Professor Hassan Salisu of the department of Political science, University of Ilorin, speaks with IMOLEAYO OYEDEYI on the major political pitfalls of the outgoing administration that the incoming Bola Tinubu’s presidency must avoid.
President Muhammadu Buhari will be leaving office tomorrow, but if you were to compare what he promised Nigerians in 2015 and what he has delivered in the last eight years, what will be your verdict?
Well, the Buhari administration has been a huge disappointment. There were a lot of expectations when his government was coming in. But unfortunately, it won’t be easy to pin the government down to any sustainable achievement. If you look at the economy, it is nothing to write home about. The inflationary has been very high. The exchange rate has also been very porous. Worst still, the unemployment rate has remained very high. To make the matter worst, corruption has not been combated in any way as there have been bogus amounts of money thrown at individuals that are serving in the government. So one will say that perhaps, the government should have done better. And based on the record on the ground, it will be difficult for anyone to give the present government a mark. Except those who served in it. Any unbiased mind outside the government will not but lament how can a government that enjoys a tremendous amount of goodwill suddenly become what people don’t want to discuss. In fact, some people are praying that the government should just go so that a new government can come in. Come to think of it, how can a government that is going out of office in a few days start bringing up two or three initiatives for foreign relations? The question people will be asking is: what was the government doing all this while? Who will implement all the last-minute initiatives and awarding of contracts? What if they do not go in line with the programmes of the new government? Imagine a government, that has just two or three weeks left, borrowing money and applying for foreign loans. Let’s just simply say, goodbye to Buhari’s government. It has been a huge disappointment, no more, no less.
Talking about the incoming Tinubu presidency, you have just said he should first prioritised the unity of Nigerians, but what are other priorities he should emplace once he takes over power?
I won’t want to start with policy matters, but will rather talk about the basics. The first thing that President Tinubu needs to do is to carefully evaluate the Nigerian situation and reflect on the kind of country he has inherited from the Buhari government. The new president must realise that every step he takes will be suspicious, because of the terrible disunity in Nigeria accelerated and exacerbated by the Buhari government. Therefore, the first step he should take is to make efforts to reflect the diversities of Nigeria in his first sets of appointments. This is because whether Nigerians will accept him or not will be based on his first moves and actions immediately after he takes the oath of office. That is more reason he has to lay a good foundation so that even all those who don’t want him in power will later embrace his government once he is broad-minded in its appointments of critical office holders in the country. And as people have said, we have so many talents in Nigeria, let Tinubu go for capable hands and not just populate his cabinet with all these ex-governors, senators, ministers, and all, who have spent years in the corridor of power and have had no significant impact in the lives of common Nigerians. They have already eaten too much in Nigeria, so they will have nothing to contribute. But let him try fresh blood and not parade all these old faces that have been there since 1999. There are capable young Nigerians that can transform this country. So let him give them big chances in his government.
With this being said, we all know that during politicking, all manner of people are welcomed. But when it comes to governance, which is after winning an election, it is a different ball game, because it is very discriminatory as it doesn’t imbibe all kinds of people. What I am saying is that politicians work so hard during campaigns, therefore they deserve to be rewarded. But technocrats are also needed to raise the bar of governance and make the government so impactful. So it is better for a government to strike a balance between the ratio of technocrats to politicians that will be in his administration. So, I will advise that 30 percent of those that will form Tinubu’s cabinet should be politicians, while the rest 70 percent should be technocrats, based on the extant challenges in the country. Nigerians are now expecting that the new government should be able to correct the wrongs of its successor led by Buhari. And this is more reason why the new administration must shop for competent people. I believe we have outgrown that level where a president’s cabinets will be flooded by former governors, senators, and ministers with questionable public trust and credibility. Let all these former political officeholders go and rest, so that we can have fresh blood, who want to make a name and an impact. That is the only way I believe the new government can be successful. But if he parades all the old hands that have been around since 1999, what fresh ideas can he say that they have?
Someone like Babatunde Fashola once said that he has been around the corridor of power in Nigeria for over 20 years and deserves to rest, and I completely agree with him. Let’s give some other people a chance to make an impact. They will be fired up by the desire and urgency to have good impressions before Nigerians and make their impacts. But what can the ex-governors and all do again, because we have seen all that they are capable of delivering? That is why I suggest a ratio of 30:70 in terms of the percentage of technocrats and politicians that must be in the next president’s cabinet. Politicians always look at the circumstances of the next election, while technocrats always look at the circumstances of the next generation. You can see that there is a huge difference between the two of them.
Just like I have said before, there is a huge disconnect between the government and the power and this gap is widening every day. The outgoing President Buhari has contributed significantly to this huge disconnect. So the first step of Tinubu’s presidency is to bridge the gap by taking the government back to the Nigerian people. He must be fair in his appointments and be mindful of Nigerians’ sensibilities when addressing them. His pressmen must be mindful of the language they use in addressing Nigerians on any issue because the state of disunity in Nigeria is terrible now. So we don’t want anything that will worsen the situation but rather salvage it. The new president mustn’t say, because certain regions or people didn’t vote for him, he will not be fair to them in his appointments. He doesn’t have to do this. Instead, he has to be a father to all Nigerians.
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