A GATHERING OF THE CLAN

By Nick Dazang

Though well-credentialed, the nomination of Taiwo Oyedele as Minister of State for Finance by President Bola Ahmed must once more call attention, not only to the lopsided ness of this administration’s appointments, but to the dominance of our financial and economic landscapes by the South West geopolitical zone.

From the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to the Ministry of Finance and sundry revenue generating and collecting bodies, Nigerians, particularly of a particular ethnic extraction, predominate. This hegemony stands out like a sore thumb when you consider that with his eventual confirmation by the Senate, Mr. Oyedele will pair up with Wale Edun, also from the South West.

It is possible that President Tinubu is acting in concert with the condemnable precedent set by his predecessor. Former President Muhammadu Buhari did not only perfect nepotism to an art form, he erected a grotesque edifice to it. On his watch, Nigeria’s security architecture was laden with persons only of Northern extraction. Worse, he had the singular distinction of appointing three of his relatives to positions of ministerial rank.
Such appointments, skewed in favor of a particular ethnic group, in a country brimming with diversity, offends the Federal Character principle enshrined in our Constitution.

It is insensitive, in-politic and drives other constituent parts to the margins. It gives the impression either that they do not matter or that they have nothing to bring to the table of development.

The President will, like his predecessor, rue these appointments. Lest we forget, in spite of the fact that President Buhari surrounded himself with a coterie of Northerners in the security area, he was unable to tame the monster of terrorism. Instead, terror raged while his preferred Officers of Northern extraction watched helplessly and cluelessly.

Compounding this, some of his relatives, inebriated with power and imbued with a sense of entitlement, simply went haywire. Consequently, one of them is facing corruption charges. This has chiseled at the reputation of integrity which the former President cultivated and paraded.

As often happens when one gathers his clan to govern, other perspectives that are critical to good governance are glossed over, if not lost. The resources being brought to the table are limited to a hermetic group which is not keen to admitting contrary views. It also breeds a close-knit brotherhood that thrives on loyalty tests and promotes a narrow world view.

Once a system runs on the basis of a confederacy or PARAPO, opacity and sycophancy become the norm. Members of the confederacy, who protect themselves, are ensconced and entrenched in their comfort zones. With their places assured, they are not challenged to be creative, think out of the box or bring any meaningful contribution to the table.

We are already witnessing these tendencies. Consider: Whereas our humongous debts, foreign and domestic, are well documented and published by the Debt Management Office(DMO), the same transparency does not visit our receipts arising from the withdrawal of subsidy on oil. Neither does openness attend to the servicing of our debts and whatever is left after each month’s servicing.

In spite of the pundits the President has assembled, the national budget has been in tatters. Capital projects articulated by Ministries, Departments and Agencies(MDAs) are hardly funded. In fact, in some cases some MDAs receive zero allocations. No tangible or cogent explanations are adduced to this troubling state of affairs in spite of increase in revenue following the withdrawal of subsidy on oil and our huge borrowings.
Government officials are adept at regaling us with salubrious and auspicious statistics to the effect the economy has improved. Yet these are not reflected in the living condition of Nigerians.

Only recently, the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of NNPC Ltd, Engr. Bayo Ojulari, stated that the re-opening of the Port Harcourt Refinery and Petrochemical Company would amount to a huge waste of resources. This was because, according to him, the country lacked the capacity to run refineries profitably.

This disclosure was coming after the PortHarcourt Refinery had gulped $1.5billion by way of repairs and Turn Around Maintenance (TAM). Though he could be praised for his forthrightness, it did not occur to Engr. Ojulari that he was indicting himself and the organization he supervised.

One can carry on, ad nauseam, but the unvarnished truth is that talent and excellence are not the preserve of any of our geopolitical zones. And even though some may lag after and behind the South West, the reality of Nigeria today is that no geopolitical zone is bereft of stellar persons. All we need to do is to genuinely cast the net wide.

What is intriguing is that this is a President whose relative success as Governor of Lagos State is said to be attributed to the savvy persons he recruited across the board the country to serve in his administration. What has suddenly changed as to compel him to find recourse in populating our financial and economic eco-systems only with his kind?

Could it be that all along the President was a closet ethnicist whose tribal instincts were sharpened by his nepotistic predecessor? Or is he being propelled by persons who see his advent to power as their own turn to control the levers of power and the commanding heights of the economy?

Rather than reinforce it, President Tinubu must demolish the egregious structure of nepotism built by his predecessor. As President, he is obligated to govern the country and to carry all its constituent parts along. He should uphold his oath of office. He should also uphold the Constitution which he swore to protect.