EDITORIAL : THE NIGERIAN TRIBUNE, NIGERIA

YUGUDA’S 1,000 EMPLOYEES

AS the witch hovel symbolise the approach of spring, so also does the month of May, at the global level, remain the harbinger of joy and high expectations for workers. For Bauchi State political office holders, however, the approach of the month of May comes with exasperation and excruciating palpitation. This is the month, when the state governor, Mallam Isa Yuguda, loves to give the “May Day” so to say, gift, in form of loss of appointments to his unwieldy population of political office holders.

IN May 2009, exactly nine hundred and eleven (911) political appointees were swept away by Yuguda’s in-house “tsunami”. This action, which instantly attracted the sarcarstic sobriquet of “Yuguda 911”, was upped again in May this year when over one thousand political office holders were booted out by the governor.

THE release stated that “determined to inject new blood into his new administration for the next four years, the governor, Mallam Isa Yuguda has approved the disengagement of all political office holders and other appointees numbering over one thousand employees.”

THAT a state governor who has always complained of a meagre monthly allocation,  could keep over one thousand political officers in his employment portfolio, definitely shows an unfortunate and high level of official profligacy, which has become the sordid trademark of democratic governance in Nigeria.

IT is very important to ask about the quantifiable contributions of these political appointees to the productive sector of the state? If there is anything, they must have constituted themselves as socio-economic leakages to the state and, therefore, represent economic liabilities to Bauchi State. This kind of attitudinal approach to governance, more often than not, confirms the widespread impression that the country’s leaders’ extravagance and graft in governance were part of the reasons behind the failure of successive administrations in all the three tiers of governments in Nigeria, which in effect, shows the shameful vegetation of the country in both socio-economic and technological spheres.

THE administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, we strongly believe, will terminate this ignoble state of non-performance and indiscipline. As is the tradition, the political class has been running from pillar to post, not on how President Jonathan can bring succour to the teeming and hungry Nigerians or on how he would fulfil his election promises, but their sole energy is dissipated on allocating the political “dividends” in form of ministerial, ambassadorial and board appointments.

DESPITE the Presidential Advisory Council (PAC)’s concern over the increasing high cost of governance in Nigeria, and the attendant advice to the president to reduce same drastically, the politicians still see electioneering battle and victory as war, where positions are booties of war, only to be shared with reckless abandon. This is what Jonathan must resist with vehemence.
WHILE acknowledging the right of the leaders of he ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to be briefed on the composition of the Jonathan’s cabinet, we strongly believe that this should never be at the expense of merit and competence. The president should realise that his countrywide acceptance, which cuts across party boundaries is a clear attestation on the wholesale acceptance of his electioneering agenda by the electorate.

A burgeoning cabinet, as the outgoing one, is patently antithetical to financial discipline. Nigeria with 42 ministers and multitude of special advisers, compared with United States of America’s (from where the country copied our presidential system of government) having only 15 secretaries (ministers), makes it a laughing stock in the comity of nations.

IN Great Britain for instance, only the prime minister and the governor of central bank (Exchequer) are allocated official cars. In fact, in the United States of America, the president uses the Airforce plane. Here in Nigeria, the Senate President and his counterpart in the House of Representatives have to themselves an official jet each.

PRESIDENT Jonathan, must always realise that he already had a covenant with Nigerians and cannot afford to fail them. He should be able to take bold decisions on those to work with him, without capitulating to party pressure or parochial considerations. In keeping faith with the spirit of the federal character principle and the provision in Section 147(3) of the constitution, Jonathan must make strenuous search for competent hands in both Nigeria and in diaspora.

IT is saying the obvious that Nigerians have suffered hopelessly in the hands of mindless and acutely clueless leaders and are therefore looking for socio-political and economic liberation with their votes in the just concluded election.

WE believe that a situation where a significant quantum of the nation’s resources is expended on the maintenance of public office holders only to reserve a meagre proportion for the larger population and infrastructural development is not only hypocritical but also not in conformity with the practice of true democracy.

WE need to remind the president that the quality of his ministers and other members of his team will be a visible barometer with which Nigerians and the rest of the world will predict and judge the success or otherwise of his government. We hope as others, that he cannot afford to disappoint Nigerians as expectations are really high.