No doubt, PDP has a Nyesom Wike problem. Forget his raucous and rambling messaging, he is adamant on a southerner in the villa till 2031 and his “party” still appears not committed to his conviction, the same way it wasn’t in 2023. Despite his perceived chummy-chummy with the acting National chairman of his “party” Iliya Damagum, Wike has a recent history to teach him that the “needful” would still be done at the last minute for an average Northern political establishment royalty to give the North what it wants. Political North wants to beat Bola Tinubu badly in 2027 and Damagum can’t be seen standing in the way of a bigger picture. It’s possibly why he is seen going out of the rule book to hand Rivers PDP to Wike as compensation for the national platform the FCT Minister would not be allowed to fully have as long as North wants to make Atiku Abubakar president. Wike appears to know this as he shifts gear calling for an elected national chairman and other exco members. Politicians will sort themselves out, and thankfully it’s the judiciary they now use mostly as well as state power of coercion. Rampant political assassinations that heralded this republic have thankfully receded to a blurry yesterday though almost none was resolved by security agencies. Top political figures now secure themselves more, at least as humanly possible, with men and technology, while some are practically putting their security in their own hands, by openly slugging rifles to public events, as seen in a recent viral video somewhere in the East.

Yoruba will describe what Wike is doing in and with PDP as kaka keku ma je sese a fi se awa danu (it will be useful to no one if I won’t have it). Such a mindset has led to the demise of many two-timing men, where none of the “sharing” women, is ready to let go, including the party that has no need for the two-timer. Wike is obviously not running for president in 2027 even if PDP yields the platform to him, to fail once and for all, and to forever quieten him, just like it did with Dino Melaye in Kogi, when it was obvious that even his Ijumu people would desire a better representation.

The FCT Minister is Tinubu’s wingman who is content with being a bogeyman in PDP and would have enjoyed these dual identities for as long as his relevance would carry him, only that the North is desperate again and like in 2014 when it looked West-ward to smile again, it would only need to look East-ward this time to smile again in 2027. And unlike 2023, the deprivation desperation across the land would easily persuade seemingly impossible alliances that even dreams would not have hitherto conjured. Like I said in past writings, Tinubu isn’t only vulnerable but very very beatable in 2027 even in a very tainted and uneven contest, regardless of what becomes of the economy in the next two years, which only a miracle now, can turn into a thing of joy for Nigerians. His presidential record and ability are already cast. Yoruba always wonder about a man who spends two decades laying foundation for madness; how long is he going to be mad for? Yes, the foundation of a structure that will endure vicissitudes must be firmly planted and could take a while, but you don’t contour out the landscape further with meaningless burrowing, all in the name of starting afresh. The part of the building that most thoughtfulness should go into, remains the foundation. You can’t do a flight of fancy with it, because some spirit possessed you on your very first day at work. The foundation of the economy appears damaged and Psalm 11:3 is rhetorically asking “if the foundations are being destroyed what can the righteous do? The Bible has answers. Desperate Nigerians should ask God through His Word the ways out of the dolorous season.

No politician has the magic wand and Nigerians’ eyes should be wide to that by now, at least not after the one called idan (magical) himself has worked more misfortune into the lives of both his haters and hailers. But politicians won’t stop baying for power which is fast becoming a couture for self-aggrandizement for most of them worldwide and a spectacle is looming in the tragicomical tryst expected to feature Wike/Tinubu, PDP and the Judiciary, for the soul of the nation ahead of 2027.

Under Ariwoola as CJN, Wike walked unhindered into the heart of the Judiciary using patronage. As he was building for judiciary in Abuja, his wife was being built into the penultimate court in the land. Yoruba will say “gbafun Gbada nile, ni gbafun Gbada loko (rubbing backs).

Wike has repeatedly said he would not seek the presidency as long as Tinubu is on the ballot. No matter what, as they say, the president is expected to be on the ballot, God sparing his life. But nothing is given. At least the Biden bounce and thud is a lesson in assuming nothing. The supposed most powerful man on the earth had locked the nomination of his Democratic party and the leverage of incumbency was counting for him in the photo-finish he was doing with Republican Trump in battleground states and national polling. Then he dared God to come down and get him off the ballot and God proved His Omnipotence to him using his closest allies like ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi to turn on him. The rest is history with his three-day COVID excuse.

Even if God is stopping Tinubu in 2027, APC is never likely to field Wike. South West would want to retain the ticket and for a leader without a visible and known successor after falling out with Rauf Aregbesola, a likely free-for-all, won’t still favour Wike, with the one leg in, one leg out, he is doing with APC. The absence of Tinubu on the 2027 ballot won’t also open the PDP presidential ticket to him, though the opposition party is believed to run more on filthy lucre than principle and constitutional integrity, even if Damagum is properly elected by Wike’s billions and ready to do the bidding of the payer of the piper. As currently constituted South and its leaders are dsadvantaged in PDP, despite the recent ruckus raked by Bode George against Atiku Abubakar, arguably the opposition leader in the country, though Peter Obi is hard on his heels and the younger man, is more nationally regarded in the public opinion court.

So if Wike currently has no presidential path in PDP, why is he fighting to finish? Why not in APC where he is better acknowledged, at least by Tinubu, the official leader of the ruling party? Definitely, the Ikwerre fellow would have self-convincing reason(s) to continue playing what is widely seen as a spoiler role in the party he professes its front-row membership. Maybe it has to do with the personal war he declared on Atiku leading to the victory he cost the PDP candidate in the 2023 poll and his desire to reinflict the same electoral pain in 2027, considering the cold reality Turaki is on his way to another nomination by PDP. But what happens after another Turaki loss, if indeed he would lose this time to Tinubu, though I personally believe only a Southern candidate on another platform with a semblance of national acceptability, backed majorly by the North, stands the chance of sending Tinubu back to Bourdillion in 2027 and there is no chance in heaven Wike is that candidate. So, why doing what Yoruba will call atoko wa ba ile je (the one who comes from the village to scatter the city). Yoruba will accuse such a fellow to be mon daru (one who relishes confusion).

Another atoko wa ba ile je, Ekiti’s Ayo Fayose who claims to lead PDP in the state but endorsing APC’s incumbent Governor Abiodun Oyebanji, was seen in a viral video warning Governor Siminalayi “sim” Fubara of Rivers of Wike’s capacity for unending hideous acrimony once he starts, during the state dinner “washing” Fubara’s election, with Wike beaming beside his now-estranged political son. How can one glory in Yoruba describing him as ala jai gbila (the one who can’t be persuaded to embrace peace once in a fight). When someone won’t let when he should give peace a chance, Yoruba have a way of predicting a shameful end with “alaseju pere ni te (the unrelenting will soon tank). Even for those who are hailing his supposed heroism in ensuring a Southern president which was a correct equity call to make in 2023, the spirit of aja i gbila (scattering everything without peace allowance) would soon make this unlikely hero of Southern Nigeria a villain back home. Wike is already a marked man in the North, he should position his politics to reflect his growing image as a leader from the South. Nothing says he must beTinubu’s night soil-man in 2027 to remain relevant. And he doesn’t have to destroy platforms where credible alternatives to the president can emerge. The time to reset is now.

The recently concluded maiden annual distinguished public lecture of the Association of Retired Heads of Service and Permanent Secretaries of Oyo and Osun State (ARHESPSOOS) held at the International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan, provided another opportunity to brainstorm on the present challenges and future possibilities of the civil service system in Nigeria. The occasion is a significant one for the fundamental reason that it pools the administrative experiences of retired heads of service and permanent secretaries who in their own rights constitute a legitimate institutional memory that ought to be harness in all the conversations that reflect on and rethink the capability of the civil service in Nigeria.

For those familiar with my public commentaries on the civil service and its institutional reform, my preferred methodological approach is to deploy a mix of historical and analytical methodology to outline a trajectory of administrative development, philosophies, and management design thinking to interrogate the current state of the civil service in Nigeria, as basis for our reflection on the future of public administration in Nigeria. This method not only allows us to make critical deductions from the narrative about administrative history and praxis in Nigeria and how they have influenced and affected the series of reform strategies and programmes that have been put in place to redirect the civil service system. Further than this, these deductions allow us to explore extrapolations and scenarios for future reform possibilities, with the objective of excavating a number of recommendations that could possibly feed into the policy intelligence of the political and administrative leadership in Nigeria in their spirited efforts to transform the institutional capability requirements of the civil service necessary for achieving democratic service delivery, infrastructural development and ultimately, national socio-economic transformation.

Public administration has come a long way in historical reckoning. From the ancient pharaonic society to the height of Roman sociopolitical requirement, public administration was a phenomenon whose necessity has increased in complexity today. The ancient Pharaohs needed to dam the River Nile and build the mathematically complex pyramids. The ancient Romans needed to efficiently win many complex wars and ingeniously build many engineering feats. From the scribal authority of the ancient pharaohs to the tenured and salaried profession that public administration demanded in the Roman Empire, public administration eventually evolved into a noble vocation that mirrored the Levitical spiritual order of the Hebrews. With Max Weber, the bureaucracy was modelled into a legal-rational command-and-control structure that reflects the Prussian military governance system.

This is the origin of the “I-am-directed” Weberian administrative tradition that Nigeria, as well as most countries of the world, inherited. This tradition conceives of the bureaucracy as a neutral, hierarchically organised, efficient organisation, which demands precision, continuity, discipline, strictness and reliability. The framework of the legal-rational authority privileges written rules and procedures. Each position in the bureaucracy has its duties and rights, which are clearly defined; rules and procedures are laid down to determine how the given authority is to be exercised. Bureaucracy therefore promises a stable organisation, despite the fact that its incumbents come and go. How did the bureaucracy then earn its bad reputation? A better question is: What is it about the bureaucratic system that makes it so powerful as to threaten its very own essence as well as the service it is supposed to carry out on behalf of government? The short answer is that as the locus of governmental power, the bureaucracy is saddled with the coordination of complex administrative that raises the possibility that street-level and front-line bureaucrats follow rules for their own sake.

This is the origin of the bureau pathologies of the civil service system, a pathological predicament that is aggravated in a postcolonial context like Nigeria. Douglas McGregor characterized that tradition as Theory X, a transactional model that conceives of the administrator as a thermostat regulating an organization founded on a bleak picture of employees. Theory X is undergirded by the perception of human nature as indolent, lacking motivation, naturally egoistic and resistant to change. This is why it became necessary to impose a legal-rational framework. The General Order (GO) represents the codified operating standard for this administrative model.

By 1968, the Fulton Report had already been submitted as Britain’s concession to the new managerial revolution of that time, and the urgency of reforming the British civil service that had become a great rock in the tideline. By 1974, the Udoji Commission Report had taken the challenge of reorienting Nigeria’s civil service system away from the Weberian tradition towards managerialism. The Report’s assessment of the system is its administrative inflexibility which makes it difficult to anticipate and respond to governance and administrative challenges and positive institutional transformation. This particularly concerned, for example, the generalist-professionals rivalry, and the need to inject the system with new blood working within a result-oriented performance management model. Since this Report, and the failure to ground its fundamental recommendation that would have strategically transformed the civil service system, Nigeria has been swinging between moving away from the Weberian tradition (as in the Dotun Phillip Report of 1984 that would have managerialism as the foundation of the civil service) and the Allison Ayida administrative revisionism that reconstituted the system along the Weberian order based on the conception-reality gap it detected in the Philip Report.

And yet, since the 1999 commencement of Nigeria’s democratic experiment, the civil service system has witnessed a series of institutional reforms that keep pushing the system towards the goal of being a world class institution. These reforms include the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), SERVICOM, pension and pay reforms, the professionalisation of the FOS/NBS, FIRS/NEITI, the price intelligence and procurement reform, fiscal responsibility plus MTSS/MTEF, to name just a few. But these achievements are too small and far in-between to short-circuit the already distorted trajectory of organizational development through the five-stage life-cycle: birth-adolescence-maturity-institutionalisation-reformulation. We have majorly the military intervention in Nigeria’s political development to ‘thank’ for this.

An engineering metaphor helps make the point of reform very clearly: Whereas the Nigerian state urgently needs an administrative backend that is efficiently propelled by a jet engine, what the many years of administrative hiccups, institutional disruptions, reform misconceptions and fortuitous breakthroughs have equipped the bureaucracy with is the capacity inherent in the engine of a Beatle car. Essentially, the service workforce structure can be characterized by a situation where there are too many doing nothing, too many doing too little, and too few people doing too much. It is not surprising therefore that a key part of diagnosis of the system’s dysfunction is the execution trap derivable from the system’s inability to achieve capability readiness for democratic service delivery. And so, in a 2005 study, a World Bank review reported the finding that: 29% of development programmes ever got completed, 45% of on-going projects are rated satisfactory, and 26% of such projects usually get cancelled.

How then can we move from institutional debilitation to bureaucratic reform? Institutional reforms underscore the possibility of creatively evolving a developmental democratic state in Nigeria. Such a state, in global discourse, is backstopped by a functional, effective, efficient and optimal civil service system. And so, the reform of the public service is the first condition towards such objective. This means that the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs)—the engine rooms of the public service system and therefore of governance—must be adequately capacitated to become effective and efficient as the formidable institutional framework that would be ready at all times to meet the challenge of nation building, good governance and national development. This requires a change management framework that is anchored around three critical frameworks of significantly reprofiling:

1. the quality of bureaucratic efficiency;
2. the quality of service delivery and performance accountability within a democracy; and

c. the professionalism of the public servants

These critical frameworks focus the objective of institutional reform: the public bureaucracies must be transformed to become:

* Fast moving, intelligent, professional, information-rich, flexible, adaptable and entrepreneurial;

* Less employee-focused and rule-driven, deliver quality service;

* Performance-focused, accountable and productive—defined objectives and measurable results, outputs and outcomes;

* Capable of creating the policy climate that will unlock the energy of the private sector and other sectors and to install a new productivity paradigm in the national economy;

* Operated by multidisciplinary team of new generation public managers and project teams signed on to performance agreements or contracts within carefully crafted ministerial scorecards to which everyone is held accountable;

*Bound within a framework of social compact stewardship that sees citizens as clients deserving of effective and efficient services

To achieve such a new public service demands several systemic and structural imperatives in change management that go straight to the heart of the old Weberian administrative tradition, and its business model and procedures. The first is that a developmental state demands neo-Weberian administrative framework. The idea of the neo-Weberian is useful for two reasons. One, the managerial revolution in most Western countries was not an attempt to entirely jettison the Weberian model. Rather, the reform efforts were an incremental attempt to recalibrate its efficiency and effectiveness. Two, the Weberian bureaucratic framework has not outlived its utility, especially when considering the African context. The implication of this is that the new public management has to be brought into conversation with the Weberian tradition to be able to achieve the effectiveness and efficiency of the new public service envisioned in Nigeria.

The second imperative is the urgency of rethinking the intellectual foundations of public administration as the vehicle for the administrative reconstruction of the Nigerian state and the quest for good governance. This will involve several developments. There is first the need to reflect on a non-adversarial and cooperative relationship between politicians and administrators. Secondly, the system demands a firm and meritocratic gatekeeping measure that is founded on the principles of public-spiritedness and professionalism. And thirdly, the necessity of keying into global and regional best practices in terms of competency and human resource framework for doing government business and articulating efficiency in the workplace.

The next imperative is correlative. The new foundation on which the public service must be based needs a new generation and cohort of public managers who are capacitated with the requisite values and competences to manage the demands of the new public service that the developmental state in Nigeria needs to make an appearance in the fourth industrial revolution. This will necessarily serve as the first condition for the possibility of instituting a new performance management system and HRM framework that could transform the workplace efficiency and productivity, especially in the face of the new normal that COVID-19 has imposed on the world, and the flexibility demanded by the Gen Z. This is the move that transforms the service IQ in the form of a strategic leadership intelligence through the creation of a multidisciplinary talents-reinforced senior executive service (SES) guided by a new ethical professionalism.

Next, the new public service must deal with the demand of facilitating public-private partnership dynamics, and moving them to a higher level that allows good corporate governance principles to drive the frameworks for democratic governance. This enables, as part of the HR function transformation, the possibility of incorporating commercial skills as part of the HRM capacitation of the public managers. Lastly, none of these reform imperatives would make any sense if the public service does not facilitate a paradigmatic shift away from an adversarial to developmental industrial relations that makes it possible for the workplace to generate the level of performance and productivity commensurate with the reform inputs.

Transforming the civil service system is not an issue to be politicized. And the simple but fundamental reason is that it is the fulcrum for achieving sustainable development that constitutes the most significant objective of the developmental state. That, in overall analysis, is where the Nigerian state should be headed.

(Being a Distinguished Public Lecture Delivered by Prof. Tunji Olaopa, professor of public administration and Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission, at the Maiden Annual Association of Retired Heads of Service and Permanent Secretaries of Oyo and Osun State – ARHESPSOOS – held at the International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan, on Wednesday, 21st of August, 2024)

A worker with the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc (NAHCO Aviance) Auwal Dankode, who found and returned $10,000 while cleaning an aircraft in Kano recently, has been rewarded  by the company.

Dankode and other colleagues were assigned to clean an MS 878 aircraft operated by Egypt Air when he found the money left behind by passenger on a seat and took the money to the airline’s station manager.

The group managing director/CEO of the company, Mr. Indranil Gupta, announced a cash reward, instant promotion and appointment as NAHCO brand ambassador when he was hosted at the headquarters of the company at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos at the weekend, according to a statement from the company.

Gupta said, “We are truly proud of the exemplary character exhibited by Auwal. He is a true NAHCO ambassador and an embodiment of what NAHCO stands for, honesty, integrity, diligence and hard work.

“We celebrate your being and we want this to be just the beginning. Let the values which has been instilled by your family, guide you and groom you into ideal leader which everyone will be proud of.”

He said majority of NAHCO staff exhibit these values in their everyday work, adding; “We urge you to continue working the same with very high integrity, diligently and continue being a good NAHCO ambassador.”

Chief finance officer of NAHCO, Mr. Adeoye Emiloju, commended Dankode for his integrity.

Responding, Dankode expressed appreciation to the management for giving him the opportunity.

He said, “No one in my area has ever worked at the airport. I am very grateful to NAHCO for the training they gave us and the opportunity to work and earn a decent living. I am greatly thankful of the NAHCO management for the honour and recognition of my effort.”

[Leadership]

Chidimma Adetshina, winner of Miss Universe Nigeria 2024 pageant, said being invited to take part in the competition was a second chance to achieve one of her biggest dreams.

The 23-year-old law student came to Nigeria after accepting to participate in the competition following her controversial withdrawal from Miss South Africa 2024 due to xenophobic backlash over her nationality.

Born to a Nigerian father, and a Mozambique mother, she was raised in Soweto.

She represented Taraba State in the keenly contested competition, which had a total of 25 participants.

Adetshina will receive N10 million in cash along with other prizes as well as representing Nigeria at the Miss Universe pageant in Mexico this November.

Speaking before she emerged victorious in an interview with Arise Television, Adetshina said, “I am so excited, I just feel like this is a second chance in achieving one of my biggest dreams and my biggest goals, and I’m really excited. I’ve always wanted to be a model, I wasn’t really educated on pageantry and all of that.

“When I first knew what pageantry was, it was in 2017, and that’s when I told myself I want to be the next Miss Universe. So, for me, it’s just a thing of I had goals and I set them for myself, and I’m here to achieve them. So, I think I’m just aligning with what I’ve always wanted to do, and I’m really grateful for that.”

However, when asked if she would have participated in the pageant if she was not invited, she said, “No, I wouldn’t, because I wouldn’t have known if I was able to. And also, it has been long since I’ve been here (Nigeria). But I also saw the comments and I was like, maybe this is something I should try out, but then, obviously, the invitation came out and I was really excited that I was given that opportunity, so that’s why I took it as quick as possible.

“Ever since I’ve gotten here, I’ve only received so much love and encouragement from all of the girls. So, I came in here thinking that a lot of them will feel some type of way about the invitation and about me actually coming, but I can guarantee the words of encouragement, the support I’ve been given by these amazing women has been there, and I’m just really happy that they accept me, and that they are not feeling some type of way after receiving all the critiques and the comments about this advantage that people might feel that I might have had.

“I’m grateful for all the love and the support, I don’t think anybody deserves to be treated differently or feel unaccepted or unloved or whatever. So I’m really grateful because I’ve seen the support, I’ve seen the love. I thought, you know, most of it was all hate, but I’ve seen the love and I’m so grateful, because that is actually what fuels me, that is what gives me joy, that is what makes me motivated to actually continue thriving in my everyday life and my dreams as well, so, I’m really grateful for them.”

{dailytrust]

Pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, has called on the Federal Government to save Nigeria, expressing concern over what it described as the near collapse of the nation since the administration of President Bola Tinubu took over.

In a communique by its Deputy Leader, Oladipo Olaitan and the Deputy Secretary General, Alade Rotimi-John after a regular quarterly meeting held in Ogun State, Afenifere maintained that the state of the nation has left the people perplexed.

According to the group, the Nigerian people are sorely troubled by the pervasive hardship, crippling hunger, unremitting insecurity in the land, runaway inflation, and massive unemployment all of which have left the people worse off than they were at the beginning.

It also observed the reckless, obstinate and indifferent attitude of the government to the long-term effects of the lack of forethought or purpose regarding the handling of the public revenue.

Afenifere, therefore, rued some of the Tinubu administration’s profligate predilection or inclination to waste resources, stating that $100m or N 240 billion as the purchase price for an Airbus A330 jet for the President and a further $50m to retrofit it was uncalled for.

In addition, Afenifere noted that N950m each as purchase price of a new set of armoured Cadillac Escalade Limousine SUVs as befitting vehicles for the President, N21 billion for renovating a new mansion for the Vice President, N90 billion as subsidy for religious pilgrimage and N10 billion to renovate the Presidential Lodge at Ribadu Road, Lagos, among others, gave an insight of a wasteful nature of the administration.

“Afenifere is scandalised or shamed by the odium and poor international or global image which have attended these profligate or prodigal expenditures.

“We are puzzled that a government can be so masterful at diversionary tactics just to lull the people to sleep and confuse them as they wake amid grave national circumstances and of a strident or sustained debate of its desultory or unmethodical handling of governance,” the group stated.

[DailyPost]

The Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) has expressed commitment to ensure that the judgement of the Supreme Court on Local Government administration in Nigeria yields positive fruits for citizens, especially those at the grassroots.

ALGON National President, Hon Aminu Muazu Maifafa said the association would work with all relevant stakeholders to develop strategies to enhance the implementation of the judgement.

Maifafa spoke at a One-Day meeting organised by ALGON with support from Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL), a UK, Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) programme.

The meeting was attended by ALGON state chairmen across the country, members of Civil Society Groups and other stakeholders including the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and Local Government Health workers.

Maifafa said all ALGON members are determined to ensure that the judgement aids good governance and enhances service delivery to people at the Local Government level across the state.

According to him, “We have the seal and the passion to ensure the success of this autonomy for local government so that our people at the local government level can be proud of us and that the efforts of all stakeholders towards this local government autonomy would not go in vain.”

The Team Leader of the Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL), Engage Citizens, Dr. John Mutu said Nigerians would benefit when there is good governance at the local government level.

He said, “With ALGON and other stakeholders, it’s for us to reflect together on the judgement, the implications on the local government and to collectively identify challenges that may limit the implementation of the judgement and to collectively agree on strategies to ensure that the judgement is not just well implemented but that serves are delivered to the citizens.”

“And a lot of issues have emerged from the conversation from NULGE, the local government workers, the NUT, as regards to primary and basic education on what they see as challenges and recommendations have been made on what to do through constitution amendment process and through administrative processes.

If carefully done, we believe that the local government will be able to complement the efforts of the state and federal government  to deliver services to the people that they are meant to serve”, Mutu said.

The FCDO Senior Governance Adviser, Chris Okeke harped on the need to ensure that local government funds are utilised judiciously to deliver services to the people at the grassroots.

[TheNation]

•Two-third of ministers underperforming – Opposition

Strong indications have emerged that President Bola Tinubu is planning to rejig his cabinet to ease out underperforming ministers.

Tinubu has been facing increasing pressure from within and outside his party, the All Progressives Congress, to sack ministers some of whom appeared to have been inactive.

The President had last year set up the Result and Delivery Unit, headed by the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, Mrs Hadiza Bala-Usman, to measure the performance of ministers and other top government officials serving in his administration. He warned that any minister or aide that underperformed would be sacked.

Last week, Tinubu replaced the directors-general of the National Intelligence Agency and the Department of State Services after the heads of the agencies resigned their appointments.

Sources in the Presidency told Sunday PUNCH that a cabinet reshuffle was imminent.

The officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter, revealed that some ministers would be dismissed, while others would be reassigned to other ministries for improved effectiveness.

However, the sources did not disclose the ministers likely to be affected.

“What I can tell you is some (ministers) will go. A few will swap positions, then new people will be brought on board. But the President will be focused more on capacity now; on people who can easily add value to his government”, a source stated.

Another source disclosed that Tinubu’s close associates agreed that the President required a stronger cabinet to implement his policies effectively.

The source stated, “The general concern among some of his aides, friends, and even the public is that the cabinet can be far better than this. There is a consensus among his (Tinubu) close friends that he needs a stronger cabinet to push through with his policies. It is one thing to announce policies and it is another thing for your ministers to deliver the outcomes you want. Oftentimes, it is the capacity of your cabinet members and heads of agencies that determines how you will deliver on those outcomes.

“If you look at the editorial by Financial Times earlier this week, it was not palatable at all. And what they were saying is that, yes, he has taken bold decisions, the reforms are good, but he has a weak cabinet that cannot help him to deliver on those reforms. That is why it appears like we are wobbling. So, he needs to bring in people with more energy and expertise, who are more patriotic and willing to roll up their sleeves and work for Nigeria and turn things around.

“If the past one year has not been eventful, he cannot afford to waste another year. This next one year is very critical. It is the next one year that will define the government.”

‘We expect nothing good from Tinubu, APC’

Meanwhile, opposition political parties have said they are not expecting anything good from the APC-led Federal Government.

Speaking to Sunday PUNCH, Yunusa Tanko, the campaign spokesman for a former Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, said the party was more concerned with improved electoral reforms.

He said, “We are not really interested in whether Tinubu changes or sacks his ministers. One of the major areas we thought there would be an improvement in is our demand for electoral reform. If we have an improved electoral reform, it will inevitably give us a good opportunity for credible elections to take place.

“Sacking or replacing your cabinet with new people is an extension of state capture. He will only be replacing them with his loyalists which we know will be a strategy ahead of 2027. But if he is really serious about improving the performance of his governance at the moment, he can start considering reshuffling his cabinet. Quite a number of the ministers are not measuring up to expectations.”

On his part, the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party, Ibrahim Abdullahi, attributed the ministers’ woeful performance to Tinubu’s lack of empathy for Nigerians.

Abdullahi said, “It is not about changing the cabinet. When you acquire power through fraudulent and desperate means, it would take a million efforts, programmes, and policies to correct it because something cannot stand without a foundation. So what is the foundation of his presidency? That is the crux of the matter. As PDP, we are not expecting anything good during this period of divine grace, that God will keep him in power.”

The National Secretary of the Coalition of United Political Party, Peter Ameh, cautioned Tinubu against making the same mistake as his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, by keeping his ministers for eight years.

He said CUPP was not surprised by the failure of Tinubu’s ministers, adding that a responsible government would have dismissed them long ago.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, said only less than 15 ministers had met the expectations of Nigerians with their performance.

He argued that for Tinubu to succeed, he must “weed out” ministers underperforming and merge ministries and agencies performing similar functions.

He listed some of the underperforming ministers to include: the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman; Minister of Health, Muhammad Pate; Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ekperikpe Ekpo; Minister of Transportation, Sa’idu Ahmed Alkali; and the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu.

Adeniran described some of Tinubu’s appointments as “jobs for the boys” and called on the President to urgently implement the recommendations of the Steve Orosanye report to reduce the size and cost of government.

“Most of the ministers are not performing; they are just noise makers and they seem not to understand the job they have been appointed to do. From our assessment, few of the ministers, less than 15 of them are performing.

“The President needs to weed out more than two-third of the crowd he put together as his cabinet. If he has 48 ministers, we are saying that he should weed out a minimum of 36 of them, so that we will know those that are the performing ministers.

“If he (Tinubu) continues with these people, many of them are pulling him back on what he calls his mission in office and that is why Nigeria is in problem today. Weeding them (ministers) out will stabilise his administration more and make those that will remain to be focused. When he weeds out that two-third, he should not replace them with another, he should just merge the ministries with other ones and supervise others directly”, Adeniran said.

Also speaking, the Secretary of the Joint Action Front, Abiodun Bamgboye, attributed the poor performance of the ministers to the anti-people policies of Tinubu, saying even if the President sacked and replaced them with angels, they would fail.

According to him, the President is trying to save his face by planning to sack underperforming ministers, adding that the poor performance of the ministers was a reflection of Tinubu’s leadership.

“When you look at the current economic situation of the country, it does not suggest that any minister has performed to the expectations of Nigerians, but is not the question of ministers, it is the economic policies that this regime adopted,” Bamgboye said.

An economic expert, Aliyu Ilias, argued that holding ministers accountable by reducing their numbers could serve as a check on performance and improve governance.

Ilias stated that the current administration’s decision to maintain a large number of government officials was misguided.

He said, “We have not seen them sacking or reducing ministers. Rather, we see them praising them by saying that there is a livestock ministry again. This doesn’t make sense. Let’s give the President the benefit of the doubt. Sacking underperforming ministers will help this government and this will be like a check and balance on them to perform well.”

The drafters of the Nigerian constitution also known as the wise men had two posers, they were not immediately able to solve. The first was what to do with the lofty objectives in chapter two of the constitution titled ‘Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy.’ The thrust of what the chapter required government to do was to implement ideals such as free education and free health for all etc.

It was obvious that in reality, those objectives were rather unattainable in the first few years of government in a developing society. So, it was agreed that the objectives be captioned‘non-justiciable’ meaning they cannot be enforced by the courts. Put differently, nobody would be allowed to go to court on the subject because as ideal objectives, government should be given the discretion to determine which objective to deal with and to what extent at a given point in time.

The second poser was what to do with any government that abuses the discretion by totally ignoring the objectives which could impede societal growth and development. This was what gave birth to Section 22 of the constitution which mandated the media to hold government accountable to the people. It was expected that the media which harassed the colonial master in favour of Nigerians would similarly be able to use their powerful organs of mass communication to push government to be pragmatic about attaining many of the fundamental objectives. No one expected that Nigerian politicians would design and legalize strategies to completely neutralize the nation’s journalists from meeting the clear mandate given to them by the constitution. One of the things our politicians did was to introduce the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention Etc)Act 2015.

Although the Act had in mind serious crimes concerning digital electronic messaging that could undermine national security, politicians at state level immediately domesticated the Act to make it impossible for the state government and its official to be made subject of any media investigation. They assumed that since the world had progressed to the digital age of technology any journalist could be held under the Act because everyone now uses computers. Ebonyi State was one of those that introduced its own Cybercrimes Law under which any political opponent who criticized government was immediately arrested as having breached the law. In 2022 however, the federal high court in Abakaliki quashed the law when it became obvious that it was enacted in secret without public knowledge and quickly accented to by the governor merely to criminalize political dissent.

The most unfortunate part of the law was that those arrested were not given an opportunity to open up on the grave allegations concerning corrupt practices by officials of government especially governors and their relations. In Cross River State, a journalist Agba Jalingo was detained for accusing former Governor Ben Ayade of diverting N500 million from the state treasury. Rather than give the journalist an opportunity to prove his allegation for the good of society, he was charged with treasonable felony, terrorism, cultism and disturbance of public peace. Within a month, Joseph Odok, another journalist and critic of the same governor was arrested over an allegation of terrorism. It became obvious that the charges of terrorism were made by the police to justify the detention of the critics while the facts of the criticisms were covered up.The practice is yet to end.

Only last week,Shafi’u Umar Tureta, a social media critic was hastily sent to prison in Sokoto for posting a viral video featuring a lavish birthday party hosted by the wife of the state governor. The video also allegedly showed the celebrant virtually abusing the naira by spreading money on the ground during the party. Another media report said the social critic also allegedly shared a video of the governor struggling to construct a sentence in English. He was also alleged to have posted the governor’s senior secondary leaving certificate which stated that the governor failed the examination and also earned F9 in English suggesting that the governor was incapable of speaking the language fluently. This case no doubt opens up several issues worth considering starting with the supposed birthday celebrant.

To start with, was there such a birthday party? If yes,nothing is wrong with holding a party. Many people do that often and the fact that a lady is married to a governor should not bar her from holding a birthday party. Second, did the governor’s wife spread money on the ground during the party? If yes, it means the report is correct but she probably would not be asked to account for abusing the naira because of her status. But if the story is only an imagination of the accused, then he could be described as mischievous. In the case of the governor, if the school result reportedly shared was correct, then it is a valid report. Again, did he score F9 in English and did the video show him struggling to construct a sentence in English? All these must be false before the critic can be said to have a case to answer.  Even at that,is imprisonment the first step to take? In fact, who authorised the police to imprison the accused before charging him to court?

It was also reported that Fatima Hassan, the Magistrate before whom the accused was arraigned barred reporters from covering the court proceedings. What was the reason for such a decision on a matter of public interest? Here, we need to return to S22 of our constitution which mandates the media to hold government accountable to the people. If the judiciary is the third arm of government, is Magistrate Hassan not part of government? If she is, how will the media hold her accountable to the people where her court holds secret sessions? This is probably a political case in which everyone is wrongly answerable to those in power. Some two years ago, the situation would have been different because the accused in this case is said to be a passionate follower of the former governor of the state, Aminu Tambuwal now a senator. It is perhaps the different political camps to which the parties belong that seems to explain the importance of the case.

It is however worrisome that a case such as the one before us whose facts are clearly verifiable is sufficiently remarkable enough to warrant what the accused has gone through. Let us assume that some of the allegations if not all are wrong, why order an accused to be held in a correctional centre for as long as September 6 as the magistrate directed? Is that not more than enough punishment before the case starts? From history, we know that the case will end up with nothing to write home about because as usual the authority offended may not be anxious to follow the case to its logical end; the goal in essence,is just to punish the accused. The case would however join other notorious ones that continually dissuade anyone from exposing the misapplication of public funds. While the police ought to obey those in authority, they should also have an idea of what the law says about an offence. If the governor and his wife thought their image was damaged, the accused would still be free to establish his innocence because in a case of defamation, truth is critical in favour of the accused

The point that must be made is that whether it is Cybercrimes Act or any other issue that those in authority hope to hide under, we cannot develop if our leaders are allowed to use other strategies to overwhelm the constitution. Any person who decides to hold public office must recognise that he has opted to be the servant of the people. In other words, it is wrong for a governor who has chosen to be a servant to seek to lord it over the same people that are his masters. No person in government should seek to use his office to punish a journalist that the constitution has mandated to make him answerable to the people. This is because on the authority of S22 of our constitution, the media can compel those in authority to fall in line since governance objectives in Chapter 2 of our constitution cannot be taken to court.

•Suppliers unwilling to sell on further credit
•Credit trading not peculiar to us — Spokesman

Global suppliers of petrol are no longer enthusiastic about supplying the product on credit to the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) due to piling debts, Sunday Vanguard has learnt.

Competent industry sources told our correspondent last night that NNPCL, which solely imports the product using supply agents, is apparently weighed down by over $6 billion in debt, which the firm has not settled over time.

The setback, according to informed sources, is apparently responsible for the lingering hiccups in fuel supply in recent weeks, our correspondent gathered.

One of the sources familiar with the PMS importation into the country revealed that, at the moment, no fewer than five vessels which were primed to supply petrol to Nigeria have refused to discharge the product to NNPC due to fear that they would not be paid cash on delivery.

The insider pointed out that the mounting debt has heightened the pressure on the petroleum company, which has now resorted to rationing its stock and appealing to its long-term suppliers to not cut off supply.

A senior official at the NNPC, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the company is struggling to supply dealers due to a shortage of products at its disposal.

The official lamented: “Bulk sales of ships and trucks to depot owners have slowed down in the last five days due to shortage of supply”.

The source added that no bulk sales had taken place since Tuesday, resulting in the scarcity in the downstream sector.
Another NNPC staff told this newspaper that fuel shortage, which resulted in the long queues being experienced in the last two months, was principally caused by the reduction in supply of products by suppliers who are being owed by the Nigerian oil firm.

The top official admitted: “I was aware that at some points in mid-August, the Federal Government had to come in by giving money to NNPC to defray some of the outstanding liabilities and boost the confidence of the suppliers to continue.

“However, what was paid was about $300 million, which only helped us get some reprieve for about a week before the queues fully returned,” he said.

Credit transaction common in the oil business – NNPC

Responding, the Chief Corporate Communications Officer of NNPCL, Mr Femi Soneye, said it was a common practice in the global oil industry to trade on credit but would not say more than that.

Soneye said: “In the oil trading business, transactions are often carried out on credit; so it is normal to have outstanding balances at certain times.

“Additionally, through our subsidiary, NNPC Trading, we maintain open trade credit lines with several traders.”

But when asked to confirm the exact amount the company owes its PMS suppliers, the spokesperson declined, saying, “I will need some time to provide you with the exact amount”.

Vanguard News Nigeria

Erling Haaland scored a hattrick as Manchester City defeated West Ham United 3-1 in their English Premier League (EPL) clash at the London stadium on Saturday.

The late kick-off saw Haaland continue his scintillating start to the season, scoring all three goals against an attacking side that troubled the EPL champions but could not make the most of their impressive performance.

Haaland put City ahead in the 10th minute when he slid in to convert Bernardo Silva’s pass but West Ham responded with the equalizer nine minutes later, Ruben Dias scoring an own goal.

The Norwegian striker restored City’s lead with a fierce shot that flew into the roof of the net in the 30th minute before putting the game to bed seven minutes from time with another well-taken goal.

The hattrick is Haaland’s 11th of his Man City career — eighth in the EPL. He has scored seven goals in the opening three matches of the season as Pep Guardiola’s side continues their 100% start to the season.

In earlier matches, Brighton held ten-man Arsenal to a 1-1 draw in a match Declan Rice was dismissed for a second yellow card for time wastage.

Everton, however, surrendered a two-goal lead with three minutes of regulation time remaining and lost 3-2 to Bournemouth at Goodison Park.

However, Aston Villa held on to win 2-1 at Leicester City.

RESULTS
Arsenal 1-1 Brighton & Hove Albion
Ipswich Town 1-1 Fulham
Leicester City 1-2 Aston Villa
Everton 2-3 Bournemouth
Brentford 3-1 Southampton
Nottingham Forest 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
West Ham United 1-3 Manchester City

[TheCable]