Hitting the ground running and attendant hullabaloo prior to swearing in

President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC had hinted that as soon as they are sworn-in they will hit the ground running. This assertion was meant to exhibit a government that (first) knew what to do and secondly, had the materials to so begin and thirdly, was abreast with all the underlining bureaucratic realities that they will contend with. Of course, you don’t blame the people, facts is indeed folks believe Buhari and his party possess the magic wand. They want all our troubles to just disappear. The people don’t seem to understand why there are still queues at the petrol stations or why there are still power outages across the country. Indeed, the recent Boko Haram attacks have also been used to attack the new president just as the yet to be appointed member of the Federal Executive Council. The president during his campaign made security of lives and property the most significant programme his government will embark on. He specifically mentioned Boko Haram induced insurgency as the one that will get his attention first. There were other promises, and further more, he listed some quick wins within the first hundred days in office and today is the 17th day, so if I may ask, what’s all the hullabaloo regarding why the president has yet to appoint ministers, appoint personal staff, the wife adorning a supposed expensive wrist watch during the presidential inauguration events, the vice president’s ridiculous locking out from sensitive meetings, etc. To be sure, I’m not aware that this administration did not “hit the ground running”. In fact, I thought people will rather accuse the president of paying “too” much attention to the fight against Boko Haram until I remembered all the atrocities that daredevil organisation has caused our nation. The government hit the ground running because we all have seen the commitment and new strategies introduced to finally defeat the group. The Lake Chad Commission and the regional Task Force have been re-invigorated. The president put action to his words by not only visiting some of the countries hit by terrorism; he has hosted a meeting of the countries involved in the war in Abuja. He took the matter of Nigerian terrorism to the G-7 Summit in Germany where he got some assistance and promises. Within the last two weeks, he has held two broad meetings with service chiefs and the National Security Adviser. He has asked the military and the police to produce a shopping list of all they need to re-jig our internal security problems. I’m sure that the latest bombings by suspected Boko Haram elements are like the activities of a dying chicken. They must struggle for life but death awaits them anyway. Boko Haram knows that times have changed and there is a new sheriff in town. They know that with the relocation of the command and control centre to Maiduguri from Abuja, there will be a serious onslaught against them. Therefore, they can only resort to the scare tactic. I have no doubt in my mind that Boko Haram days are truly numbered. The hullabaloo gets messier with the constitutionally backed but yet to be appointed ministers. The “critics” believe that out of the 15 approved special advisers that the president requested for, it is only the one on Media and Publicity that has been named. These people complain about the non appointment of Secretary to the Government of the Federation, chief of staff to the president and other such personal appointments, including those for the vice president’s office. They even quarrelled on why the president has yet to appoint new sets of service chiefs. On that I told them that those occupying those positions now are Nigerians. That they worked with former President Jonathan does not mean that if the president finds them effective and efficient that he will just dump them for the sake of change, no, it doesn’t work that way. And that does not mean that he will not drop them anytime soon. Folks forget that government must always function irrespective of who is the political head. The difference is usually the policy direction of the political heads, whether as president or ministers. We have seen the president attend a summit in Germany with the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We have also seen him attend meetings with the Service Chiefs and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence. Yet people complain that work is stalled? The reason for having a bureaucracy and spending so much to train and maintain them is to keep government running at all times. That’s what the President is teaching us now that those people at the ministries (civil servants) are indeed supposed to be technocrats. They know everything about how Nigeria or any other country for that matter is run. They are not usually and is not possible to keep them in the dark. While ministers will be appointed, the president is simply making use of what he has and if I may add, that has ensured we save money that we may have used to pay them for this June. On the other hand, Buhari has not broken any law or precedent. As a matter of fact, the earliest any former president had appointed ministers was June 24. Like I said earlier, today is June 15th. While I’m not in a position to know there has been delay but I don’t think that’s what should occupy us. We should spend more energy to insist on the type of ministers we want. I had told myself that I do not want to constitute myself to a defender of this regime. However, there is one thin line between doing media relations and setting the facts straight, especially when that constitutes serious distraction to the new government bothering on ignorance. Elements of the dying PDP have chosen a path that they are not familiar with. They criticize for criticism sake. The point being that if without ministers this regime has made crooked petroleum marketers, who told us they can no longer import petrol because of their heavy exposure with their banks because the federal government owes them, promised to import petrol in lieu of their bogus subsidy claims, is that not a welcome development? That’s a groundbreaking achievement that deserves a full commentary. As we await the announcement of members of the Federal Executive Council, is there a thing or two that this regime can learn from the out gone one? After winning the 2011 elections, former President Goodluck Jonathan decided to prepare a performance pact with his appointees, who spelt out expectations and time lines. The signing of a performance evaluation and assessment contract by ministers, heads of federal agencies and parastatals with Jonathan was a novel idea that we thought will redefine public administration. This is so because public officials have been long on promises but short in deliverables. Time lines are breached; while the public who expect these services are left in the lurch. An initiative of the National Planning Commission, NPC; criteria of assessment is geared towards judging the key performance indicators of various agencies. This arose following the perennial poor implementation of budgets for the past few years. This contract should ensure that ministers and heads of agencies commit themselves to sets of deliverables and time lines in the implementation of the money bill and other governmental policies. Public institutions are also to sign up to the contract, especially those of them that provide specific services to the populace. The terms of the contract are to be evaluated twice a year. It is expected that there would be punishment for failure to deliver what had been promised. To what extent this pact worked for Jonathan is left to posterity. But we think President Buhari should dust it up because expectations are very high. We will like to know if this government is going to ask the NPC to produce another document for that purpose. The very poor service delivery by public agencies over the years has reached shameful proportions. The lackadaisical attitude of ministers and heads of government agencies towards those that they are appointed to serve is a concern that is not only embarrassing, but preposterous. It appears these persons are appointed only to feather their own nests. None or very little expectations are met. And these officials are hardly held accountable because of lack of benchmarks to ascertain their fidelity in the jobs they have signed to. They see their appointments as job for the boys.

#uppercrust