17th September, 2013
By Tayo Ogunbiyi
Relying on his constitutional power to hire and fire, President Goodluck Jonathan recently sacked nine members of his cabinet. Some of the sacked ministers, according to newspapers reports, wept openly as the reality of their sack suddenly stared them in the face. It is yet to be ascertained the reasons for such open display of emotion by these men and women of yesterday. Observers have varying analysis of the factors that might have been responsible for their crying. While some are of the view that the weeping could have been because of their inability to complete projects that were very dear to their respective ministries, others opine that the expression of grief could have been borne out of the fact that they would no longer be part of the weekly Federal Executive Meeting where they usually throw banters at each other amid regular display of atypical elegance and style. Other analysts are of the view that they wept openly because of their sheer desire to be a permanent feature in Jonathan’s government. Some cynics, however, claim that the weeping could have emanated from a sense of regret at a paradise lost.
The intention of this piece is not to x-ray the art of weeping by adults. Rather, the task is to evaluate the role of political appointees in the polity over time. One thing that puzzles most observers is the mind-set of most political appointees while in office. They seem to forget that political office, like political power that births it, is transient. No sooner have some of them assumed office than they begin to act in a manner contrary to the expectations of the people whose interest they are supposed to protect. One remembers, with regret, the utterance of a particular minister in 1987, David Mark who is now the Senate President, in the dark days of military rule in the county, to the effect that telephones were not meant for the common men. Contrary to his claim, both the common and the uncommon are today proud owners of mobile telephone handsets among other forms of communication. Ironically, the same man that demonstrated such a disdain towards the common men, today, occupies a very sensitive post in the polity!
In most cases, political appointees believe that their loyalty should always be to the one who appointed them rather than the Nigerian people who elected their principal. Invariably, they erroneously see critics of their principal as personal adversaries who must be ridiculed. One remembers a certain young political appointee, during the Obasanjo administration, who insulted Professor Wole Soyinka when the latter was involved in a public debate with his principal. This particular former minister remains a yesterday’s man while Professor Soyinka’s image as a steady conscience of the nation, lingers on. To the average Nigerian political appointee, the one who appointed them is nothing but an infallible god.
Where the personal interest of their principal runs at cross purpose with the larger interest of the society, instead of making him see reason, they would rather encourage him to dare his people by satisfying his parochial desires. For instance, the political tension generated by the health saga of late President Yar’adua ought not to have gotten to the height it reached if only some of the members of his cabinet had stood up to be counted when it mattered the most. Rather, most of them preferred to keep quiet when it was obvious that none of them could account for the whereabouts of their principal having disappeared from the scene for months. They preferred to mortgage the future of the country for mundane and temporary political contemplations. Perhaps, unknown to them, history is never kind to men and women who abuse privileged positions.
Over and over again, the nation’s political appointees turn most of our leaders into despots who often toe anti-people’s path. Take, for instance, the late General Sani Abacha. At a time when Nigerians were fed up with the late General’s draconian and kleptomania style of government, most members of his cabinet were rooting for him to transit to civilian ruler because, as far as they were concerned, Nigerians had never had it so good! Indeed, the late Chief Bola Ige’s famous five fingers of a leprous hand (the late political icon’s satirical reference to the five registered political parties of the Abacha regime’s phony transition programme) were all willing to make the late General the sole presidential candidate of their respective parties. Self centred and narrow minded people! But for providence, these self seeking irrational men and women, by their selfish actions, could have worsened the agonies of Nigerians. No wonder Nigerians trooped to the streets to rejoice at the news of the late General’s demise!
The January 2012 fuel subsidy removal impasse, in the country, was another occasion when those appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan displayed uncanny cravings to support their principal at all costs. None of them stood on the side of the people. They refused to see how much devastating impact such policy would have on the lives of their already impoverished and browbeaten countrymen. Ironically, if the President has had to revert the policy, the inconsistent personalities that they are, most of them would have gone to town praising the President as a man of the people! Similarly, when the government rolled out the tanks to disperse aggrieved Nigerians, who had been gathering daily at the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park, to peacefully protest against the government’s policy of subsidy removal, most of the President’s men praised him to high heavens for taking a courageous decision. Astringently, most of the arrow heads of the nationwide protest the subsidy removal policy were same courageous men and women who took to the streets to rebuff the perceived inappropriate actions of the so-called Yar’Adua cabal in trying to freeze President Jonathan, who was then a Vice President to the late President,, out of the political equation. The question is, where were some of the latter day opportunistic Jonathan apostles when these patriotic Nigerians, at the risk of their lives, were fighting for the President?
If only they would learn from history, political appointees should always view their appointments strictly as opportunity to leave indelible footprints on the sands of time. They should take their appointments as a privileged opportunity to serve their people and fatherland. Some few days back, I saw the sacked Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Rufai on national television labouring vigorously to justify the Federal Government’s stand on the on-going impasse in the nation’s tertiary institutions by claiming that the FG had given enough concession to ASUU. It is difficult to believe that the minister who was subtly antagonizing ASUU used to be a member of the academic community. As providence would have it, having been relieved of her plum job, the Professor said she is going back to her erstwhile duty post at the Bayero University, Kano as a lecturer and by implication a bona fide ASUU member. How suddenly can the table turn!
Williams Shakespeare, in one of his immortal classics, ‘All the World’s a Stage’, declared that: “All the world’s a stage and the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances…’ How apt!
•Ogunbiyi wrote from Lagos.