One regrettable detail about the ritual of national unserious which passed for Senate confirmation hearings is that Senators who would in any case have treated Nigerians to the bow and go caterwauling on display to the whole world yesterday received the precious gift of alibi from President Buhari.

The clowning Senators would be right to say: “we produced comedy and farce because the President gave us little to work with.”

Sadly, they’d be right. And it has nothing to do with the quality of the nominees.

There is a reason for announcing the portfolios of ministerial nominees in every serious democracy known to man. When you announce a nominee for, say, education, there is a Senate committee in charge of that portfolio. It affords them the opportunity of going to work on the profile and vision of the said nominee. It affords the full house the opportunity of preparing thoroughly for a grilling of the nominee. Most importantly, the nominee is able to prepare fully for a presentation of vision and mission in his or her area of expertise.

In the absence of portfolios, what President Buhari set up was our familiar ritual of asking the deaf to interview the blind. An opportunity for real change was lost. More appropriately, President Buhari passed on yet another opportunity to give concrete meaning to change beyond syrupy rhetoric.

I repeat: the most painful part of it all for me is that Senators who are intellectually ill-equipped for the process anyway can always legitimately argue that they mounted the convivial farce we watched because they did not know which portfolios they were supposed to be grilling people for. When Audu Ogbe, for all his brilliance, is forced by the vagueness and open-ended portfoliolessness of the situation to present himself as farmer, Boko Haram expert, and education expert in five minutes, what’s a Senator to do other than essay some perfunctory remarks, exchange jokes and back pats with him, and sashay him away with a bow and go?

However, bow and go is but a fragment of a much bigger problem. Because President Buhari did not find it within himself to change the paradigm by nominating folks with envisaged portfolios, he has inadvertently set in motion another tragic and familiar scenario. In the absence of a transcendental national ideal around which we have built our vision of Nigeria, food and metaphors of consumption have tragically come to define project nationhood. Whereas the American national ideal is summed up in the American dream, the German ideal in the idea of German efficiency, Nigeria defines herself and her own ideal as “the national cake”.

This explains why all the verbs and metaphors with which we conceptualize Nigeria relate to opportunistic and irresponsible consumption: sharing formula, allocation, national cake, etc. We have allowed that disease to affect our conceptualization of service. In Nigeria, service is essentially about food, hence every public office or political appointment is classified as “juicy” or “not juicy”.

The nominees have been screened. They have done the bow and go thing. None has a portfolio.

We are now into a phase of intense lobbying and jostling for “juicy ministries”. It would be foolhardy to believe that any of the nominees walked out of the Senate chamber yesterday without this next phase of the Nigerian thing in mind. Now is the time to return to Godfathers, Godmothers, moneybags and sponsors and enlist their help to persuade President Buhari to give a “juicy ministry” to our son or our daughter.

It is too late to expect the current crop of ministers not to operate from the conceptual framework of food and the juiciness or lack thereof of ministerial postings. They are part of our extant collective political culture. And they have all been sponsored by interests and power blocks that are totally defined by the classification of public service as juicy or non-juicy. It will take at least a decade of civics and national reorientation to begin to produce Nigerian citizens weaned of this

pernicious mentality. It is too late for the current nominees. They are certainly already jostling for “juicy ministries” as I write.

What we can do, to minimize the damage, is to send a consistent message to them: do not disrespect Nigeria in your hustling and jostling. Part of Nigeria’s problem is a generalized culture of disrespect for her by her citizens – especially those in public office. In all the places I’ve been to, I have encountered the idea of accepting one’s limitations or the inappropriateness of one’s talents and qualifications as part of one’s civic responsibility to one’s country. “I am not fit for X office because America deserves better”; “I cannot occupy Y position because Canada deserves better”; “I cannot run for Z office because France deserves better”. When citizens do this, it is called respecting your country.


http://blogs.premiumtimesng.com/?p=169226

nice one op. keep it up

Hi...


All Problem Continues... @**APC**


Was thinking of CHANGE in all their doings.

nice one op. keep it up.

@OP, do I sense your assumption there is a country(Nigeria), here?

Buhari is a joke, he is a disgrace to presidents world over......


Lets manage for four years

FrankAba1:
@OP, do I sense your assumption there is a country(Nigeria), here?

I'm quoting Mr Adesanmi of Premium times.

BushidoBlue:


I'm quoting Mr Adesanmi of Premium times.

Ok. Great. Could you help send my question to the said person?
Thanks.

Nigeria is a joke - Babangida
Pius please tell them ooo

Vicadonis:
Nigeria is a joke - Babangida

Pius please tell them ooo

If Nigeria is a joke, then we are all jesters waiting for the punchline.

while I agree with some of your assertions, I disagree with the fact that these new ministers will start lobbying for "juicy" positions.

I think for the most part, and am very very sure that President Buhari chose each of these ministers with a particular portfolio for each in mind.

it is interesting to note that Buhari moved away from the norm where ministers were appointed for the President by state governors.

I doubt if any of the new ministers would want to jeopardise their position by lobbying with Buhari.

this is the first time ever we are having a President with a reputation of integrity.

My opinion:

Yes, it would have made some sense to append portfolios to each nominee. However, the author will be economical with the truth if he says the process has been a farce. I absolutely disagree.

I shared the author's sentiments of focus in deference to a portfolio when I watched Audu Ogbeh being screened; by the end of his screening and had a rethink that interviewing the nominees on the basis of their education and past experiences was in itself not a bad idea too.

For the first time, I saw Nigerian Senators duly concerned with some asking very pertinent questions to ascertain the readiness of the nominees.

There are obvious rooms for improvement. However, I am excited that a new strategy to screening Ministerial nominees has started. First of its kind. I am very sure it will get better in subsequent related sessions in the future. For once all Nigerians from all cadre get to know the profile of their intending Ministers. If only for the sake of this process, the nominees sure damn know it is no longer business as usual.

It is preposterous and derisory to see commentators who had no objection to the past marauding tradition of nominees dancing into the chamber like learning masquerades, nod like a lizard and without any questioning will be asked to go; such commentators now write epistles of sorts. Their desires in my opinion are fueled by flaws, oiled by bitterness and greased by antipathy. The shock of the defeat of the previous administration is still taking an adverse toll on them and theirs.

The author could have simply contributed to the epoch process in few words: "Appending portfolios to nominees will enhance the newly embraced excellent process of screening Ministerial nominees, FG kindly take note". This is the difference between subjective views and objective views.

The nonsensical 'screening' is just a formality. Every fool takes a bow and leave and you call that screening? One even claimed he should not be seen as corrupt for executing inflated projects as governor as he did not sign the paycheques as EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR. He got a resounding applause from the monkeys and baboons. nigerian brains are demented aswear. lol

I always finds this man's articles very good and interesting.

But trust the lab manufactured errata to discredit him for critising Buhari

BushidoBlue:

I'm quoting Mr Adesanmi of Premium times.

He is not of premium times , he is Prof Adesanmi, a prof of English & African studies in canada..

He provides objective & slightly humorous views to topical issues....

His articles are on his FB page,enlightening & refreshing

Ioannes:
while I agree with some of your assertions, I disagree with the fact that these new ministers will start lobbying for "juicy" positions.

I think for the most part, and am very very sure that President Buhari chose each of these ministers with a particular portfolio for each in mind.

it is interesting to note that Buhari moved away from the norm where ministers were appointed for the President by state governors.

I doubt if any of the new ministers would want to jeopardise their position by lobbying with Buhari.

this is the first time ever we are having a President with a reputation of integrity.

How do you know an employee is well suited for a job if he/she is not interviewed specifically for the job, except in the case one is expected to learn on the job.

Please keep your message of integrity, we are far more than a million Nigerians whose integrity over shadows that of the president with what we are seeing and hearing.

soulpeppersoup:


How do you know an employee is well suited for a job if he/she is not interviewed specifically for the job, except in the case one is expected to learn on the job.

Please keep your message of integrity, we are far more than a million Nigerians whose integrity over shadows that of the president with what we are seeing and hearing.

so if your integrity is so wonderful who stopped you from contesting the presidency at the last election?

Ioannes:


so if your integrity is so wonderful who stopped you from contesting the presidency at the last election?

Your integrity should not be to prove a point, it should be a part of you as it is a part of me and many Nigerians.

Our integrity is on display every single second of the day, at any point in time. It is who we are.