Jonathan’s ludicrous offensive

Nothing, for instance, makes an ewe to bleat as loud as it could be heard and for a long time more than the loss of her lamb. Like humans, animals get wild anytime they lose their offspring. The loss could be as a result of a theft or death. It is worse with a cow […]

Nothing, for instance, makes an ewe to bleat as loud as it could be heard and for a long time more than the loss of her lamb. Like humans, animals get wild anytime they lose their offspring. The loss could be as a result of a theft or death. It is worse with a cow that lost her calf as it would be seen charging against any approaching person or animal; violently lowing in the wildest manner to search for and rescue her missing calf. Such a crazy reaction explains how young animals are treasured by their female parents.
Like the ewe and the cow that respectively lost a lamb and a calf, President Goodluck Jonathan is angry with Nigerians for losing power, which ostensibly, is dearer to him than a brood of chicks is to the hen. With his defeat in the March 28, 2015 presidential election, President Jonathan in his ‘wisdom’ embarked on a ludicrous offensive using aggressive measures (some vindictive and others mischievous) to express his rage over the refusal by Nigerians to give him another 4-year political mandate to rule and ruin them. While late or in some cases non-payment of salary to federal workers as well as his spree of sacking public officers from their positions are considered by many as vindictive, some of the last-minute appointments are on the other hand believed to be controversial and mischievous as the recent change of leadership baton at the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) suggests.
President Jonathan launched his show of fury with the sudden sack on April 21, 2015 of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Suleiman Abba who was replaced with Deputy Inspector-General of Police Solomon Arase as Acting IG. This was shortly followed by the sack of the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance scheme (NHIS) Dr. Femi Thomas who was replaced with Olufemi Akingbade as Acting Executive Secretary/CEO of NHIS. The presidential spokesman Reuben Abati who separately announced the removal of the two public officers gave no reason for the action. On the day Dr. Femi was booted out of office, the presidency equally announced the confirmation of Malam Munir Gwarzo as the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The former Anambra State Governor Mr. Peter Obi was also announced as Chairman of the Baoard of the SEC.
The appointment of Sanusi Ado Bayero, the eldest son of the late Emir of Kano Alhaji Ado Bayero, as the Manging Director of the NPA is one that is not without prejudice. This is why some observers see the appointment as ill-motivated. Sanusi Bayero and the former NPA boss Malam Habib Abdullahi are both from Kano state. The mischief in this particular appointment is perceived from the costly political price which the in-coming administration of General Muhammadu Buhari stands the risk of paying if it attempts to reverse it. The same insinuation goes for other appointments that appear controversial including the appointment of a new Registrar for the National Examinations Council (NECO) Professor Monday Tommy Joshua. Like other CEOs recently sacked by President Jonathan, the statement by Reuben Abati gave no reason for Habib Abdullahi’s removal from office. The Prophet (SAW) said “Actions will be judged according to the motives that prompted them”.
The universities have also gotten their own share of the last-minute appointment as the Minister of Education in a statement, last week, announced the appointment of chancellors for Nigeria’s 38 federal universities. All the new chancellors whose appointments were announced are royal fathers picked from all the geo-political zones of the country. As the eleventh hour appointment galore continues, the last of it may not have been heard. More sack notices and approval of appointments are likely to be announced within the next one or two weeks. One hiistory lesson which Jonathan has refused to learn is that such last-minute appointments are most often reversed as soon as a new administration gets into office.
In all, the recent rash of removal of CEOs from office and appointment of new ones  is simply opportunistic. If it is the right of a sitting president to appoint people into positions, such is just one out of the many duties of his office including finding solutions to the socio-economic challenges that may be confronting the nation. Why then (if these appointments are actually not opportunistic) has President Jonathan refused to address more serious issues of national importance including, for instance, the lingering fuel crisis? If Jonathan thinks he is justified to allow the in-coming administration to handle the scam called fuel subsidy, he should by the same token feel justified to allow the newly elected administration to do these appointments that he is keenly handling as if they were Nigeria’s most critical issues on the table.
If the president is convinced beyond all doubts that a public officer does not deserve to be in office either for inefficiency or corrupt practices, what Nigerians modestly expect of him in such a situation is to ask the CEO involved to handover to the most senior subordinate as he did at the expiration of the tenure of the former CEO of SEC Aruma Oteh. How crucial, if we may ask, has the contribution to be offered by a CEO appointed in the last three weeks of an administration’s life-span become that such cannot wait for the President-elect to decide on assumption of office?   

Demise of the Chief Imam of Abuja:
This column condoles with the Muslim community of Nigeria over the passing on of the Chief Imam of the Abuja National Mosque Ustaz Musa Muhammad, which sad event occurred on Saturday May 2, 2015. Ustaz Musa who died at the National Hospital in Abuja was aged 68. His annual Ramadan tafsir (commentary of the Qur’an) at the Abuja National Mosque is one event the Muslim community will miss most. May Allah (SWT) grant him eternal forgiveness and mercy, amin.