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Principal Men To Drive Buhari’s Change

By Gregory Austin Nwakunor
24 May 2015   |   3:17 am
THE President-elect, Gen Muhammadu Buhari (retd), is in a dilemma. There’s little use in denying it. Unlike the campaigns, which brought everybody together, the search for the president’s men has caused kerfuffle.
Buhari

Buhari

THE President-elect, Gen Muhammadu Buhari (retd), is in a dilemma. There’s little use in denying it. Unlike the campaigns, which brought everybody together, the search for the president’s men has caused kerfuffle.

He’s in the midst of all manner of vituperations, which may have led the All Progressives Congress (APC) to say it is not zoning any of its offices in the National Assembly.

Like Ato Yawson in Dilemma Of A Ghost, whose decision to return home with an African American wife, Eulalie, is catalyst for conflict in the play. His family had scraped and saved to send him to university in the US.

Atos’ predicament best exemplify Buhari’s dilemma in a nation where organised ‘crime gangs’ called political parties call the shots, choosing the right people to work with him is becoming frustratingly slow. Considering that so many people ‘invested’ in his coming to power, they have to receive dividend for their investment.

To say that expectations of Nigerians are high is more like stating the obvious. Surly voters drummed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) out. They are certain that Buhari will turn the economy round. They believe that he still has the blueprints to turn the economy round that he had not implemented before he was overthrown. But he cannot do it alone.

The Search For The President’s Men
WHAT will the likely composition of Buhari’s cabinet be? In the wake of Nigeria providing a fertile ground for organised ‘crime gangs’ to cannibalize the economy, he has to appoint people of unquestionable character in his cabinet.

No doubts, with Buhari’s profound characteristic traits as an honest, focused and disciplined person, those who will constitute his cabinet, kitchen or main, must be people, who can generate new ideas. The task ahead requires men who can recognise problems and devise plan of action, without undermining the government’s efforts. People, who can specify goals and constraints, as well as consider risks, evaluate them and choose best alternatives.

Their ability to communicate effectively in ways that touch people and instill confidence must not be in doubt. People who everybody wants to listen to when they speak. That’s what gave Obama the edge when he first ran for president as an obscure senator, and it’s what made him world famous.

When he first came in 1983, those who constituted his cabinet were technocrats, who knew their onion. From Dr. Emmanuel Nsan to Chike Ofodile and Prof. Tam David-West and Dr. Onaolapo Soleye, he had tested men who accurately set personal goals, for their ministries, monitored progress and exhibited self-control that made the regime respected.

Men In Whom He Is Well Pleased
THE Guardian learnt Buhari has submitted to security agencies — The Department of State Services, the Directorate of Military Intelligence and the National Intelligence Agency — some names of possible ministerial appointees for screening.

Though, there are conflicting reports about the names, especially, with the selection of a lot of former PDP men, who had defected to the APC, leading people to question where is the change.

What is not in doubt is that Buhari ran on the platform of change, so, his regime will not have anything to do with the old guard and those who are reluctant to yield to change.

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