Days
have turned into weeks since May 29, 2015, when Muhammadu Buhari
assumed office as the President of Nigeria. But the much promised change
is nowhere in sight and seems to have died with the election campaigns.
The President’s most ardent supporters and loyalists are already
running out of excuses for the apparent inaction that has characterised
his government, unless you are counting foreign trips, which are
becoming the hallmark of his Presidency.
To be clear, no one
expected a transformation of the country in a few weeks after years of
rot. But no one can see the baby steps that would indicate that change
is in the offing. We are seeing the same unprincipled horse-trading in
the sharing of political offices, with scant regard for competence and
track record. Even the promised public declaration of assets, which was
supposed to signal a new style of leadership, has not happened. What is
supposed to be a simple proactive release to the public of the asset
declaration form submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau has become a
complicated, long-winded explanation clouded in sophistry.
We
are now being told that the declaration of assets made by the President
and the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and submitted to the
Bureau will be and can only be disclosed to the public after the Bureau
has verified them. A critical question here is: Why? There appears to be
no logical answer to this question.
What Candidate Buhari
promised to disclose to Nigerians was not assets verified by the Bureau.
What he is supposed to disclose to Nigerians is what he has declared to
the Bureau. A major reason why a public declaration of assets is
critically important is so that citizens can be part of the verification
process. If a public officer has assets that he or she has not
declared, there is no way the Bureau can know this on its own, unless
citizens are aware of what the public officer has declared and can come
forward with information on assets that have not been declared or any
aspect of the declaration that is false, inaccurate or incomplete.
At
this time, there is no legal or constitutional impediment preventing
the President from making public the declaration of assets form he has
submitted to the Bureau. The only impediment right now appears to be the
fact that the President has developed cold feet. Unless, of course, he
never meant to disclose his assets publicly, to begin with.
The
failure of President Buhari to immediately fulfil his promise,
voluntarily made in order to win the trust and confidence of Nigerians,
and therefore secure their votes, will have grave implications for his
credibility and consequently, the credibility of his government. For his
own sake and for the sake of Nigeria, we have to urge him to make good
on this promise.
Since the President also promised to encourage
all his appointees to declare their assets publicly as part of his
pledge to run a clean government, it is obvious that if he has not made a
public declaration of his own assets, he would have no moral authority
to encourage anyone else to do so. He would also be sending a wrong
signal to his appointees that he does not always mean what he says
publicly. This would be disastrous for governance.
Such a
situation will also be sad for another reason; namely the knowledge that
they will be required to declare their assets publicly is one thing
that could perhaps have discouraged some political jobbers intent only
on lining their pockets from taking up political offices.
Another
issue which has implications for governance is the mode of appointment
of government officials, particularly ministers. Already, the signs are
that the sharing of political offices remains that same nasty and messy
business of “survival of the fittest” that it has always been in
Nigeria. There is no debate about who is best qualified to run what. The
considerations appear to remain who comes from where and who is loyal
to whom. That is not change.
For a while, the impression was
promoted that the President could not constitute his team because the
National Assembly had not been inaugurated and, as such, the Senate to
confirm his ministerial nominees was inchoate. The National Assembly has
now been inaugurated with the Senate and its leadership in place, but
there remains no progress on this front.
In any event, when the
President finally gets round to appointing his ministers, how he manages
the process will be another indication of whether we are in for more of
the same or whether change is truly coming to Nigeria.
The
established practice is that the President sends a list of ministerial
nominees to the Senate for confirmation with no indication as to the
portfolios that they will occupy. In the screening process, therefore,
the Senate really has no way of assessing their competence or
qualifications for the positions that they will ultimately occupy,
having no information whatsoever in this regard.
Although this
practice does not violate the requirement of the constitution, it has
encouraged the use of such political appointments for mere political
patronage which does not serve the best interest of the country. We have
frequently seen the most incompetent of persons appointed to sensitive
ministries, including Defence, with no consideration given to their
qualifications, experience, competence or track record. Besides, such
officials take office with no clue as to what is required of them.
Citizens also do not know what is required of the appointees and are
therefore unable to effectively assess their performance.
President
Buhari needs to address this problem within the framework of his reform
agenda. Two options are open to him in this regard and he can apply
either or both options.
The first option is for the President to
send this list of ministers to the Senate for confirmation with their
prospective portfolios indicated. That way, a meaningful screening
process can take place, with public engagement, where the
qualifications, experience and track records of the prospective
ministers for their positions are assessed and they are required to
outline their plans and priorities before they are confirmed. Their
performance can subsequently be assessed by both the President and the
public against their stated plans and priorities or the deliverables
they promised. Although the constitution does not require this, it does
not preclude it either and a President who is serious about bringing
about fundamental changes in governance can implement this reform and
establish it as standard practice for future Presidents.
The
second option is for the President to issue every political appointee,
including his ministers, with the “Terms of Reference” and very concrete
deliverables that are disclosed to the public. These terms of reference
and deliverables will be based on the clear priorities in the different
sectors, even if there is no public input and they are based solely on
what the President and his inner caucus consider to be the priorities.
In this way, the President, his officials and the public all have a
common understanding of what is expected of the appointees and can
assess their performance. The current practice where people are
appointed to offices and they simply dither in office for the duration
of their appointments has contributed significantly to the mess that the
country finds itself.
President Buhari must appreciate that he
has raised the hopes of Nigerians and that he stands on the cusp of a
new era. Never before have so many Nigerians been so invested in a
government and so hopeful of positive change. Given the clear tasks
before him and the goodwill he currently enjoys, if he disappoints
Nigerians, he would have done more damage to the country than all the
leaders before him put together and history will judge him harshly for
it.
So, the change must start now!
- Edetaen Ojo is the Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda
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