Much Ado About Cabinet Reshuffles

Much Ado About Cabinet Reshuffles – The season of Insanity All Over Again as Nigeria Clocks 48

Bunmi Awoyemi, Ph.D

One of the definitions of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Unlike most nations on planet earth, in Nigeria the more things change the more they stay the same. We have tried different systems of government from military dictatorship to parliamentary system, to unitary system, to presidential system of government and the Federal structure of government that we pretend to practice. We often think that the bane of our problems as a nation is the system of government that we adopt rather than the substance of the government and the role actors in the particular system we adopt at any particular point in time.

It is quite unfortunate that the Nigerian print and electronic media are awash again with stories of an impending cabinet reshuffle by the Yar Ardua Administration as if such a cabinet reshuffle would usher in a sudden transformation in Nigeria's infrastructural, structural and institutional decay. As if it can pull our dear nation out of the Abyss of despair.

Since independence the nation must have had more than 30 federal cabinet reshuffles under several administrations, military and civilian with the attendant but hollow promise of a better tomorrow. But instead of yielding positive dividends for the Nigerian people, it led to the shuffling of their quality of lives and standard of living. It led to people being shuffled from prosperity to poverty, from hope to despair, from optimism to pessimism, from eager anticipation to tortured anguish.

The number of times the military toppled civilian and other military administrations they always came up with one excuse or the other about the toppled administration being mired in deep corruption. When the civilians take the reins of power from the military as they did in 1979 and 1999 they also promised to tackle the legacy of corruption left by the military. When the military took over as they did in 1966, 1976, 1983, 1985, 1993 and 1998 there was optimism that each successive administration would tackle the endemic problem of corruption in the country. The enormity of corruption in the recent democratic dispensation led to the creation of the EFCC and ICPC and their case load have been very heavy because of the widespread nature of corrupt practices in the highest levels of government from Federal to State and to Local Government.

But instead of significant decline in corruption what Nigerians have gotten is an increase in the tempo of corruption and a quantum leap from administration to administration in the scale or magnitude of the corrupt practices. Many civilian governors from the 1970s to the present have perfected the art of not only political corruption which entails massive rigging of elections and intimidation of the electorate, but have also helped themselves to the treasuries of their various states.

It is quite painful that the electorate does not understand that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. People go to their churches and mosques to pray for a better Nigeria while the Imams and Pastors preach about a better Nigeria despite the fact that we are doing the same thing over and over. We do all these while we entrust our Federal treasuries, State treasuries and Local Treasuries to professional treasury looters who have perfected the art of treasury looting. Can any amount of prayer prevent a professional looter from looting the treasury when that is the reason for his seeking and getting public office? We pour water into a basket and expect it to hold water. Is this not a delusional nation? A nation that expects God to help it choose a messiah to save it when the power lies with its people?

It is totally clear that if we continue to stick with professional politicians who have no other career besides full time politics and who have parasitically relied on the nation's treasury to maintain their extravagant lifestyles, Nigeria is doomed forever as a nation that would eventually fragment into several banana Republics.

There is a need for a fundamental restructuring of the polity to ensure that professionals and technocrats are put in charge of governance irrespective of which part of the country they come from, bearing federal character requirements in mind and adhering to it where possible. Anything short of this would guarantee the status quo: continued decay of critical infrastructure such as roads, bridges, hospitals etc.

Nigeria should be run like a blue chip company with due process and corporate governance practices taking the center stage in the modus operandi of the governments at all levels.

The local governments and local development centers across the nation are well known to be centers where local treasury looters congregate to share the national monthly allocation cake from Abuja as well as illegal taxes collected by force from individuals and corporate bodies. The Nigerian constitution should be amended speedily to scrap this third tier of government that engages in a colossal waste of the nation's meager financial resources.

A constitutional provision should be included in the new constitution to make political and financial corruption engaged in by politicians punishable by death. In addition, a fundamental restructuring and reform of the security forces should be undertaken to ensure that the people who are supposed to be enforcing the nation's laws are not the ones breaking the same laws with impunity. But before such sweeping reforms are undertaken there is a need to ensure that the salaries and benefits of the members of these security forces is made to be as robust as that of our Federal legislators who are said to be the highest paid legislators in the world. The members of the security forces who risk life and limb to safeguard lives and properties deserve no less, especially in a nation like Nigeria where security of lives and properties has become a luxury of some sort.

A fool at forty is said to be a fool forever and at forty eight Nigeria appears to have become a fool in eight lifetimes. But can this state of foolishness be surmounted? Yes it can be reversed provided the electorate is ready to make change happen. The electorate must keep the fire burning under the feet of the current crop of political office holders and must ensure that the era of political God-Fatherism is put to an end. They must ensure that vote rigging is resisted with the last drop of their blood to ensure that those who eventually emerge from elections are the truly elected representatives of the people who are answerable to them and not any self-appointed political king-maker.

When the governed begin to take their destinies in their own hands we will begin to witness a rapid transformation of the Nigerian State.