Are the All Progressives Congress (APC) and President
Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) aware of the great
expectations their intense advocacy of change in the
campaigns leading to the last general elections aroused
among Nigerians? Are they conscious of the fact that the
greater the time lag between their formal assumption of
office and the manifestation of their promised changes,
the greater will be the growing frustrations of sections of
the populace with the attendant increasing nostalgia for an
idealised past?
It is now nearly five months after PMB was sworn in
following the sweeping victory of the APC at the polls. Yet,
the party is only just putting in place members of its
Federal Executive Council (FEC) to assist the President in
driving the machinery of governance. PMB claims he
needed sufficient time to pick the very best men and
women in terms of competence and moral integrity to
work with him. Yet, impressive as the ministerial list he has
sent to the National Assembly is, any President could have
assembled the team within a month.
For most Nigerians, the APC’s mantra of change remains
just a slogan. No one is sure of its concrete content. Does
its idea of change mean just a shift of power from Dr
Goodluck Jonathan to PMB and from the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC? Nigerians who voted
for the party in droves expect more than that. The very
depth of the PDP rot that the APC campaigned vigorously
against necessitates a higher degree of sure-footedness,
decisiveness and sense of urgency in governance than the
APC has shown so far particularly at the centre. This
honeymoon can surely not go on forever.
Any follower of this column will know that this writer does
not share the sentiment of ethno-regional balancing in
perceived juicy political appointments particularly at the
expense of merit. Hence, I have refrained from joining the
bandwagon of critics who fault the alleged ethno-regional
lop-sidedness of PMB’s early appointments. The Federal
Character principle of the constitution serves the latent
function of ensuring a sense of balance and fair-play
among cultural components of a diverse and plural society
like ours. But it also serves the manifest function of
legitimating the criminal extraction and privatisation of
public resources by representative elites in public office
purportedly in the interest of their ethno-cultural groups.
I find it astonishing that in these fiscally and economically
famished times, PMB, apart from having obtained the
approval of the Senate to appoint 13 Special Advisers has
sent a list of 36 ministerial nominees to the Senate for
confirmation. This makes a FEC of at least 49 members. It
is unjustifiable. There is absolutely no difference between
this and the PDP era of opulence and waste associated
with the costs of governance. Where then is the change?
Some readers aware of my views in this regard have
referred me to Section 147 of the 1999 constitution, which
requires the President to appoint one minister per state.
That section is non-justiciable. It is just like the section on
the Directive Principles of State Policy, which demands the
implementation of certain social and economic objectives
that can only be at the discretion of the President. The
Federal Character principle requirement can be met across
the different arms, levels and agencies of government and
not just in the composition of the FEC. In any case, as
Professors J. Isawa Elaigwu and Ali A. Garba have argued
“It is important to note that in a federal system, all levels
of government operate directly on the people and not
through another level. That is the import of multiple poles
of power – i.e. non-centralisation”.
However, I must confess that I am also beginning to be
disturbed about the possible mindset of PMB in making
some of his very sensitive appointments. This is
particularly so with his appointment this week of Professor
Mahmood Yakubu, a renowned historian as Professor
Attahiru Jega’s successor as substantive Chairman of the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). No
one doubts Professor Yakubu’s intellect, integrity,
administrative experience and managerial acumen.
However, this appointment appears to me very insensitive.
In admitting the flawed nature of the election that brought
him to power, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua exhibited
uncommon nobility of spirit and integrity. He went on to
set up the Justice Mohammed Uwais panel on electoral
reforms, which proposed a wide range of reforms to
strengthen the electoral process. One of these, which the
opposition parties at the time vigorously supported, was
that the President would pick the chairman of INEC from a
list of three nominees by the National Judicial Council
(NJC). Although, President Goodluck Jonathan from the
South-south did not implement this reform, he at least
picked a man of integrity from the north, Jega, as head of
the electoral umpire.
The least one expected of PMB as a northerner was that he
would emulate this worthy example and also pick an INEC
chairman of intellect, character, experience and integrity
from the South. In this respect, we seem to have taken one
step backward. This is very unfortunate. In the same vein, I
find it curious that a leader with zero-tolerance for
corruption like PMB would not consider an anti-corruption
and pro-human rights legal icon like Mr Femi Falana (SAN)
as a great asset to his government. One seriously hopes
that in his decision making process, PMB is not becoming
hostage to a narrow ethno-regional cabal the way Jonathan
was.
Due to the utter naivety of its politics and rank indiscipline
within its ranks, the APC, which controls a majority of
members in the National Assembly, is today burdened by
an ethically challenged National Assembly leadership that
gravely imperils PMB’s much trumpeted anti-corruption
war even before it takes off. This is why beyond the media
razzmatazz; there is hardly any difference between the
utter lack of seriousness and rigour that characterised the
screening of ministerial nominees under the PDP-
dominated Senate of the past 16 years and the new APC-
dominant Senate.
We still have the absurd situation in which Senators are
asked to scrutinise and interview ministerial nominees
whose portfolios are unknown. It is very comical. Indeed,
with the very strong pro-North signal sent out by PMB’s
new appointment of the INEC Chairman from his ethno-
regional zone, it will be very interesting to see the pattern
of his allocation of portfolios to his confirmed ministerial
nominees. I hope we will not all be turned into ethnic
chauvinists now.
I write this as a wakeup call to the APC. Time is ticking. The
people are expectant. If an incumbent party and President
could be defeated in 2015, the same feat is not impossible
in 2019. The party cannot afford further complacency.

thenationonlineng.net/apc-pmb-not-yet-the-change-we-voted-for/

.

APC got what they wanted. No change anywhere. All I see is OBJ and Tinubu ganged up to remove GEJ for a muslim northerner Fulanis to continue their looting and crass domination using the Quran.

I see no changes......anywhere!

Pmb was a sell-out to Nigeria.
What change do you expect for a bigot!

I will make nigeria ungovernable..... Booari!!


What change were you now expecting Karma is a b*itch and it is normal and natural for booari to ride with her because his basket is full. He is reaping what he sowed.

You voted for one chance!

Do I sense some feeling of REGRET?