By Remi Sonaiya
The long-awaited inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet was finally carried out on Wednesday, 11th November, 2015. The ministers were sworn in and assigned their portfolios, with a charge from the President that they hit the ground running, as it were. The whole show left me less than excited, though. If the ministers’ services were so badly needed in order to begin to steer Nigeria in the direction of development and “change”, why was there such a long delay in bringing them on board? Why couldn’t they have begun working a month or two after President Buhari’s inauguration on May 29th? All that was on my mind during the inauguration, and which I expressed to the journalist from the German broadcasting outfit, Deutsche Welle, who came to interview me was the following: I just hope that somehow, maybe by some “divine intervention”, it would have registered on the minds of these new ministers that Nigerians have placed such high hopes on their coming on board, and that they would not let us down.
How many times have we been let down now? Each time a new set of managers comes on board, our hopes soar, and we begin to imagine better conditions of living: smooth roads to travel on; well-equipped hospitals run by competent hands; round-the-clock electricity supply; water running from our taps; decent public schools for our children; safety in our neighborhoods; etc. This time around, even though there is the certainty of the current administration being far better than the previous one in terms of service delivery to the people, I still found myself nonetheless almost subconsciously holding my emotions on a leash – like one who has been too often jilted by lovers. Dare one trust again? Dare one hope again?
And yet, what is life without hope and trust? Somewhere, deep inside, one must believe that tomorrow will bring some sunshine, no matter how dark and dreary the sky may appear today. For most of us Nigerians, President Buhari’s personal reputation is what we are clutching on to and anchoring our hope upon for a better tomorrow. As far as the ministers he has appointed go, they are rather a mixed bag. However, what is crucial now is that they go ahead and begin working hard to earn our trust, both by their personal conduct as public officers and by their demonstration of competence and accountability in the performance of their duties.
There are certain changes one would like to see. For instance, will congratulatory messages take over the pages of our newspapers in the coming days, as well as another flood of greetings a hundred days from now? If that happens, would it not indicate that business is continuing as usual in a country where change is now being spelt with a capital “C”? How would the ministers be able to convince us that they are a part of us, that they understand our pains? We are waiting to see. Their personal conduct as public officers was mentioned above. A former governor of a fledgling state threw an extraordinarily lavish wedding ceremony for his daughter while in office, with the bill being said to have run above N350 million. The point which the governor sought to underscore, when the issue was raised, was that the money spent was not from the state’s coffers; he did not contest the amount that was claimed to have been spent. Now, can we truly trust public officers who are comfortable to spend that kind of money on their parties? Are there no Nigerians in need whose condition could be alleviated with a portion of such funds?
Many of us, even those who are poor and merely scratching out a living, would most likely consider the point of view expressed above as too radical – is an individual not at liberty to spend his or her personal resources the way he or she deems fit? Who are we to impose frugality on our public officers if they can demonstrate that the money being spent is truly theirs? What is the citizen’s business with that?
That might well be the case; but then, are we not ripe as a nation for some truly exceptional leaders to emerge? What is the stuff that such leaders are made of, leaders whose names will continue to be adulated many decades after they will have left the scene? Our former President Goodluck Jonathan fancied himself in the same league with Martin Luther King, Lee Kuan Yew, Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama; did he ever ask what price those people paid for them to be held in such high esteem? Did Gandhi capture the attention of the entire world by just doing regular, ordinary things? When are we, in Nigeria, going to have leaders emerge, who will be able to command global attention and respect?
The inauguration of the country’s new set of national leaders seemed a good opportunity to raise this issue of leadership again – true, visionary, exemplary, exceptional, extraordinary leadership, that is. Three important and distinguishing qualities which mark that kind of leadership are humility, compassion and a spirit of sacrifice. I was just wondering, could there be any among our new ministers who wishes to etch his or her name in bold letters of gold in the annals of Nigerian history? Here is the opportunity! Serve the people with humility, compassion, and a spirit of sacrifice.