structure will be influenced by the appointments he makes. He will have to do enormously better in those appointments, and begin brilliantly to enunciate and communicate the philosophy of his government far beyond the pragmatism he projects.
The president may be able to curb corruption, implement reforms and make life more comfortable and dignified for Nigerians. But the real success of his government will be determined not by these tangibles, but by the more complex and sometimes indecipherable intangibles only ambitious countries are familiar with. The Buhari presidency will have to find a way to conceptualise and implement these intangibles. With a fractious National Assembly leadership and legislative majority antagonistic to the discipline and instruction of the ruling party, and a presidency yet to exhibit the indispensable broadmindedness required for a great society and noble future, President Buhari’s path seems paved with thorns.
