Today I meditate on the leadership of Nigeria and I am greatly appalled. I make no apologies for what am about to say and if it offends you deal with it anyhow you deem fit and if it is difficult for you to assimilate let’s have a public debate.
My generation of Nigerians is being molested, shortchanged, undermined, ignored, relegated, dehumanized, abused, misused, disrespected, disempowered….or rather, have allowed ourselves to be so treated as mentioned above. It annoys the heck out of me. When will our turn finally come? When will the youth wake up and take their place?
When Buhari appeared to the scene and began to hold public offices, how old was he? What academic, administrative or managerial experiences did he have and what did he bring to the table that was not on the table when he showed up? How about Zik, Gowon, Obasanjo, Ironsi, Balewa, Ojukwu, Murtala, Awolowo, Babangida, etc? Can you tell me how old these folks were when they showed up, and none of them walked up the stage and took it over, someone brought them in somehow or rather paved the way for them to easily take the stage. Time and space will not permit me go into details here.
As we mourn the demise of Abba, the father of Buhari’s regime, Kingibe is rumored to be appointed to replace him. Are you for real? Is Nigeria going forward or going backwards?
With due respects to Baba (Same words as Abba but rearranged), he belongs to an analog age with my father, and he has no place in a digital era. We cannot continue to use analog mentality and analog thinking and analog skills and analog people to solve digital problems for digital people in a digital era. When Nigerians stop allowing long retired men from assuming public offices in a digital era, maybe then and only then would the country have any hopes of moving forward, otherwise it will continue to be one step forward two steps backwards.
Without mincing words, you mean to tell me there are no young men that know what’s up to man the office of Chief of Staff to the President of Nigeria in 2020? Why are we recycling men of the old brigade? This is not an attack on Kingibe but all of them in my fathers generation belong to the men of the old brigade and they need to go home and protect themselves from corona and the stress of public office. If Abba was not the Chief of Staff he would probably and most certainly still be here now. Kingibe’s mates are retired, he should be too.
Baba Gana Kingibe should be an elder statesman and not a chief of staff, and I don’t expect anything from him other than to turn down the appointment. If nothing else, Baba can let his son take that position if there is none of his mentees that he trusts to do a good job. If none of his men is qualified, then he is a failure for failing to groom men who would run the country after all these decades he has been in public service and in politics. If he is appointed and he accepts that job, it would be another step in the backwards direction for this Buhari regime.
Recycling the old names and the men of the old brigade is an abuse of the young ones and the generation next. Wake up Nigeria and Nigerians, we can do better than this and we can’t afford not to rise to the occasion. Nigeria belongs to all of us.
Mezie Okolo is a leadership analyst, born in Nigeria but lives in the United States 04/21/2020