One of the noblest deeds of Bola Tinubu as President till date is returning Bitrus Chinoko to office as the Director General of the Centre for Management Development (CMD), an agency in the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, refusing to succumb to primordial religious bias and virulent ethnic campaign. Chinoko, a minority Christian from Zuru Emirate of Kebbi State was due for a second and final term in April, but didn’t return to office until five months after, due to a sustained campaign of allegedly being anti-Fulani and anti-Muslim, launched by those who wanted his head and position which began during the Buhari era.
But uncharacteristically, Buhari would not yield to the pressure from his clan to eject the incumbent, which means the then-president saw value in Chinoko and deemed what he has done so far at the Centre, bigger than his emotional attachment to his Fulani stock. Aside from confirming his appointment as the substantive DG, Buhari kept faith with Chinoko for four years, between 2020 and 2024, even as those who wanted his scalp remained on rampage.
During his eight-year rule, Buhari was regularly lacerated with the blazing rod of race and religion, because his nepotism scale was always ridiculously lopsided. For every Chinoko, there were scores of appointments skewed to favour Fulani Muslim. One may argue that Buhari spared Chinoko from his traducers playing race and religion cards because CMD isn’t a revenue-spinner and can’t be clocked as a First Class agency, which is true in itself but Buhari could still have removed him and made his replacement all about “job for the boys”. But the apparently Fulani and Muslim-centric Nigerian leader decided to go with competence and merit. It wasn’t his usual way as president but deserves kudos for it. If I were Buhari as president, I would have constantly alluded to the Chinoko story and why I chose him and the merit he represents, above religious sentiment, in denying my marauding kinsmen. The Kebbi-born administrator would be a major face of my time in office as a testament to my commitment to excellence above ethnicity and religion. Not that such a move would have substantially altered the image of the Daura soldier as a Fulani champion and Muslim extremist, but the PR wouldn’t have been to waste, even if minuscule. At least his hailing hailers would have had a bragging right. But those who manage the image of leading public officials hardly consider optics and imagery. Everybody just wants to be on X, speaking XYZ Akpakomiza grammar.
The Muslim-Muslim presidency of Tinubu, in all fairness, has managed the country’s religious diversity with some balance so far, though it is dangerous to snooze with politicians. While Tinubu isn’t publicly Muslim-centric like his predecessor-in-office, I guess his whatever religious bias has gone largely unnoticed because most of his appointees from the South West who are Muslims are into relaxed Islamism like him, who do not really have to preach their Muslimness to their people back home, though this is not suggesting that South West is completely immune to religious fundamentalism of varying hues.
Within a Muslim-Muslim presidency, Chinoko and his kind, would not be expected to survive ambition onslaughts. In his Kebbi State where the official protocol list is fully Islamised, starting with the governor and the deputy being Muslim,as well as the Chief Judge, SSG et al, he has no fighting chance. Add this to the fact that his supervising minister, Atiku Bagudu, who incidentally was governor of Chinoko’s Kebbi State between 2015 and 2023, is a Fulani royalty, frontrow member of the Northern ruling oligarchy, an establishment man through and through and someone who will always want to demonstrate his loyalty to his faith. But somehow Chinoko survived, helped by men who should bury, at least for now, his assignment to his fatherland. After what appeared like an eternity and Chinoko considered in many quarters a goner, God moved the Fulani Muslim Minister to recommend him for a second term and a Muslim-Muslim Presidency approved. Wonderful God.
I took a dedicated interest in this matter for several reasons. One, CMD was fashioned to be Nigeria’s planning power-house, but was literally in the grave for decades, especially after Chinoko’s predecessor-in-office, Dr. Kabir Umar, an aide and side-kick of former Minister of Planning, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, took it to ground zero. Two, Nigeria would need dedicated planning to at least be on its feet again, even if not flying, running or walking. The country can’t survive being a cripple for much longer, which means the Centre cannot and should not be allowed to go back to the “dogs” and buccaneers. Three I have a little insight into what an average minority Northern Christian, especially in the Fulani-dominated core-North, contends with to remain relevant in the public sector, state and federal. Four, the minister who would determine Chinoko’s fate, after the expiration of his first term has an unflattering reputation when it comes to other faiths. There was this unconfirmed report that at a point in time Christians in Kebbi had no land officially ceded to bury their dead. But they now do, confirmed.
I particularly monitored the matter because I suspected that the usual treatment of minority Christians from the North by Northern Muslim aristocrats as no-class citizens would likely play out. It is an age-long oppressive cohabitation that appears to have no expiry date, except God decides to repeat the miracles that set the Israelites free from their Egyptian oppressors after a record 430-year bondage. In fact, it was pure miracle Chinoko returned to office, after literally being in limbo for five months and God who can use anyone or anything to achieve His aim, used a Fulani Muslim to recommend and a Yoruba Muslim to approve. God is truly wonderful. Why this matter is truly remarkable is that Bagudu as Kebbi governor wasn’t exactly a paragon of religious tolerance. Does the minister remember now-late Justice Esther Asabe Karatu, then-acting Chief Judge of Kebbi, who he practically hounded to her grave after denying her substantive appointment for being a Christian? Not even the National Judicial Council {NJC} which always favours seniority in the appointment of state Chief Judges, could save her despite Karatu being the most senior judicial officer in Kebbi then.
It was so bad she was stopped from swearing in Bagudu for his second term, despite being the acting CJ. To crown the absurdities, she was actually stopped from being the substantive CJ after the Kebbi House of Assembly had cleared her and recommended her to the appointing authority who was the governor. Even a troubleshooting expedition by NJC to Kebbi failed to save Karatu, Her petition to the Council yielded no results. The Zuru-born jurist had to retire with a heavy heart. She never recovered from the saga. When she passed, Bagudu as governor, in company with his SSG Alhaji Babale Umar Yauri still visited the residence of the deceased at Gesse One Birnin Kebbi to condole with her children and relations urging them to take solace in God. All these were just five years ago.
But God seems to have resolved that affliction would not rise the second time for Zuru emirate. He made Chinoko’s case not to go the Karatu way and the delay was not denial. I am not in the choir of President Tinubu but won’t fail to note when he does right by the public and its different segments. In this Chinoko matter, he is the human MVP. And who returns to office in Nigeria after a five-month hiatus and the staff would celebrate with child-like joy, hosting emergency parryes {as Yankees would call parties} in Abuja and Lagos as seen on the social media platforms of the Centre? But I have a word for the man of the moment, After the celebrations of his miraculous return to office, the real work must be far better than the first term. He should know his enemies won’t go to sleep and like the devil, the real enemy of man, they would prowl, looking for the DG to devour. He can’t slack. It is now a case of you snooze, you lose. I won’t tell him his challenges in public service would suddenly disappear with his triumphant return, but as long as he is willing to do the national duty as unto God and not unto man, he will always win, no matter what. Public office sha!
