President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has so far made many strategic appointments and has left media with different takes. Some are applauding the appointments and some are offended and tagging it as “Nepotism”.
Here is what i feel about the appointments:
Nigeria is a diversed country with people of different beliefs, values and cultures. Our ability to live well in diversity determines, to a large extent, the speed of our progress. Nigeria has been retrogressive because the first thing we ask after every appointment is “which region is s/he from? Which tribe is s/he from? Which religion is s/he from? The question of competence and capacity comes last or doesn’t come at all.
We consider political appointments as compensation or opportunity for tribesmen, families and friends to feast on the taxpayer’s money as their share of national cake without recourse to delivering the mandate in which they are appointed to deliver.
This ideology and unnecessary pressure arising from demands and expectations from politicians is one of the reasons some of them go extra mile in acquiring wealth just to service the demands.
Presidency is not a ward councilor. One needs allies and associates from all parts of the country to reach such position. But also has to rise through ranks with support of his people, family, friends and associates. Nobody can become anything alone.
Early relationships begin with people in your immediate environment, your family, community then school friends, work life and other life endeavors. What you are is mostly determined by the circle of friends, families and associates.
Politicians are not different. They have families, friends and associates who they know better. And there are positions you can only give who you trust more especially positions you have keen interest. Buhari had interest in security and we have seen how he handled the appointments.
Tinubu was very clear in his campaign promises of his interest in economy. Economy by extension means wealth creation, revenue generation, tax reforms. Its almost certain that he will put his best heads and trustees to man the institutions with mandates to achieve this objective.
His immediate associates (Tribesmen in Nigerian context) being his most trustees is not strange because thats the case for every human on earth and they should not miss opportunity to serve their country just to avoid emotional and tribal subjugation.
The most important question is:
Who will make a better Finance Minister than Wale Edun of all the nominees?
Is Yemi Cardoso not fit to govern the apex bank based on his expertise and antecedents?
Is Adedeji not fit to man FIRS based on his expertise and antecedents?
Is Oyetola too bad to be minister for Blue Economy?
I have been in the west and know the drive and energy of the people there in terms of financial literacy and engineering. We can feel threatened for whatever reasons but walai they know how to handle economy.
I am not by anyway implying that there are no very good people from the east or the north with same qualities but just giving regional analysis based on what i know and even by numbers. Evidence dey.
Diversity means capitalizing on the strengths of people with different values to achieve same objective.
And why do we politically support power shifts if not for inclusiveness? Why do Yoruba’s want Yoruba Presidency? Why do Igbo’s wang Igbo Presidency? Why do Hausa’s want Hausa Presidency? Is it just for being sake?
