HARVEST OF INCOMPETENCE

HARVEST OF INCOMPETENCE

By Okey Ugwu

Since assumption of office, President Muhammad Buhari through his Minister of information or (Misinformation as some Nigerians will prefer to call him) Lai Mohammad has embarked on campaign of calumny, he has made frantic efforts to divert the attention of Nigerians from the real issues and high level of incompetence witnessed in his administration by blaming the past administrations for all the problems the country is facing. The only thing they have and may not blame the last administration for perhaps was the 2016 missing budget, the errors contained therein and it’s consequent national embarrassment.

The appointment and sharing of the ministerial portfolios which came after six months of inauguration of the APC government was the first salvo that President Muhammadu Buhari fired towards incompetence in the present government. The appointments were mere compensation to the political class irrespective of the fact that prior to the appointments; Nigerians were made to believe that saints were going to be seen on earth. Then the problems started. The appointments came to Nigerians as a rude shock as there were clearly misplacement of human capacities in the assignment of portfolios which therefore begot the harvest of incompetence we are witnessing today in the present administration.

A journalist was sent to head the ministry of education even against a professor who has demonstrated over the years his leadership ability in the educational sector but yet was given what Nigerians call “junior Minister”, the Appointment of a lawyer to head the ministry of communication against professional Engineers or technocrats who have been in the communication sectors with better experience and exposure in that sector, Appointment of a lawyer to head the ministry of power, works and housing against professional Engineers in the power sector who are authorities in the system, the worst been the appointment of a commissioner of finance in a state and a charted accountant who perhaps knows how to speak phonetics English to fill the post of Minister of finance, and other numerous appointments.

With all these misplacement of human capacities, President Muhammad Buhari has demonstrated that it pays no heed to competence in political appointments hence the harvest of incompetence we are witnessing in the current administration with the accompanying slow pace governance strategy.

It is high time Nigerians moved out from certificate qualifications to demonstrated ability; after all, certificate education is only an aspect of Education. I guess time has come for Nigeria to differentiate first class certificate from first class brain and as such we should look for first class brains not first class certificates.

What Mr President Buhari seems not to understand in all these misplaced appointments is that those ministers will spend the entire tenure learning the job. They will work with what they are told and not what they know and indirectly hand over some of these Ministries for cabals to run. I wonder how Barr Fashola for instance will understand the working principles of Gas turbines, the engineering designs of road etc and make positive input within 4 years in the power sector.

The inability of president Muhammed Buhari to appoint professionals and technocrats into his cabinet is already telling on his administration, as we continue to witness epileptic power supply worst than what the previous administration could provide, continuous nose-diving of the economy, long and sustained fuel scarcity, lack of necessary policy frame work to move the country forward, high level of incompetence in budget preparation and analysis and so much more. As a matter of honesty, no sane person will bring a brick layer and tell him to do the work of a painter and still expect a good result, the bricklayer may use his little experience to do the painting but then a professional painter will do a better job.

Judging from the precarious economic situation that we find ourselves now, the present minister of finance to me is not the best we need now as she has no solution to the present economic challenges Nigeria is facing, she does not have the requsite skills, economic exposure and experience to manage our somersaulting economy. She is simply not the best candidate to fill that post. If i may borrow and adapt the words of Josaih Gilbert Holland the American Novelist, i will say that Nigeria at a time like this demands; Strong minds, great heart, ready hands!   Men whom the lust of office cannot kill; Men who possess opinions and a will; Men who will not lie; Men who can stand before demagogues and damn their treacherous flatteries without winking, Men who live above the fog in public duty and in private thinking.

It is important that President Muhammadu Buhari understands that Nigerians expected a paradigm shift from what has been the norm in political appointments, to a new order where competence will be the focal point in line with the change mantra of the federal government and not a situation where competence is sacrificed at the altar of party man or friendship.

During the last administration, the then Minister for Health Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu won international  awards for  the urgent and bold steps he took in curbing Ebola disease which experts say is deadlier than Lassa fever. But our country is was ravaged with Lassa fever and the minister of health seemed to be lost completely on the way to curb the menace, no sense of urgency, no communication and indeed Nigerians had to ask for him to put life into the ministry by introducing innovative and sustainable ways of curbing the Lassa fever virus to forestall future occurrence. In all these, it is glaring that the level of incompetence in the present administration is just too obvious that if urgent steps are not taken to checkmate it, it will further plunge this country into chaos.

President Muhammad Buhari should as a matter of urgency should introduce necessary policy frameworks to move the country forward, gone are the days of political propagandas as was the case before. Truth be told, the minister of information Lai Mohammed since assumption of office has been enjoying himself making fake and unnecessary comments. when he said that “Boko haram has been technically degraded” the boys responded with series of attacks.  Nigerians are no fools and cannot be coaxed into accepting that all is well even when Hunger, insecurity and poverty has suddenly turned to become the National Anthem.

The fight against corruption is very important but the concept of “Corruption” should be understood because aside stealing of money, impunity is corruption, injustice is corruption, favouritism is corruption and lots more.  The administration should not just get obsessed with fighting corruption and abandon the issues of governance. Heraclitus of Ephesus posits that there is nothing as constant as change, even though the APC led government has a mantra of change yet we have not witnessed positive change and we are seriously looseing patience with the administration of president Muhammadu buhari.

The sacking of Director –Generals of various Agencies and Parastaltals of the Federal government which to some is a punitive measure aimed at diverting the attention of the masses or rather to present some of them as the cabals that hijacked the 2016 budget and inflated it, to me is a drowning man option which President Muhammad Buhari embarked on in other to save his already battered image. The national embarrassment caused as a result of the budget scandal which Nigerians have tagged “BUDGET OF CORRUPTION” will definitely go down in history as one of the most embarrassing moments  of the President Muhamad buhari.

The sacking of the director generals of the different Agencies  yet presents another golden opportunity for president Muhammad Buhari to demonstrate his administration’s disposition for credence for competence. Let him look inwards or outwards and stop the harvest of incompetence we witness today in his government by appointing intellectuals, tested and trusted hands, young and dynamic leaders who can indeed project and deliver the much desired POSITIVE change to Nigerians, people who can help him deliver the numerous campaign promises he made to us which we have patiently waited for. If we really need a positive and substantial change, I think political appointments should stop been used as a compensation to incompetent politicians, if the Federal government cannot take time to find professionals, Technocrats that would move the country forward then there is a problem.

Problems of Nigeria have not been fixed because successive governments lack the political will to look and deploy all our arsenals, our own  best professionals both within and outside the country, players in the different sectors not opportunists who are only interested in their egocentric interests, competent people not mediocres that are perhaps certificated illiterates, men who are interested in the common good, men who has will and opinion and will not be corrupted by the lust of political office.

Finally If President Muhammad Buhari with all the retinue of ministers, aides and advisers at his disposal could submit a budget of one thousand, eight hundred plus pages without him or any of his aides going through it to check for errors, then am afraid one day he will sell this country Nigeria without knowing. God bless Nigeria.

Okey Ugwu writes from Ovoko-Nsukka, Enugu State

Follow at @okeydegeneral