If the president is, understandably, too busy, a document as important as his first ever budget should have been supervised by either his deputy or the chairman of his economic team?
“Why on earth are Jonathan’s appointees sitting pretty as head of critical agencies of state when he (President Buhari) knew that their track record during the campaigns and presumed voting pattern during the election point unerringly to the fact that they neither believe in his candidacy nor his policies. No, as bona fide Nigerians, nobody is suggesting that they should be made to lose their jobs but for Christ’s sake why were many of these people not moved to less sensitive posts?”
So wrote this column last week and our listening president did not delay: in under 24 hours, most of the Jonathanian rodents were gone. As I wrote, elsewhere, even if their sack owed nothing, at all, to what we wrote, it is still good riddance to bad rubbish. And when I heard that an errand girl of the former First Lady was complaining, my reaction was: she should first tell Nigerians how she could have transmogrified from her appalling supercilious closeness to that First Lady to become a loyal member of the Buhari administration.
I have never had as many reactions to any of the articles on this column. Here are two.
Happy reading.
“Yours was a very good article but it would not sway me from appraising the president to see if he could be promoted ‘on trial’, to the next class. This is the same politician we ‘rejected’ three times at the polls but finally embraced when we felt that anything will be better than GEJ. He sold to us the change brand and we are not going to take anything less than the original from him. That should tell the fragility of the relationship between PMB and the rest of us now. Like millions of other Nigerians, I stuck out my neck to work and vote PMB, I have, however, since recoiled to my pre-Buhari mold of ‘not-yet-uhuru’ to, at least, avoid disappointment. I no longer expect a miracle since facts on ground do not show the expected change; at least not in scope. I did not show up at rallies but joined the vanguard of those who employed ‘word of mouth’ to convince bewildered Nigerians – friends and relations to work for a meaningful change. This made me to run on a collision course with my principal and pastors which nearly ruined long standing relationship with family and friends. I desired, voted and expected real CHANGE from black to white and not grey because I, like other Nigerians, knew the extent of the rot and thought candidate Buhari will be tough and strong enough to pull through, having shown that he knows how virulent corruption could be. So far, the president and his party have overpromised and under-delivered. I still remember his popular quote that if we fail to stop corruption, then corruption will kill us. Why then treat such monster with kid gloves? If he is busy cleaning the past, must he tolerate another spill under his very watch? A million excuses will not erase the pains of disappointment. Can we say that the president, his erudite VP and the star studded cabinet lack basic understanding of the depth of corruption in Nigeria where churches and other religious organisations have become breeding grounds for corruption? I regard the budget as the most important document and a tool to bring about CHANGE, but see how this important tool has been ruined.
The argument that the past was bad is no good lyric for a change agent. That is the very basis for the CHANGE mantra. Nigerians, just like the president, know that the past is horrible, undesirable and should be avoided. That is why he should have watched out for every single manifestation of the vices of endemic corruption everywhere in his administration and at all times, until he can deliver the final blow to it in partnership with ordinary Nigerians, not the elite, especially the lawyers we see daily, doing everything to make corruption prosper and luxuriate in Nigeria. It would have been soothing if the discrepancies in the budget were discovered at the compilation stage by the President and his men, not by an unfriendly National Assembly. Could it be true that such would have gone unnoticed if Lawan’s establishment – preferred Senate leadership was in place, or if Saraki’s like- minds has harmonised fully with the Presidency? That is a big sentiment in the public domain: that the country would most probably have been shortchanged, as usual, and made to bleed from its sick bed even under a trusted President Buhari since the budget mafia remains alive, and kicking.
The president and his men, both inside and outside of government, will fare much better by accepting responsibility for this fatal flaw rather than indulge in any blame game. The buck must stop at the president’s desk. We voted for execution and not excuses. Unfortunately, the president’s constitutional powers have not been fully invoked to deal with corruption and that is why we see it fighting back ferociously. For instance, the power to hire and fire should since have been used to remove the CBN Governor who became a mere paymaster; an errand boy of sorts, for illegal disbursement of unappropriated funds to politicians and all kind of persons during the last administration, a position totally against his job description. For instance, why did it take the CBN so long to appreciate the fact that BDC should not be funded through the official forex?
If the Director of Budget is removed, what of the Minister, and the Permanent Secretary? The budget should have been read and carefully studied by a cabinet rank officer. He is equally guilty. If the president is, understandably, too busy, a document as important as his first ever budget should have been supervised by either his deputy or the chairman of his economic team? It was all round negligence of duty.
If the Budget Director is liable so is our president, his deputy, the minister and others who have been elected to serve us competently. The absolute minimum is for them to own up and learn the appropriate lessons. Such lessons must not be lost, ever, or they come back more tragic. The real tragedy will be to move on as if nothing happened. That will be better than merely holding the conductor responsible for an accident caused by the driver. In an era of change, we will do a lot better by changing the way we do the business of government, if only to get disillusioned Nigerians properly connected to a government they elected and can truly call their own; unlike the usual impositions. The president should pay more attention to these things so that we can, once again in unison, joyously shout: FEBUHARI again, when in February we will be approaching the midterm of his administration.
Time waits for nobody! ” -Kunle Oladele
Femi, do you really think we need bother those deservedly retired technocrats? We also don’t need the Head Of Service or Secretary to Government to persuade the president but direct our appeal straight to him to put in place, a team of patriotic young Nigerians with the expertise, as Special Assistants, working directly under his or the VP’s supervision, to initiate budgets and policies, where necessary, but primarily, to monitor, evaluate and report on all capital projects and the monster recurrent expenditure with emphasis on detailed pre-fund release documentations and auditing. Between us, I am sure we know a few honest and dependable young Nigerians, both here at home, and in the Diaspora, who can do this job. The civil service is far too gone in debauchery; it requires a complete overhaul – Patrick, Abuja.
COMMENTS ON: WANTED BY THE U.S: THE STOLEN MILLIONS OF DESPOTS AND CROOKED ELITES
To have heard what Mike Igini, unarguably our best ever INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, said on Channels TV, to wit: that a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, accused him on a flight from Abuja to Lagos that by the introduction of card readers, INEC was stopping them from making money, is to confirm Olu Aluko’s views that some of these senior lawyers and judges, are kissing cousins. It is, therefore, no surprise that by one single stroke the Supreme Court nullified all of Professor Atahiru Jega’s robust achievements in office, thereby setting Nigeria back many decades.
How unfortunate!
