As Fayemi Was Saying

EDIFYING ELUCIDATION BY OKEY IKECHUKWU

During the presentation of the June 2021 edition of a bi-annual publication of the World Bank on the economic outlook of Nigeria, tagged Nigeria Development Update, Dr Kayode Fayemi said: “There is this false notion that Nigeria is resilient. Nigeria is a strong country, but we are almost on the precipice. It is almost midnight in our country.

If we do not take these tough measures that we will have to live with, then we will have to deal with the consequences.” Six months after the occasion, where he spoke on the theme “Resilience Through Reforms,” and to a government of which he is a part, the consistent deafness of the federal government is still intact. Fayemi had called for more collaboration between the federal government and the states, if Nigerians are to be convinced that subsidy is no longer sustainable. The question, perhaps, is how?

The fine report of the El’Rufai led committee on restructuring, which was set up by the APC, to find a final solution to divisive sentiments in the country, is has not added value to this government. The celebrared “economic team” made up of Bismark, Soludo and many distinguished individuals and set up to guide the president was never put to rwal use. Otherwise, we won’t be where we are today. And there is still no indication that anyone is really taking anything seriously these days.

Let me take us back to a “conversation” I had with Fayemi on this page sometime in April 2015. That was immediately after Buhari emerged President Elect. Under the title: “Buhari: What Fayemi Should Note” I started the conversation with these words: “Kayode Fayemi is no godfather of the APC, but I consider him a man of great value to the party and to the nation. His loss of power in Ekiti State must have given him time for introspection and further preparation. His capacity for filtering out what matters at any time is borne of a commitment to the common good that is not driven by a fast food approach to leadership. That is why I invite people like him to pay more than passing attention to the call on Buhari to hit the ground running.

Rather than ‘hit’ the ground running, the man should step out and plant his feet on terra firma, after a careful terrain analysis. Anyone who ‘hits’ the ground just like that may break a leg, stagger a bit, lose his bearings for a long time or even not easily catch his breath. Swamps, thorns, fast-flowing rivers, quicksand, wild forests full of boar constrictors, stony and rocky grounds and deserts abound everywhere. So Buhari must know that a nation that is bred on the wrong paradigms for over two decades will not easily key into new ways of doing things.” In giving the above advice, it never occurred to me that a man who spent 12 years trying to become president could possibly mistake the title for the job itself.

Still addressing Fayemi on what he should bear in mind, it was said: “His having won the election does not make him the candidate of all voters in the March 28, 2015 presidential elections. He was not my candidate, but since the elections were conducted in order to elect a president for Nigeria out of the long list of contestants, there is no basis for further bellyaching after the rules of engagement have delivered an outcome. The thing to do now is (1) keep Buhari and his team on their toes, for the survival of the nation, (2) emphasize good governance and (3) insist on effective service delivery. It is for the new opposition to monitor the new government and design alternative policies that would enable it get the vote of Nigerians in future. This, I believe, will also be for the greater good of our political evolution as a nation.”

Beyond these broad strokes, Fayemi was also asked to “…remind the President Elect that many serving senior military officers may have joined the military back then because it was seen as the quickest way of becoming governors, or getting rich. The integrity of the military recruitment process may have been marred over time. The recent Army intake in Army Government Day Secondary School, Abuja, for instance, can be investigated to ascertain whether it is true that those with letters of recommendation were attended to, while the others had to disperse. Assuming this is true, and I have my doubts, there may be more to the initial trouncing of Nigeria by Boko Haram. There are still enough professionals and retired officers to turn the armed forces around.”

But why did I choose to send Fayemi on such errand, after admitting, ab initio, that he was no godfather of his party? I gave my reasons thus: “Because Fayemi focused on values and symbols during his tenure as governor, it will make sense to him when I say that the federal government should quickly restore the integrity of our national symbols. The Coat of Arms being used by most governors, heads of parastatals, and some divisions of the armed services have two yellow horses. Meanwhile, the national Chargers are white in colour.

As Minister of Information and National Orientation, Chief Chukwuemeka Chikelu took great time and troubles to identify the content of the Coat of Arms and specify the meaning of everything on it. He also even designed a model national letter-headed paper that was to be used for all government communication. This was presented to the National Executive Council under President Obasanjo. Frank Nweke also brought up the issue of national symbols and the Coat of Arms after Chikelu. Buhari should understand the need for “Brand Integrity” of Service symbols and, especially, national symbols.” There you have it. So, my choice of Fayemi as the mail-bearer of advice for a new government was not done on a whim.

Concerning some of the things we all heard before Buhari won the elections, I “told” Fayemi: “Buhari’s has ‘threatened, at different times, to cut down the entitlements of former state governors, reduce the number of ministers and do away with the office of Ministers of State. That is good, but the Fayemis of the APC should start designing a navigation strategy for this engagement, as the potential victims within and outside the APC are big boys and girls. Given the dire straits in which we find ourselves as a nation today, we have to get our past leaders to follow the commendable examples of other nations, rather than continue to raid the treasury like incensed pirates. The other matter, of course, is the number of Special Assistants and, especially, Senior Special Assistants running all over the place. It is possible to dispense with close to 80% of them. Thus, the APC must begin in good time to preach the culture of sacrifice and efficiency to its members. Otherwise it may re-enact what we saw when the PDP, with absolute majority in the National Assembly, could not pass most of its Bills because a large swath of its members became an opposition within their own government.”

Not quite done, I said: “I, again, invite Fayemi’s attention to the fact that Nigeria had a monetisation policy that was once faithfully implemented across the MDAs. Today, heads of MDAs, Permanent Secretaries and Directors are housed by the government, driven by government drivers in government vehicles; after they have all presumably received the monetary equivalent of the things now still being provided for them by government. Chikelu, in particular, was so particular about the implementation of the policy under his Ministry that he ensured that the vehicles for sale were sold at very low prizes to the disengaged drivers, to enable them start new livelihoods.”

I ended my “conversation” with Fayemi by bringing in the Okonjo-Iweala SURE-P programme thus: “On March 13, 2015, I wrote in THISDAY Newspaper: “…the SURE-P had made tremendous impact on the life of Nigerians, but it should be reviewed, disaggregated into its various components and retired to the MDAs that should ordinarily have statutory responsibility for those components of SURE-P. What this means in simple terms is that my position on the PTF, of decades ago, applies to SURE-P. Let it be scrapped and let the MDAs face their jobs and be held accountable.”

Looking at the nation six years after the aforementioned “conversation” my message, like many other well-meant messages, must have missed the target, or “the other side” won in the end. Whichever way we look at it, it is not cheery news that the nation lost at least 367 soldiers, policemen, and members of the Civilian Joint Task Force, in order to eliminate 92 terrorists within the last two years; as reported by SMB Intelligence.

It is also not good news to learn that a total of 569 people died in various ambushes, by terrorists, within the same period. Perhaps you want to think of why anyone would remove, and saving, 1.8tr Naira subsidy on fuel, and then give away 2.4tr Naira to 40 million allegedly affected by the removal of the subsidy. We have taken quite a few loans and we are still looking for more. Our overheads are going up, all our borrowings are for consumption, alms giving, rather than wealth creation, has become the major business of government.

Where are the “Anything but Jonathan” singers of six years ago? As I also said on this page on August 9, 2019, under the title “Anything but Jonathan, Right? “President Olusegun Obasanjo was one of the callers. His (often justified) criticisms of the former president were strident, pointed, relentless, unequivocal, upfront and personal. He, alongside others, raked up the man’s faults for everyone to see… Jonathan was roundly humiliated in Obasanjo’s Ota Farm. Buhari, on the other hand, was later given an endorsement reception in the same Ota Farm…. Jonathan’s grave diggers were also digging too close to where they were standing. They forgot that whoever does not look for the roots of a problem, but seeks to find progress and improvement in constant change, “stands on the precarious ground of an adventurer.”

Because we are not doing the right things, because security, social infrastructure, and national cohesion are in limbo while our leaders are only concerned mainly with positions and elections, that rather than good governance, I understand Fayemi to be voicing his sensing that we must stop sowing the whirlwind if we are to avert a gathering storm that may yet break. A people stretched well beyond their limits, under a leadership that shirks practically all leadership responsibilities, have nothing to lose anymore.