Buhari’s second list and public pressure

IF the ability to listen is a virtue a good leader should have, President Muhammadu Buhari seems to be  leaving no one in doubt that he has it. He has even proved to possess a greater virtue of acting on the meaningful advice he has received in the course of listening.

Yet, there is a problem. There is a problem with how the president has manifested these virtues.  And this borders on self-sabotage.

As a leader, it is right  if the president has a reason at any given time to listen to  the opinions  of the citizens and act accordingly. But it is wrong if as a leader, it is the citizens who always tell the president what to do. Since the inauguration of his administration, it is only on a few occasions that Buhari has not travestised these virtues.

A memorable one was when on his own initiative he relocated a strategic military team to Maiduguri and he  began shuttle  diplomacy that took him  to  neighbouring countries in a bid to seek their support for Nigeria’s anti-terror war. Perhaps, he got  these right because when it comes to military matters, the president as a  retired general is on a very familiar terrain.

But in the realm of actual governance, he flounders.  Buhari gained so much political capital during the electioneering when he promised to publicly declare  his  assets. But he tried  to renege on this promise after winning the election. His spokesmen instigated the controversy  that  he was not  the one  but  his political  party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), which made the promise. But when public pressure mounted, Buhari had to fulfil  his promise. And the haphazard  manner the assets’ declaration was presented to the public  showed  that  he was only responding to public pressure.

It was because the citizens asked Buhari to fulfil the constitutional requirement of having ministers as part of his government  that he decided  to have them. Left to him, he would prefer to run a government without  ministers as he denigrated  them as noisemakers.  After the citizens had waited  in vain for the  ministers, Buhari  again responded  to public pressure. He promised  to unveil his minsters after four months.

At the end of the four months, Buhari submitted a list of ministerial nominees  to the Senate. There was further pressure from the public. The citizens  wondered  that  if it took four months  for him to submit  the first list of ministerial nominees, it might  take him  another four months to present  the second  list.

In response to this pressure, Buhari submitted  the second list. Before submitting it, Buhari obviously listened to the citizens and acted on their advice again. He heeded the advice of the citizens that he should not load his cabinet with former government officials over whom corruption charges are hanging and whose fossilised ideas of governance would endanger his  change agenda. The result is  that on this second  list  that the president submitted to the Senate on Monday, there is  a  slight  break from the pattern of the first one.

The names of people who could be regarded as experienced technocrats who have not really been in government diminish the presence of politicians on the second list . But on the whole, this list is refreshing to the extent that even though there are politicians, they have  not been conspicuously smeared  with the grime of corruption that obviously discredits  the first list.

But apparently because the citizens were not privy to  the plan of the president to submit  two ministerial nominees’ lists,  he did not enjoy the benefit of their input. Thus another wrong step. For if the citizens had  known that Buhari would  submit two lists, they would have advised  him to submit the second  one first. If he had done this, it would have been a wonderful boost to the Buhari administration .

The citizens would have applauded him for judiciously spending the four months he used to search  for  ministerial nominees to run his  government.  He would not have drawn the ire of the public for  delaying the submission of the first list and for loading it with discredited old  politicians.

Apart from those who have been in politics, the second list includes people who have recorded great successes in their different careers. They are not like the desperate politicians of the first list. Obviously, it would be difficult for the president to regard high achievers  such as the vice chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Prof. Isaac Adewole as mere noisemakers. What  the president needs  is  to galvanise them into aligning themselves with his change agenda by creating  the right environment  for them to flourish.

However, the second list failed to allay the worry that the first list generated. The two lists show that the president does not have so much respect for the youths. Yet, it was this segment of the population that drove on the social media  the campaign for his election. But since the country is in a dire crisis, the success of  the ministers would obviate the injustice of the exclusion of  the youths  from the Buhari’s cabinet.

After all, what the youths like other Nigerians  need  now  are good jobs, regular supply of electricity, good roads, and  functional educational and electricity sectors.  And where are the women from the southern part of the country?  If the negligible number of women on the lists does not meet  the demand of gender parity, there is  a greater variant of gender inequality. The few women who are on the ministerial nominees’ lists are from the northern part of the country. Perhaps, the president is wary of women from the south.  Is it because they were largely the ruin of his predecessor?

The unbroken pattern of the president’s exposure to criticism because of  his inability to properly demonstrate the virtues of listening and acting on the citizens’ input  betrays the poor quality of his kitchen cabinet. And this is the problem of his choosing only those he believes he can trust to work closely with him from his northern part of the country. If he had the right people as his kitchen cabinet, he would not need  to do what is right as a result of public pressure .

Here the responsibility of the citizens becomes very clear.  Nigerians apparently voted for a person they  thought had a clear vision of where the country should  be. They thought they voted for a leader who would lead  the way and  they would  follow.

Of course,  a leader  needs  to  be  nudged  to do some things.  But this should only be occasionally. The citizens never really anticipated that  they would  be the ones to  guide  the president  at every stage of  his presidential  journey. But since this is the case, for the president  to succeed  in transforming  the country, he  needs  the support of the citizens. If it  is only public pressure  that has  made him to take  the right steps  so far, it means  that  it  is the  citizens’ input  that would  sustain him  on the path  of good governance.

• Dr. Onomuakpokpo is a member of The Guardian Editorial Board.
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