By Sylvester Odion Akhaine

Good morning, Mr President. I would like to address this morning the character of men and women you call to the service of our dear country. I do so against the backdrop of the recent ambassadorial postings that have attracted much criticism. Not a few have called into question the quality of your choice. Here is a selection of what people say in case the sycophantic insiders have not briefed you.

Sonala Olumhense, a seasoned Nigerian Journalist in the diaspora, called into question your choice of Jimoh Ibrahim as Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations. He notes: “I have spent time on the Third Floor of the United Nations Headquarters in New York, where the press corps works.

It is not a gentle place. The journalists there are seasoned professionals drawn from every region of the world: people who have reported wars, corruption scandals, and the fall of governments. They are interested in facts, not impressed by titles. They ask the question behind the question, and they do not move until they have an answer. When a Permanent Representative walks into that building to speak for 220 million people, the world watches. And so, on behalf of those 220 million people, I am watching too”.

Olumhense submitted that “Ibrahim’s appointment is not a diplomatic strategy. It is a confession: that in the grotesque estimation of this administration, Nigeria’s seat at the world’s most important table is a reward to be bestowed, not a trust to be honoured”. He pointed to the hypocritical accolade heaped on the man by politicians and traditional rulers against a damning character profile of your choice. He concluded, “This is not governance. It is the re-circulation of embarrassment. It is what happens when a government has contempt for its own people, when it trusts that outrage will not last, that the congratulatory messages will drown out the record”.

Furthermore, Olumhense also drew attention to your Daniel Bwala, your adviser, over his dismal performance before an international TV audience, underscoring the “pain and humiliation of a compromised operative being ruthlessly disrobed.”

Mr Reno Omokri, your man for the Mexican mission, also drew resentment from Nigerians in the diaspora.  Comrade Frederick Odorige, Global Coordinator of the Global Coalition for Security and Democracy in Nigeria (GCSDN). Reportedly, the group wrote Claudia Sheinbaum, President of Mexico, to reject your appointee, whom the group described as a “controversial character, who is usually clever in a dishonest way, (and) has been posted by the government of Nigeria to satisfy the desperate interests of some persons for insidious reasons.” In affirmative terms, the group disqualified him insisting he “must be rejected by your country.”

Similarly, GCSDN wrote President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German President, to reject Femi Fani-Kayode, your appointee for the German Mission. The letter was also sent to Germany’s Chancellor, Friedrich Merz; the country’s Foreign Minister, Johann Wadephul; the President of the Bundestag, Julia Klöckner; and the German Ambassador to Nigeria, Annett Günther. The diaspora group alleged impropriety and several character flaws of the appointee. For example, they alleged that “in 2023, the European Union Election Observation Mission (EOM) to Nigeria reported that Femi Fani-Kayode during the elections, “desperately played the politics of incitement and division among Nigerians.”

Previous administrations, except for the Buhari administration, which was absolutely disastrous, had people to showcase. The Obasanjo administration had Okonjo-Iweala, Obi Ezekwesili, Charles Soludo, Chukwuemeka Chikelu, and Retired Lt-General Theophilus Danjuma, among others. The Yar’Adua administration had Dora Akunyili. The Jonathan administration had Okonjo-Iweala and Akinwunmi Adesina. They were the public image of the administration that they served. Mr President, where are your postal boys and girls? During the #EndBadGovernance protest, the Financial Times of London advised you to engage the best Nigerians around, and they are out there.

Let me philosophise about governance, and I draw on Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince, the architecture of governance, invaluable in contemporary times as in the old principalities of Italy. It is important to note that in governance, legitimacy matters. State actors seek media attention, seek approval of their commissions and omissions.  Some are sensitive to perception, public perception. How do the citizens perceive your government?  A certain moral cloak comes when the governed perceive the government of the day as doing well.

Morally upright key players in government inspire hope in the populace. The belief that the government can deliver creates a favourable ambience. Realist thinkers like Niccolo Machiavelli captured it all way back in the fifteenth/sixteenth centuries.  He noted that the policy and trajectory of any government can be determined by the choice of cabinet.  In his words, “The choosing of ministers is a matter of no little importance for a prince; and their worth depends on the sagacity of the prince himself. The first opinion that is formed of a ruler’s intelligence is based on the quality of the men he has around him. When they are competent and loyal he can always be considered wise, because he has been able to recognise their competence and to keep them loyal. But when they are otherwise, the prince is always open to adverse criticism; because his first mistake has been in the choice of his ministers.”

Mr President, it is never too late to make amends.

Dear Readers, this column will go on recess for two months. I hope to resume in early June.

Akhaine is a professor of Political Science at the Department of Political Science, Lagos State University.