SV: USA Africa Dialogue Series - How Buhari’s Low Bar is Elevating Atiku

Since it took Buhari six months to name his ministers, Farooq Kperogi is excited by the promise of Atiku Abubakar to form his cabinet immediately after swearing oath of office, if he should win the 2019 Presidential election. Buhari's unexplained incompetence in taking a whole six months to name his ministers, according to Farooq Kperogi, is propelling Atiku to heights he is unworthy of. Each Federal Ministry in Nigeria is headed by a Permanent Secretary who is assisted by scores of Departmental Directors and a lot of Executive Officers. A minister comes and goes but, civil servants in the ministry containing the Perm. Sec. and his aids always remain. In practice, the Perm. Secs. and his aids control the affairs of the Ministries in the absence of Ministers. In view of the aforesaid, what I want Farooq Kperogi to tell readers is what exactly did Nigeria lose because Buhari did not name his ministers until six months? He should be able to furnish readers with information about the gains made by previous Presidents/Heads of Governments that named their ministers immediately after their swearing in ceremonies so that the loss incurred through Buhari's delay in naming his cabinet can be evaluated. Otherwise, Buhari's six months delay in naming his ministers saved a lot of money for Nigeria that would have been paid as salaries and fringe benefits to Ministers.

"While previous administration were guilty of miss-governance, Buhari is for the most part guilty of 'un-governance' which is worse," according to Kperogi's parody. As Napoleon Bonarpart once said, 'bad decision is better than indecision' but his bad decision led to his historical fate at Waterloo. Therefore, Buhari's un-governance, if proved, is better than miss-governance. The Yoruba adage says, Òrìsà b'óle gbèmi, sémi bi o sé bámi. Literally translated to : If god cannot support me, leave me as you met me. It must be better to be un-governed than to be miss-governed. 

Ascertained that Atiku would win the 2019 Presidential elections, Farooq Kperogi counselled him in choosing his collaborators in government to 'Reflect token religious, regional, and national diversity in appointments.' People from the two dominating religions in Nigeria, Islam and Christianity, have always constituted government in the country and officials have always been recruited from all ethnic groups. Cases of people who have been arraigned and charged for treasury lootings by the EFCC and ICPC have shown that Muslims and Christians of all ethnic groups in Nigeria were affected. What Farooq Kperogi referred to as national diversity in appointments is actually ethnic diversity in appointments, the usual weapon of mass deception making ordinary Nigerians to believe that any appointee in government is representing his/her tribe. If that were so, every official in government should be obliged to submit all pecuniary and material rewards in office to his/her tribe for sharing. Moreover, goods and services expected to be produced in any department are not meant alone for the tribe of an official. Therefore, where the people from the same tribe as the minister of power are in constant darkness, because of lack of electricity, just like all ethnic groups in Nigeria, it must be a fraud to declare the minister of power as  representing his/her tribe in office. When ordinary common-sense is applied, it will not matter if all appointees in Buhari's government are from Daura, provided they are efficient in providing all goods and services their offices are designed to produce for all Nigerians. Farooq Kperogi and his tribal and religious cohorts will not agree with me because to them, for instances, potable water, constant electricity and refined crude oil have tribal odours. Regardless of ethnicity or religion, most Nigerian officials are thieves. http://www.saharareporters.com/2017/08/03/nigerian-leaders-are-never-divided-by-ethnicity-religion-when-stealing-money-osinbajo/ 

While disparaging Buhari, Farooq Kperogi wrote, "He descended from the zenith of 'Sai Baba' to the slope of 'Baba go Slow' and finally to the nadir of Baba Stand-Still." When prejudice influences ones judgment, it is the truth that suffers as a result. Nigerians are yet to be told what kind of illness forced Buhari to spend almost 300 days of his 4 years tenure to seek medical treatments abroad. Whether the cause of his illness was man-made or natural, he survived it even though it slowed down his speed of actions in government. Unlike the noisy weaverbirds that only make temporary nests, Buhari is like the quiet white ants that build long lasting hills. Is the general saying not, slow and steady wins the race? On coming to power, looted treasury of16 years PDP rule was handed over to Buhari while at the same time the price of the mainstay of Nigeria's economy, crude oil export fell by 70%; Gwosa in Borno State had been the capital of Islamic Caliphate declared by Boko Haram since 24 August 2014 after capturing Bama, Gamboru Ngala, Goniri, Dikwa, and Buni Yadi towns in Borno State as well as Michika, Madagali, Mubi North and Mubi South in Adamawa State. Boko Haram had renamed Mubi : Madinatul Islam, meaning the City of Islam. The total area of Nigeria's territory under Boko Haram was 50 thousand square kilometres. The decimated Nigerian Armed Forces under Jonathan was quickly reorganised and equipped despite declining revenues from crude oil export. As of today, no Nigerian soil is under the control of Boko Haram. Buhari could perform that feat because the second and the third arms of the government, the Legislature and the Judiciary, had no chance to constitute stumbling blocks in his plans for effective actions. Sai Baba ascended from the nadir of Boko Haram's occupied Nigeria's territories to the zenith of Baba Stood-Still to fight and recapture those territories.

In the Nigerian governmental structure, it takes three to dance Tango. The Executive depends on the Legislature to make laws and on the Judiciary for quick adjudications of cases, especially the criminal ones involving stealing of public funds. It is a well-known fact that the election victory given to the APC in the National Assembly was stolen by the New-PDP and Old-PDP in June 2015. Since the God of PDP drinks from the stream of impunity and holds feast for corruption, their seizure of National Assembly implied that  laws that could expunge or reduce stealing of public funds to the barest minimum would never be passed. When Buhari assumed power, not less than 300 cases of treasury lootings initiated during the PDP era from 1999 to 2007 were still pending in various courts in Nigeria. On taking over power by Buhari, the EFCC and ICPC investigations had revealed over one-hundred plunderers of public funds between 2007 and 2015. That motivated, Buhari to submit a Bill to the national assembly in February 2016 requesting for a law to set up special Tribunals to try corruption and money laundering cases. It turned out as if Buhari was asking lions to promulgate a law forbidding meat eating and the national assembly told him that corruption is like intestine, it is in the stomach of every human being. So there was no need for special tribunal, the lawmakers said.

Buhari, like most patriotic Nigerians, has asked why it should take any court over ten years to adjudicate on a treasury looting case? He also wondered why courts should be granting interlocutory and perpetual injunctions, prohibiting law enforcement agencies from arresting, detaining, interrogating and prosecuting suspected criminal treasury looters? The Judiciary responded that Buhari was trying to intimidate them and moreover was violating the independence of the Judiciary. Even when it was revealed, through bank transfers, how Judges received bribes from lawyers representing treasury looters on trial in their courts, nothing happened. If the National Assembly and the Judiciary have moved in the same direction with Buhari as far as corruption is concerned, Nigeria would have been the paradise we all want.

In his Saturday, 3 February 2018 piece, Farooq Kperogi wrote, "Although Obasanjo wasn't exactly the archetype of a great leader, his policies birthed Nigeria's robust middle class." It is an irony of history that the children of illiterate Nigerian peasants and Quran reciting Mallam, who were educated with tax-payers funds now constitute themselves, not only into middle class Nigerians, but assign to themselves the right to prey economically on the Nigerian masses. Awolowo foresaw this tendency in his 1947 book, Path to the Nigerian Freedom, where he expressed his opposition to Nigeria's self-government then. Hear him, "The existence of a microscopic literary class would lead to exploitation of the great majority of illiterates by the intelligentsia." All treasury looters in Nigeria, past and present, are the minority literate class exploiting the ignorance of the majority illiterates to become middle class. Farooq Kperogi's flirtation with  a culture that venerates wealth without regard to the illicitness of its source should, somehow, be very embarrassing to many people. Atiku and Obasanjo traversed the entire Nigeria in 1999 with trailers loaded with promises of better life for all Nigerians but at the end of their tenure in 2007, they delivered mere trays of garbage, plus megawatts of darkness to Nigerians. At least, one should not expect a professor to judge a book by its cover but by its contents. And now Atiku wants to be President of Nigeria but the Nigerian doves can see in him an eagle camouflaged with beautiful multiple feathers of a peacock.

S. Kadiri    

---

Från: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> för Farooq A. Kperogi <farooqkperogi@gmail.com>
Skickat: den 20 oktober 2018 06:14
Till: USAAfrica Dialogue
Ämne: USA Africa Dialogue Series - How Buhari's Low Bar is Elevating Atiku

 

Saturday, October 20, 2018

How Buhari's Low Bar is Elevating Atiku

By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.

Twitter: @farooqkperogi

In a previous column, I argued that President Muhammadu Buhari has so lowered the bar of governance that it won't take a lot for any person who succeeds him to impress Nigerians. So the best campaign against Buhari is to promise not to be like him, which is really sad because there is much more at stake in the task of governing Nigeria than just transcending Buhari's incompetence and mediocrity.

Atiku Abubakar has started to excite voters by promising to not be like Buhari. On October 12, for instance, Atiku's statement on Twitter that he won't take six months to name his ministers resonated wildly with a lot of Nigerians. It reminded people that Buhari took six months to assemble the least impressive cabinet in Nigeria's recent history, which is peopled by NYSC dodgers, certificate forgers, malefactors, liars, etc.

I extensively researched to see which other country in the world in recent memory elected a president who took six months to name his or her cabinet. There was none. So promising to name a cabinet shortly after inauguration ordinarily shouldn't be a campaign promise because that's what every elected president is expected to do. But you can't fault Atiku because Buhari has lowered the bar to an unprecedented degree.

Atiku also promised that 40 percent of his cabinet would be composed of women and young people. Again, ordinarily, that would have been uninspiring, even condemnable, because the promise implies that 60 percent of his cabinet would be composed of old men, which is unfair, unbalanced, and regressive. However, look at Buhari's cabinet, which he has failed to rejig in more than three years, and you will see why such an unimpressive pledge would strike a chord with Nigerian voters.

See below an excerpt from my February 3, 2018 column titled "How Buhari Has Lowered the Bar of Governance" to gain an insight into why Atiku's popularity has been soaring in the last few days. Buhari's unexampled incompetence is propelling Atiku to heights he is unworthy of:

"I had hoped that even if Buhari wasn't a stellar president, he would at least not lower the bar. But that is precisely what he has done. He has set the bar of governance so low that all it would take for any president who comes after him to impress us is to:

1. Constitute his cabinet within a few days of being sworn in. It took Buhari nearly six months to appoint his cabinet, which is the worst record in Nigeria's entire history. It slowed the country and hurt the economy. On September 17, 2015 when France 24's François Picard asked him why he hadn't named his ministers months after being sworn in, he said ministers were worthless and just "make a lot of noise." That was a low point. And the cabinet he took months to put together turned out to be one of the most colorless and lackluster in Nigeria's history.

2. Appoint members of governing boards of government agencies in the first few months of being in power. It took Buhari nearly three years to do this. Since government agencies can't legally function without governing boards, governance basically halted for more than half of Buhari's first term. That's why I once observed that while previous administrations were guilty of misgovernance, Buhari is, for the most part, guilty of "ungovernance," which is worse.

3. Not be so incompetent as to appoint dead people into government—and living people without first consulting them.

4. Periodically speak to Nigerians through the domestic media, not when he is abroad.

5. Personally visit sites of national tragedy, show emotion, and make national broadcasts to reassure a grieving nation. In my March 18, 2017 column titled, "Why Buhari Should Learn from Osinbajo," I wrote:

"In a tragic irony, it took Buhari's sickness for Nigeria to get a chance at some health. It also took his absence for the country to feel some presence of leadership. Why did it take the ascendancy of Osinbajo to the acting presidency for this to happen? The answer is simple: symbolic presence. Buhari lacked symbolic presence in the 20 months he was in charge."

6. Have an economic team made up of economists and not, as Buhari has done, appoint a diplomat as an economic adviser and then push him to the gaunt fringes of the Vice President's office.

7. Reflect token religious, regional, and national diversity in appointments. Buhari won a national mandate, but his appointments are, as I've pointed out in previous columns, undisguisedly Arewacentric. His personal example shows that he doesn't believe in one Nigeria, yet he often insists that Nigeria's unity is "non-negotiable." That's unreasonable.

8. Not lie shamelessly about self-evident facts.

9.  Not budget billions for Aso Rock Clinic and yet starve it of basic medicines (so much so that his own wife and daughter would complain openly) and then fly to London for medical treatment at the drop of a hat even for "ear infections" and "breathing difficulties."

10.  Not have a compulsive runawayist impulse that ensures that he travels out of the country at the slightest opportunity and for the silliest reasons.

11. Even pretend that the whole of Nigeria is his constituency—including those who gave him "97%" of their votes and those who gave him only "5%" of their votes.

12. Add to the list

Sadly, these are really basic things that shouldn't attract any praise. There is no greater evidence that Nigeria has regressed really badly in almost every index in Buhari's less than 3 years of being in power than the reality of these grim facts.

And he wants you to extend this national tragedy for another 4 years in 2019? Well, it's up to you. If that's what Nigerians want, who am I to deny them the "luxury" to inflict self-violence on themselves?

But what I won't take is the narrative being promoted by apologists and beneficiaries of the government that there is no one better than Buhari at this time. On the contrary, it's actually practically impossible to be worse than Buhari because he has brought Nigeria to the ground zero of incompetence, so almost anybody would be better than him. He descended from the zenith of "Sai Baba" to the slope of "Baba Go-slow" and finally to the nadir of "Baba Standstill." It can't get worse than that."

Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Journalism & Emerging Media
School of Communication & Media

Social Science Building 

Room 5092 MD 2207

402 Bartow Avenue
Kennesaw State University

Kennesaw, Georgia, USA 30144
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.com

Twitter: @farooqkperog

Author of Glocal English: The Changing Face and Forms of Nigerian English in a Global World

"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.