See why Buhari May Not Make History

The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things’ Ronald Reagan

It is in the light of the above powerful words of one of America’s greatest leaders, Ronald Reagan that I am persuaded to join good people who would like to encourage our leader, President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) to make history by getting good people around him to do one of the greatest things – restructuring – to make history.

Behold, the thing is how to renew his mind, rally his governing party and citizens behind him to restructure Nigeria without dividing it. This is possible only with a sincerity of purpose as the driving force. This is what drives me to think that at the moment, PMB needs encouragement more than condemnation from any quarters: He is surrounded at the State House, Abuja by only his kinsmen most of whom would not like to tell him what he could do to leave Nigeria better than he met it.

Specifically, in the beginning, the kinsmen who helped him to make his cabinet did not assist him in making a great cabinet. It is quite obvious that the president was not told by those who helped him shape the presidential bureaucracy and the cabinet in 2015 that no leader can do well in office with a mediocre presidential bureaucracy and cabinet. After about six months of assuring the people that he was head hunting good and reliable thinkers and tinkers, what he came up with was quite disappointing, after all.

No insult is meant here, please. This is without prejudice to the few good ones who have been unequally yoked with mediocrities (not mediocres, please) that abound in the place. We are just discussing simple points in nation building within the context of the new world that social and digital technologies daily disrupt. Yes, only leaders who surround themselves with very smart managers can make history in the new world of business and politics.

Besides, our president has obviously compressed his own agenda to fighting corruption and insecurity. But there are no indications yet that the taciturn leader, PMB can make history with fighting corruption and insecurity, especially in the North East Zone where the evil ones are now resident. His reputation managers may not agree but truth matters.

What is worse, the military establishment that we used to be proud of appears to have lost its mojo. Even the presidency doesn’t believe in operational efficiency of the police force anymore. We see the spirit of errors everywhere, especially in the northeast where the Air Forceonce erroneously bombed an IDP camp. How reliable is an Army that would declare an open association with a terrorist organisation and proscribe it in a democracy? That is what happens when the illiterate of the 21st century are allowed to take charge as major state actors. That is the view of a writer on leadership and management, Alvin Toffler, who always muses on “rethinking the future”. According to him, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn”. This is why most modern leaders always strengthen their governments with strong men and women, who can learn, relearn and unlearn even in office.

Let’s look at the machinery for fighting corruption. There are three agencies comprising the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB). The arrowhead here has always been the EFCC. But the President’s ruling party has been so disorganised that the EFCC acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, nominated since November 2015, has not been confirmed by the Senate dominated by the president’s party. How else does one understand the politics in the presidency where the secret service CEO twice wrote to the Senate that Magu should not be confirmed? Now Magu is somehow stranded and even the influential Attorney General and Minister of Justice appears to be at war with him. How can the president make history through his war against corruption when Magu too has been quoted as saying that he is losing the war? Even the ICPC chairmanship was somewhat in a hibernation mode: a board member once actedas Chairman from July 2017 when the tenure of the Chairman expired till December 2018. Acting Chairman of EFCC since 2015, There was once an Acting SGF since May 2015; There have been so many ‘actors’ in office…

How can the president make history with this kind of executive inertia and ad-hocism? Can there be history making in fighting official graft without reforming the NNPC, the focal point of corruption? That is why I feel we should begin to encourage the President to pay due attention to the Committee his party, the APC set up to prepare a blueprint on the hurricane called ‘restructuring’. There is some sense in that critical national assignment.