By Martins Oloja
Permit me to reintroduce myself to those who may not understand why I have decided to write on detected ‘tactical errors’ the presidency needs to clear for the majesty of democracy to emerge in Africa’s most populous country.
In the last 36 years of my journalistic legwork, I had covered nine (9) Heads of State and Presidents of Nigeria before our current leader emerged. And so I think in all modesty, I can look into the seeds of our presidential times and advise on how to clear some tactical, tragic or even strategic errors of any serving president of our great country, even the iconic Madiba claimed the black race had been waiting for as s source of pride and confidence. Forgive me for this ‘immodesty’ of counting some of my journalistic blessings and credentials. These digital times when some young ones just abuse elders online for lack of knowledge call for this unusual clarification.
‘The Five (5) tactical errors President Tinubu should clear immediately’
‘Weak(ened) presidential bureaucracy’
I have written about this tactical error several times but because the error hasn’t been cleared vital signs are beginning to show that it is fast becoming a tragic error, which can lead to tragic failure. The focal point of Nigeria’s presidential bureaucracy is the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF). The presidential bureaucracy structure comprises the SGF’s Office, Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) and the Office of the Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (OCFCSC). These offices are a creation of the constitution but in our recent practice, the Office of Chief of Staff to the President has been ‘integrated’ into the presidential bureaucracy and so cannot be ignored.
However, some of the former presidents didn’t allow their Chief of Staff to undermine the functions and authority of the SGF as the organic head of the presidential bureaucracy and the cabinet secretariat. The SGF’s office is where most the presidential appointees and appointments are coordinated for announcements – most of the time. The President approves appointments of political office holders and some public servants of various cadres and the offices of Permanent Secretary State House, the Chief of Staff, Principal Secretary, etc get hold of these approvals and dispatch accordingly to various chief executives, ministers, and heads of extra-ministerial departments and agencies, focal points for announcements through press statements and circulars, especially from the offices of SGF and OHCSF.
It should be noted that President Yar’Adua refused to appoint Chief of Staff to the President as his predecessor Obasanjo who began the practice. But President Jonathan reinstated the office of CoS-P and it was noisome, no thanks to some impurities reported about the office.
Specifically, the same presidential bureaucracy has been chaotic since President Tinubu assumed office as even appointments of Permanent Secretaries have been announced directly through the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity. And so most presidential appointments are being regularly announced by the office of the President. Strangely, they normally announce this as soon as approvals are noticed thus: “Tinubu Appoints New Permanent Secretaries”, not even as “Tinubu approves appointments of new Permanent Secretaries…” There is no point to prove here. Most of these announcements of approvals of these presidential appointments have always come from the office of the SGF. Besides, credentials of the appointees have always been properly documented in the statements. These days, sometimes, there is no word about even the bio data of appointees and we wonder where most of them have worked. What is now worse, there was a report the other day that the Chief of Staff to the President was doing some oversight on some government agencies and was quoted as making weighty policy decisions and even reversals on public policies such as suspension of implementation of Oronsaye Panel’s Report that Office of the SGF is coordinating. This is so curious! This development is worsening an already chaotic presidency. It is another strategic error that must be corrected. The office of the president isn’t an ordinary one. It should be awesome by the power of orderliness and shouldn’t be associated with any crisis of coherence and competence.
‘The NNPCL conundrum’
It is very difficult to write about Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) at this time when the political economy of a free press is quite challenging. But public interest within the construct of our social responsibility should be the overriding factor. The story of NNPCL can only be understood by those who run the country’s very strategic oil company. The company, for instance, declared trillions worth of profit a few weeks ago. But incredible as it may sound, early this week, the same company that has consistently affirmed ‘subsidy-is-gone’ presidential declaration was curiously quoted as declaring that it was owing oil marketers a whopping $6 billion. The company was said to have adjusted PMS price to N857 ahead of release of Dangote’s refined product to the market. The almighty NNPCL was also quoted as saying without rhyme or reason that it would also be the sole buyer of whatever Dangote has in stock. At the moment, despite the inexplicable and high PMS price even to the tune of N1,500 per litre in certain locations, the petroleum product isn’t available. What is more, the Minister of State, Petroleum has denied that it authorised increase in petroleum price. While one is wondering about the complexity of what is going on with the opacity of operations and finances of the NNPC, no update again about when the $1.5 billion worth of Port Harcourt refinery’s turn-around maintenance will make available its product after six promises. Can’t we wonder why the federal government isn’t interested in successful launch of the Dangote’s $20 billion worth of refinery? Isn’t it a tactical error that the President hasn’t visited the refinery? Why can’t the federal government be the chief public relations manager of the private refinery that has been reported to have capacity to make Nigeria proud? Is the NNPC not proud of the Dangote refinery? The president should know that it is his responsibility to overhaul the almighty NNPCL so that we can breathe from energy crisis that has made his government very unpopular.
‘Electricity Distribution Company’s Toxic ‘Band A’
We may not be able to know the intelligence President has been getting from the discriminatory electricity tariff from Band A-to band Z.. as it seems. But whatever the case, this is one ‘fiscal policy’ that has the same unbearable effect as PMS price on the people and business. A recent meretricious reduction of the killer tariff by 50% for hospitals and tertiary institutions can’t solve the problems for the health and education sectors. The institutions can’t still cope with the demand, let alone the people who will pay their own and pay for the hospitals and schools of their children. It is another strategic error that may touch off uncontrollable crisis for the Tinubu administration. The combined effects of high PMS and Diesel prices with high electricity tariff have already triggered anger that will manifest into more protests sooner than later. No one knows the experts who did risk analysis for the President on this. How many people can go to work from now? How many people can fly one way within the country where we are already paying more than N250,000 for one-way flight ticket? President Tinubu should return from China to address all these economic hardships before it is too late! Allowing energy crisis to compound hardship will definitely result in a tragic error that may prove too costly for this government.
‘A cabinet of many mediocrities’
This is the right time to tell the president that some members of his first cabinet have been so mediocre that we have had to use Google to find their names because they are obscure. This is not new: we have always celebrated a culture of mediocrity and low expectations. But this culture is now too expensive; we can’t afford it. Leaving a mediocre team that can’t address the country’s numerous socio-economic challenges is another strategic error that must be cleared now or never. The President needs younger and more passionate technocrats as cabinet members and agency heads who understand contemporary challenges, not the many illiterates of the 21st century who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn. Nigeria is too important to be left to some reckless mediocrities who are being announced as heads of even sensitive agencies and extra-ministerial departments.
‘Absence of robust civil service’
I have observed that the President has never paid adequate attention to the quality of the Federal Civil Service he inherited from the previous administration. If he had set the right one with a functional presidential bureaucracy, he would have detected the fragility of the civil service that he has been complaining about. But is the president aware that the federal bureaucracy isn’t as robust and knowledgeable as it used to be? Is the president aware, for instance, that the immediate past Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HCSF) didn’t disclose to the new administration the true status of the service now filled with officers the political class from 1999 till the present imposed on the federal bureaucracy? Has the president been told that on the eve of leaving office, members of the National Assembly and Ministers have always arm-twisted officers of the Federal Civil Service Commission and allied bodies to employ their outgoing aides as senior officers up to directorate cadres without interviews? Some of these incompetent political aides will rise soon to be even Permanent Secretaries. Is the President aware that the same Head of the Civil Service of the Federation who left office barely two months ago also deceived the presidency and the nation about implementation of the Tenure Regime for Permanent Secretaries and Directors to retire after eight years? The Head of the Civil Service quietly issued a service–wide circular for the implementation of the policy for Directors only and artfully excluded Permanent Secretaries cadre because it would have also affected her at the time. Was the same Head of the Civil Service of the Federation not praised to high heaven when she left office recently? There are more issues of mediocrity and corruption in the federal civil service that appear unknown to the Chief Executive of the Federation at this time. It has been a tactical error that politics has trumped attention to public policy thrust that should drive progress of this government. There is therefore a sense in which one can claim that if there had been a functional federal bureaucracy, there wouldn’t have been a chaotic presidency and a complicated NNPCL that has become untouchable by its owners. At the end of the day, the buck of all these stops at table of only the President who should clear all the five tactical and strategic errors that can consume his presidency.
Mr. Martins Oloja is a former Managing Director and Editor In Chief of the Guardian Newspaper.
