Once again, it’s show time. You know what I mean? Okay, let me come down in simple terms. Something is going on in the Nigerian Senate. The same thing happens in all senates worldwide under the Presidential System of government.
In the United States Senate, it is called Confirmation Hearing. In Nigeria, it is called Screening of Ministerial Nominees. The similarity is that in both countries, the exercise has been and still remains the exclusive right of the Senate.
The difference however, is not only in grammar (confirmation and screening). It is principally in the approach. In the United States, every nominee has a ministry attached to his or her name. Under such arrangement, the confirmation is all about your suitability for the office assigned to you.
In Nigeria, no such thing is done. Nominations are made based on political and ethno-religious allocation. This implies that here, people are hardly appointed to serve because they are qualified to. Instead, they are nominated and confirmed based on geo-political quota considerations.
In addition, while the confirmation hearing in the United States Senate has never been a tea party, in Nigeria, it is business as usual. Little attention is paid to your suitability for the job.
Much attention is focused on where you come from and which political party you belong to; then you take a bow and leave.
A few days to the on-going screening exercise, a certain spokesman of the Senate kept repeating on television that it was not going to be business as usual. He said each nominee would be intellectually and psychologically ransacked by the Senate before confirmation or rejection.
So far, nothing close to that has happened. Nobody, not even Lai Mohammed, who was almost voted out of confirmation by the PDP senators on Wednesday, was rattled. As soon he walked into the Senate, all we heard from the APC senators was’ take a bow.’
I’m almost tired of the APC. There is some kind of nauseating boredom that comes with this party. Its leaders keep talking about what it would do differently but always end up doing the opposite.
For months, we waited for the ministerial list. We waited for the angels who would lead us to the Promised Land. We waited and waited endlessly. Names of certain angels were bandied in the media carelessly; raising unconfirmed hopes and unfulfilled expectations.
There was this unusual feeling about the big surprise President Muhammadu Buhari was about to unveil. As the magic month of September approached, the president became more of a mystery than human: no smiles; no blink.
Until two weeks ago, anytime I saw him on television, he seemed to be in constant communication with invisible beings. He seemed like someone struck dumb by the weight of Nigeria’s problem; and needed the help of the gods to have them solved.
He seemed to be saying: wait and see what I have up my sleeves; wait and see what the gods have revealed to me. By the time I open the divinely sealed envelope, you will have a rude awakening; you will know it’s no longer business as usual.
Then he opened the first envelope. The content generated both anger and frustration. The most criticised nomination was that of a respected statesman and leader, Audu Ogbeh; a former national chairman of the PDP; and a founding member of the APC.
There is something I like about Ogbeh: his command of good grammar. He doesn’t just speak English Language; he does so with a load of poetic spicing. I don’t know a lot about his politics and his public service.
However, one aspect of the criticisms about his nomination was that in 1979, under the Shehu Shagari administration, Ogbeh was nominated and confirmed by the Senate as Minister.
At that time, the late Olusola Saraki, was the Leader of the Senate. Today, Saraki’s son is the Senate president.
The argument has been that for the same man to appear before father and son for ministerial screening, then the so called change mantra hawked by the APC a few months ago has lost its value; or is in fact, in reverse gear.
If that was the general feeling about Ogbeh, what about the nomination of former Governors; particularly Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, Babatunde Fashola of Lagos, Chris Ngige of Anambra State and Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti?
Is this really going to be a government of change as promised or a government of recycling as currently experienced? I agree completely that experience matters a lot in governance; and that the more experienced appointees we have, the better for governance.
There is no doubt that the president is not a politician in the mould of these former governors. Yes, he has been a head of state before; under the military. The people listed above have seen it all in their respective states; as political leaders and managers of people and resources.
As things are now, the president needs help. I’m serious about that. He needs people who can look him in the eyes and tell him the truth. He needs men around him; not kids; or noisemakers.
Truth must be told: none of these former state governors will have the liver to do that. They certainly do not represent the much touted change. They only represent change in the negative.
Mr. President, change will come when you stop using public office as avenue to reward political loyalty. At a time like this, you need more professionals than politicians in government.
