Nigeria is a cheap country; so cheap that the only thing to do to become a celebrity is to write an “Open Letter To The President”. Even those who are already famous or well-known would need it to further climb the stardom ladder. The letter does not have to be anything extra ordinary. The writer would merely have to rehash arguments that are already in public domain, even plagiarize and then go to the social media and shout “Open Letter To The President!”. It would not even matter to the writers whether or not their letters get to the intended recipient or, if they do, get acknowledged.

Former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, who popularized this “Open Letter” syndrome in the country, himself expressed his frustrations when, in the preamble to one of his “open letters” to President Goodluck Jonathan in 2013, regretted that “… none of the four or more letters I have written to you in the past two years or so has elicited an acknowledgement or any response…” Chief Obasanjo had resorted to “open” letter writing ostensibly as a means of drawing the attention of those who came after him that they were not doing the right things. In the six years Dr. Goodluck Jonathan was president, Chief Obasanjo wrote him at least five (open) letters.

In the 2013 letter in particular, the language was so strong, even seen as repugnant, that his own daughter, Iyabo, had to personally rebuke her father via another “open letter”. A peep into Iyabo’s letter to her father would be quite revealing: “It brings me no joy to have to write this but since you started this trend of open letters… I have been reluctant to tell the truth about you as it seems you still delude yourself about the kind of person you are and I think for posterity sake, it is time to set the records straight … Like most Nigerians, I believe there are very enormous issues currently plaguing the country but I was sure surprised that you will be the one to publish such a treatise … I don’t blame you for the many atrocities you have been able to get away with, Nigerians were your enablers every step of the way… you and your cronies mentioned in your letter have left the country worse than you met it at your birth in the 1930s and 1940s. Nigeria is not the creation of any of you and although you feel you own it and are “Mr Nigeria”, deciding whether the country stays together or not and who rules it, you don’t …”, Mrs Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello wrote.

Such was the type of diatribe from a daughter to her illustrious father via an “Open Letter”. Thus, when in 2018 President Obasanjo did another open letter to Jonathan’s successor, Muhammadu Buhari, copies of Iyabo’s 2013 letter to her father suddenly surfaced in both the social media and in bound hard copies on the streets, apparently the handiwork of supporters of the Buhari administration. In the letter, Obasanjo accused the Buhari administration of incompetence, nepotism, corruption and advised the president not to seek re-election in 2019. Apparently, those who re-circulated Iyabo’s letter had wanted to demonstrate that Obasanjo no longer had the moral justification to pontificate over issues bordering on the competence or integrity of those who came after him, going by his daughter’s disclosures about him earlier in 2013.

But surprisingly, Iyabo came strong in defense of her father, urging President Buhari to heed his counsel. She escribed her father as “one of the most brilliant leaders to ever emerge in modern Africa”. She accused the government of re-circulating her scathing letter to her father and advised President Buhari to heed the call not to present himself for re-election in 2019.

At the end, however, Buhari not only presented himself for re-election in 2019 but also won the election and proceeded to serve another term of four years. The question then is, of what use did Obasanjo’s “open” letter that elicited such condescending comments from her own daughter serve both the writer and the country as a whole? Nothing. Just nothing. Even though President Jonathan was not as lucky – he didn’t make it at his re-election bid in 2015 – that couldn’t have been precisely as a result of Obasanjo’s negative prognosis via his letter. Pundits argued that Jonathan would have lost, anyway, for reasons that had nothing to do with Obasanjo’s letter. In other words, they argued that the reasons Jonathan lost at the 2015 presidential election were so open that there was no longer anything “open” about Obasanjo’s letter.

Conversely, Buhari won in 2019, despite Obasanjo’s counsel, via another “open letter”, that he should not run; thus, further making the latter’s penchant for “open letters” cheap and uncalled for. Despite this demystification of “open letters” to sitting presidents, a few ego-seeking Nigerians still resort to it. The latest “open letter…” writer is Chief Dele Momodu, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Recently, Momodu trended with his “OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT TINUBU”. Momodu, a well-known columnist, publisher and politician, however introduced a new vista into the OPEN LETTER scourge by claiming that only him, Momodu, has the capability of telling the President Tinubu the “TRUTH” about what is happening in the country. Not done, Momodu asserted that “I am also hoping that some of your friends will read and INTERPRET to you…” Haba! Have things become that bad for our country?

Even though Momodu’s critics have chided him for delving into economic matters when he majored in Yoruba studies in his undergraduate programme and went ahead to pursue a vocation in publishing a “Miliki” magazine, my take is that it is not uncommon for people with such a background to develop flair for matters of economics and economy. What I find strange is that a fellow with such a trajectory would presume that an Ahmed Bola Tinubu, a professional Accountant who worked in multinational corporate organizations, would need an interpreter to understand a Dele Momodu’s drift on political economy.

My first encounter with Chief Momodu was in 2012 following an article he did on the then governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Lamido Sanusi, who was encountering some difficulties in pushing down some of his reforms in the banking sector and had, in fact, fallen out of favour with his boss, President Goodluck Jonathan. In the article, entitled “THE BULLY CALLED SANUSI”, Momodu made a blanket condemnation of Sanusi’s reforms and even linked it to the latter’s rumoured presidential ambition. He even went beyond Sanusi and painted a very hopeless picture of Nigeria, employing hyperboles that depicted more of a fairy cast than verifiable facts. I did a rejoinder to that article and in which, among other things, I disagreed with him on his blanket condemnation of Sanusi’s reforms because as far as I was concerned, some of them were headed in the right direction.

Among other things, I wrote: “Momodu lived up to his bidding namely, to use his column to lambast one notable Nigerian or the other. And when he was not doing that, Momodu, a former presidential candidate, was boring Nigerians with his trite rehash of their collective history. In the article under reference, he combined what he knows best: to weave together hyperboles in painting a picture of an immitigable hopeless”.

Dele Momodu fired back via his THISDAY Column of October 6, 2012 under the title, “TEACHER, DON’T TEACH ME NONSENSE”. Incidentally, he also used the column to respond to our late senior colleague, Pini Jason, who had similarly done a rejoinder – even unknown to me – to Momodu’s earlier article on Sanusi. May the soul of Pini Jason Onyegbadue, one of the finest newspaper columnists Nigeria had ever produced, continue to rest in peace but let me recall some of the passages in Momodu’s counter rejoinder.

He wrote: “I will ignore other writers and concentrate on these two, Pini Jason and Ethelbert Okere, because when you carry an elephant on your head, you should worry less about ants on the floor…” Turning to me in particular, Momodu wrote: “I could not get his full bio-data but a peep into his writings led to the discovery that he is notorious for writing all manner of junk in newspapers … Ethelbert clearly used his articles to disparage people who are not in the same political boat with him. His last port of call was the Imo State Government House where he worked as a media aide to former Governor Ikedi Ohakim. He did well as an attack dog such that he wrote an acerbic piece and rubbished the Owerri tribe of Imo state…” He continued: “Ethelbert’s hatchet man’s role extends to other states where he is hired to help men of power…” Bla! Bla Bla.

On the very day the article was published, I was at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja traveling back to Owerri when a fellow said to me, “Somebody finished you in THISDAY newspaper today”. That’s by the way but as a matter of fact, it was after my rejoinder that I stumbled on another one wherein the author claimed that Momodu was quarreling with Sanusi because the latter’s reforms had led to the sacking of two of his friends from top jobs in the banking system over fraud that amounted to about N191 billion!

This write-up is not necessarily a rejoinder to Momodu’s “open letter” to President Tinubu. It is basically intended to generally look at the habit of Nigerians claiming to have written an “OPEN” letter to a sitting president which I believe has to do more with ego-chasing than a genuine conveyance of a message that would be of help to both a sitting president and the country as a whole. As I noted at the beginning, the contents of such open letters are more often than not a mere repetition of views earlier rendered by others. To be sure, several Nigerians have made very useful suggestions through ordinary opinion articles in newspapers or posts in the ubiquitous social media platforms without tagging them “Open Letter…”. Give it to him, Chief Momodu is a popular writer whose articles are easily graspable. So, what made him believe that the president or those working with him would not have noticed his advice in an ordinary newspaper column?

To lift views expressed earlier by others and tag it “OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT TINUBU” is nothing but to seek attention. I hear that Momodu is among those who are complaining bitterly that they no longer have access to Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed with whom they had, as claimed, a bread and butter relationship before he became president. Instructively, Momodu laments in the preamble to his letter that “I am writing you today not because I expect you to act on my suggestions…” So, why write at all? As already disclosed, Dele Momodu’s counter rejoinder to mine to his 2012 article on Lamido Sanusi was entitled, “Teacher Don’t, Teach Me Nonsense”. Might I not, therefore, render an adaptation of it to similarly say to him “TEACHER, DON’T TEACH MY PRESIDENT NONSENSE”.

A poignant article in the Financial Times of London of 31st January 2022 asked the question, ‘’What is Nigeria’s government for?’’ as its headline. Written by David Pilling, the piece scornfully described the sheer absence of public services in the country and wondered how the citizens function in such a state. ‘’Almost all the energy, drive and wealth creation in Nigeria happens outside government…’’, Pilling writes, adding, rather wryly, ‘’Nigeria desperately needs an administration whose energies go not into preserving its own privilege, but into providing public goods – basic education and health, rule of law, security, power, roads and digital infrastructure’’.  

The reason our government has not been able to serve the citizens well is traceable to many factors, among which is failure of many of its reform programmes. The public service was once acclaimed for professionalism and notable accomplishments. However, performance disablers such as political intervention, career officials' consistent abdication of professional obligations, patronage, and cronyism continue to deplete its profile.

So, what happened? Why did our public service decline over the years and what can we do about it? The Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation in 2023 commissioned in-depth research to study the reasons for this decline and recommend solutions. The study examined past and present public sector reforms, identified impediments to their sustained success, and proposes recommendations that will contribute to improving public service reforms in the future. The research team was led by Prof. Jide Balogun of the Obafemi Awolowo University, who had also served as the Special Adviser in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs at the UN Headquarters. The interim report for the research study was unveiled at a workshop for public service reform stakeholders on Tuesday, July 30, 2024 in Abuja. The workshop's theme was “Why Many Reforms Fail in Nigeria and What We Can Do About It". It was a platform to solicit feedback and engage in constructive dialogue with stakeholders.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo; Minister of Finance, Olawale Edun; Minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu and Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani and Principal Private Secretary to the President, Hakeem Muri-Okunola were among dignitaries who attended and participated actively. Others were the outgoing Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Folashade Yemi Esan, who read a detailed keynote address and her successor, Mrs Didi Walson-Jack. There were many other senior civil servants from different parts of the country, including permanent secretaries and the Head of Service of Abia State, Dr. Mrs Ngozi Queen Obioma.

There was a team of focused contributors led by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo; Dr. Oby Ezekwesili; Justice Amina Augie and Bismark Rewane; and a panel of discussants comprising Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah; Dr. ‘Dere Awosika, Chairman, Josephine Consulting; Uyi Akpata, immediate past country Director for PWC Nigeria and Regional Senior Partner for the West Africa Market; retired Justice of the Supreme Court; Dr. Joe Abah, Country Director, Development Alternative; Dr. Magdalene Ajani, Permanent Secretary, Special Duties, OHCSF and Laoye Jaiyeola, former CEO of NESG. The discussions were brilliantly moderated by a broadcast journalist, Nabilah Usman.

 The day began with a welcome speech from the foundation’s chairman, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede. He said Chapter Two of our constitution mandates our governments to deliver a decent standard of living to the citizens. The UNDP Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standard of living. It is a standard means of measuring well-being. It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, developing, or underdeveloped country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. Countries fall into four broad categories based on their HDI: very high, high, medium, and low human development. Currently, Seychelles is the only African country that falls into the very high human development category, while Somalia has the lowest HDI in the world. For Nigeria, while HDI value has moved upward by 22% between 2003 and 2022, her human development remains low at 0.548 – placing the country in a low human development category. Nigeria’s ranking is currently 161 out of 189 countries.

Improved public services, he argued, lead to better outcomes for our people, communities, and economies. As such, his foundation works closely with government, private sector, academia, and development partners to transform public service delivery. Aig-Imoukhuede then listed the achievements of his foundation in partnering with the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) to include skilling up public sector leaders with knowledge; tools and tools to drive and sustain reforms. Technology has been a cornerstone of the strategy in transforming public service delivery and the foundation has provided technical support and funding for the digitalisation efforts of the Federal Civil Service. The foundation expects that within the next 20 years, Nigeria will regain its post-independence reputation for having one of the strongest public services in Africa.

 With the foundation’s support, the OHCSF has digitized thousands of files, automated over 300 processes and acquired hundreds of new digital devices. In addition, in collaboration with Microsoft Philanthropies, it is upskilling thousands of workers in the civil service. A key area of the foundation’s support to the civil service is the culture change programme. ‘’To change the mind set of this key constituency we provide communication training, culture change campaign videos, and ongoing assistance for the publication of the official e-Newsletter’’, he emphasized, noting that the foundation has also helped to develop the Civil Service Culture Handbook that outlines the values, behaviours and practices that are essential for delivering the Constitutional mandate enunciated in Chapter Two.

Dr. Folashade Esan’s keynote address that followed was essentially a detailed overview of the reforms that she’s carried out since 2019. She also acknowledged the foundation’s support and its commitment to Africa’s transformation. Important elements of her reforms include partnership with the private sector; decentralization of the reforms to the MDAs; training of reform officers and constant monitoring and evaluation; effective communication amongst various cadres of stakeholders and implementation of meritocracy as the core drivers of the reform process. She identified the key impediments to successful reforms as lack of skills; poor funding; low involvement of citizens; policy flipflops; lack of political will; resistance to change; of legislation; lack of institutional capacity; lack of governance framework and absence of shared vision, while enablers that conduce to reform process are: Culture change; change management; partnerships with key stakeholders; IT; political support; meritocracy and good reward system.

It was now time for former President Obasanjo, who has been listening quietly, to speak. The spritely octogenarian identified five principal elements of reform as The Initiator; The Driver; The Owner; The Executor and the Sustainer. He stressed the need for continued training of participants in the reform process, and noted that reform must be continuous, accepted, spread and firmed up. He drew on his experiences as a military head of state and a democratically elected president and kept the audience spellbound with his extemporaneous presentation.

Then came the highpoint of the workshop which was the presentation of the research findings by Prof. Balogun. Data was obtained from 593 political functionaries and career officials as well as 1,020 civic actors, service recipients, private sector organisations, and citizens across the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria. The research noted that the disablers of performance frequently mentioned by MDA respondents are bribery and corruption (including embezzlement), indiscipline, nepotism, lack of incentives, reporting and accountability lapses, and over-centralisation. Personnel policy and practices top the list of issues that the respondents from both the state and the non-state clusters believe that future reforms should address. State actors feel that overbearing influence of politics and the lack of political will are critical factors inhibiting major reforms in Nigeria. By the interaction of non-state actors with MDAs, they do not feel that civil servants understand their mandates effectively. They also overwhelmingly feel that policy review and formulation is not evidence based or backed by any empirical data. A high percentage of non-state actors feel that they do not have enough room to contribute to policy formulation and implementation as the government makes minimal effort to involve them in the process. Except for the political officeholders who think otherwise, career officials generally feel that the government and the public service need to make more effort to involve civil society in policy formulation. Non-state actors also believe that communication and public service evaluation channels between MDAs and the public are inadequate and ineffective. They also rated the public sector officials low in integrity, professionalism, competence, and accountability/transparency.

 Extensive literature search and the field survey carried out in all the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria underscore the necessity for a sequential but holistic approach to reform. Specifically, before proceeding full speed with the reform of a public service as complex as that of Nigeria, it is essential to pay attention to the underlying conditions which refers to the ‘soft’ environment in its daily interactions with its ‘hard’ counterpart. Public sector leaders must boldly confront challenges such as corruption, nepotism, indiscipline, poor attitude to work, laxity, indifference, declining morale and dwindling esprit de corps. These and other performance disablers must first be boldly confronted the benefits of structural reforms are achieved. Additionally, the average citizen or service beneficiary, who has up to this time been a passive recipient of subpar services, should be actively involved in the policy process. They should also be empowered to evaluate the range, quantity, quality and timeliness of services offered by the MDAs.

Some recommendations: First and most importantly, public service reform must no longer be viewed as the sole responsibility of the career public service. Instead, it must be integrated into the daily activities of political parties and civic groups. It must also be incorporated into the manifestos of the political parties and their flagbearers. Reforms must not be reactive or based solely on the desires or expertise of the current leadership or administration. A diverse group of stakeholders must be consulted to ensure a comprehensive review and reform of various sectors of the economy. This process must consider the risks and potential effects of the reform efforts as well as necessary mitigating steps to be taken. Annual Governance Summit should be established to promptly address and decisively eliminate customs and practices that have justified bad behaviour and hindered the public service’s optimal performance. These practices include special appointments through reserved employment slots and all forms of nepotism. To eliminate the need to seek redress in formal courts (and render ethno-religious advocates redundant), the federal government should establish, and where necessary strengthen, the public service’s internal grievance handling mechanisms. These mechanisms must be capable of competently examining and adjudicating a wide-ranging case, including those related to recruitment, promotion, discipline, and other personnel-issues.

Dr. Oby Ezekwisili and Justice Amina Augie spoke on their experiences in confronting challenges and resistance to change and how they confronted them. Ezekwisili affirmed that the quality of our politics has overwhelming influence on the quality of the public service and how well they serve the public. Bismack Rewane drew a correlation between the level of investments in infrastructure and quality of reforms in the public service, pointing out that there were huge investments in infrastructure and assets from Independence till the 1980s when the reforms in the public service were top notch and dwindling investments in infrastructures in the 1990s till date when reforms have been parlous. Bishop Kukah, on his part, noted that religion does not matter in national development, rather, it is the quality of leadership and governance that build nations. The question-and-answer session was lively, insightful and enriching. The day ended with a vote of thanks given by Mrs Ofovwe Aig-Imokhuede, the executive chairman of the foundation.

In conclusion, the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation believes that one of the causes of poor governance over the past several decades is that Nigerians have not taken ownership of government and what governance should deliver to the people. The Constitutional responsibility of government in Chapter Two would be realized when the private sector, civil society and citizens create a political economy where politics does not trump governance. Having sensitized Nigerians to this, there is high expectations for the next step.

I have noticed some deliberate and well-orchestrated efforts by some persons to blackmail me into conforming to some of their nefarious agendas. Their dubious moves have led to the false circulation of a video from my recent keynote speech at the installation of Rotarian Professor A. U. Nnonyelu in Anambra State. They have twisted the video to suit their motive to suggest that I declared war on Northerners when, in fact, I spoke about declaring war on economic stagnation, insecurity, and corruption.

Another video circulating online, supposedly showing me leading a protest in Abuja, is also false. The video was actually taken during my visit to the Labour Party HQ, where I mediated a clash between the Labour Party and the NLC.

The video was conveniently edited to create a false narrative, and those responsible have been paid to spread this misinformation. This kind of misinformation has no place in our democracy, where truth and honesty should prevail.

This misrepresentation is part of a larger narrative of blackmail, aimed at fitting me into their malicious agenda. I remain committed to a new Nigeria where justice, equity, and caring for the citizens will prevail over the greed of a few.

Similarly, and deeply disturbing, I have read genocidal threats on X against the Igbo tribe, calling for their relocation. Let me pointedly warn that such rhetoric threatens our unity and is fundamentally opposed to our Constitution, which guarantees every Nigerian the right to live and work freely anywhere in the country. Those in authority must show leadership and urgently speak out against such divisive rhetoric.

Immediate action should be taken to investigate, arrest, and prosecute those behind this heinous agenda, serving as a deterrent to others who might consider pursuing similar paths that threaten our national security and unity.

I urge all Nigerians to stand united against this divisive rhetoric and to champion unity, tolerance, and understanding. Our future depends on our ability to live and work together harmoniously.

The government and security agencies must act swiftly to protect this fundamental principle and ensure that every Nigerian can live free from fear of discrimination or persecution. We must not allow our present challenges to drive wedges among us.

We can only overcome our national challenges if we act together as one people United under God.

#PeterObi 

The Chairman, the Federal Civil Service Commission ( FCSC), Prof. Tunji Olaopa, has listed ways HR practice can be viable in the Fourth and Fifth Industrial Revolutions.

The former permanent secretary spoke on Wednesday as the chairman of the investiture of Mal. Ahmed Ladan Gobir, FCIPM, as the President and Chairman of Governing Council of CIPM, in Lagos.

The seasoned bureaucrat who spoke on the topic "IPM and the Unfinished Business of Reform in the Public Service" disclosed that his significant relationship with CIPM spanned many years.

According to him, CIPM is one organization he counts as a partner in the struggle for transforming the public service system in Nigeria.

"This is why I am more than delighted to be witnessing, and chairing, this investiture of the new President and Chairman of the CIPM Governing Council. CIPM is strategic as the key umbrella body—the community of practice—for administering HR practice in Nigeria. Since its founding in 1968, it has consistently continued to push the frontiers and boundaries of the HR profession as well as being in the vanguard of HR management praxis in ways that have consolidated the status of its members, and its own status as a global organizational brand", he said.

He was hopeful that as a distinguished Nigerian, a formidable HR thought leader, astute corporate lawyer and a management professional par excellence, Gobir's work was already clear to him " within the challenges that CIPM might be currently facing, and how the organization could be positioned as a significant stakeholder in the overall task of institutional reform in Nigeria."

Lauding preceding presidents, and especially the administrative and visionary efforts of Mr. Olusegun Mojeed, the immediate past president of CIPM, for a most remarkable tenure filled with spirited strides, innovations and commendable achievements and legacies, Olaopa said that no avid watcher of Nigeria’s public administration, and CIPM’s role, could be in any doubt as to the depth of clarity amongst CIPM’s thought-leaders regarding what was the next level for CIPM, especially at this momentous time in the profession’s annals, " a time when the world of work is witnessing profound rethinking and reformulation to institutionalise the post-Covid new normal, and, at that, as we navigate the unfolding Fourth and Fifth Industrial Revolutions."

According to Olaopa, one issue that is integral to HR rethinking and the vision of the future across all sectors of the Nigerian economy is the fact that at no time has the people factor in organisations and human capital been so core critical to development prospecting and national productivity.

Drawing lessons from comparable experiences around the globe on how nations have transformed from abject poverty to increased national income growth, and technological cum institutional advancement, Olaopa observed that all high-performing economies without exception, gave greater prominence to knowledge, human capital and governance.

"In raising the quality of governance, we came to the conclusion that the rate of progress that Nigeria will achieve will depend in part upon the degree to which political power is matched with policy and managerial intelligence.

"This is consistent with HE President BA Tinubu’s aspiration to emplace a government of national competence. In all of this, it was clear to us that public administration, leadership sophistication, competent national change management strategy and reprofiled national value system, will be critical success factors at play to unlock the binding constraints that have constrained successful translation of the many transitions of the past and the present to sustainable national structural transformation and development", he said.

Olaopa highlighted "some issues of concern that require our joint spirited intellectual and practical interrogation first by the public administration community of practice with CIPM filling in for the core professions elements".

He listed these as the recognition that while HR function should be professionalised, HRM is no longer the exclusive responsibility of HR departments, as line managers also need significant people management skills for overall systems’ effectiveness.

He said: "HR function must necessarily transition from a preoccupation with passive role of administering on the bases of rules, regulations, and procedures, to developing and pursuing policies in manner that extract performance results and productivity bargain from people and processes. HR innovations are required to restore government as preferred employer of labour, which will demand significant systems changes so the public sector can attract and retain top talents in an increasingly competitive labour market.

"The public service must raise its game as it anticipates and manages the fresh new orientation of that the Millennial and Gen Z generations of managers for example to the workplace, especially their preference for workplace flexibility and flexi-working so they can pursue other rewarding interests.

" The public sector also needs to raise its game so it can optimise PPPs contracts at its higher maturity curve and levels, which demands that it builds advanced acumen in public officials in commercial skills, knowledge of international business practices and labour laws, multicultural sensitivities and multiple language, to name just a few.

"It should also recognise that the transition from being primarily administrative expert to being change agents and strategic partners has automatically relocated the HR function from the back office that it still occupies to the front office.

"While the extent to which artificial intelligence, robotics, etc. are transforming the way we do things is growingly becoming clear to thought leaders, what is uncertain is how well we can cope with the speed of change and how to convert the uncertainties it creates into real opportunities."

He continued: "The public sector in building on past reform gains and current commendable initiatives, must recognise that the Weberian ‘I am directed’ managerial model and tradition that was developed for the use of paper-based, top-down pyramidal structured control and procedure-oriented organisations with segmented way of delivering services requires a whole paradigm rethinking so the much bandied performance-based systems can take shape.

"The new performance-managed HR model will however necessarily be customer-centric with HR partnering with line managers to refocus HRM from just efficiency concerns and due process compliance to effectiveness within framework of a new productivity culture.

"Besides, HR managers as change leaders in the public sector requires deepening of HR skills with respect to their role in risk management. In so doing, they will not just support MDAs reforms, they will become the sponsors of change while at once driving the change.

"This suggests the need to deepen action research as a component of management cum operation research and organisation development (OD), to enable HR institute a learning culture through challenging of the status quo as champions of cultural transformations directed at translating desirable culture and public service values into public managers behaviour.

"The known public service employment policy emphasis on job security and guaranteed lifetime career then calls for rethinking, to create a distinction between career-based and position-based employment system. Central personnel governance will also need reprofiling to align the three defining trends namely, deepening of current practice of delegating HR powers to line managers, simplifying of rules, procedures and guidelines that underpin the shared powers and responsibilities.

"Ditto with centralised industrial relations governance and collective bargaining in the context of fiscal federalism, which tends to create unsustainable and intractable downstream problems that increasingly disempower the discretion that employers reserve to negotiate at operational levels, a dimension that requires deep-seated reform.The current practice of staff performance appraisal in the public service which creates the as yet resolved confusion about what is being assessed and rewarded, between results, competences, behaviour, knowledge or staff potential with associated problem of subjectivity, in a measure that focuses appraisal as means rather than the ends of performance assessment, is also core critical."

The moment it was announced that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was going to enlist the collaboration of the Supreme Court in seeking financial autonomy for the 774 local governments, I knew it was game over. What we know of the relationship between the Nigerian judiciary and President Tinubu is of the dimension that if he requested the court to jump, the response would be how high. 

My experience (of fulfilling all righteousness in seeking judicial redress of the INEC subversion of the last Presidential election) is quite baffling in an important respect. The Judges, all the way to the Supreme Court, were not just overtly biased against the complainants, they were outrightly malicious as evident in such verbal assaults as ‘how dare you bring this unworthy evidence and witness..”.

In a conspiratorial demonstration of guilt conscience, the Chairman of the Appeal Court Tribunal actually acknowledged as such in his closing remarks. He winked at the lawyers caught on the wrong foot of the judgement that there is enough room for compensation in the post election season. The Supreme Court panel fared worse. 

The status of the Nigerian Judiciary today is that the greatest weapon any appellant can get in winning cases at the Supreme Court is the nod of the Nigerian President. Talk of the prevalent phenomenon of ‘state capture’. This typical subversive government behaviour is complemented by the short attention span and instant gratification syndrome of many Nigerians. The inability to reconcile short term, mid term and long term perspectives. This predisposition often renders many Nigerians easy prey to populist political predators. And so, the purveyors of a return to ‘True Federalism” excitedly became the choristers of Local Government autonomy. 

An averagely talented political strategist knows that the Nigerian State Governors are sitting ducks for the deflection of the boiling angst of Nigerians against the elected government. And so when Tinubu, in desperate need of a respite, threw a shrouded poisonous feed into the fish pond, unguarded Nigerians swooped on the poison as if their lives depended on it. 

Totally consumed with venom at the targeted despised state governors, they hollered that a totally disreputable INEC should usurp the role of the state electoral commission in the conduct of elections into the local governments, the constitution be damned. As Saint Bernard is quoted to have said, “the road to hell is often paved with good intentions”. They are the kind of compelling temptations that are brandished by Satan to lure unsuspecting victims to his kingdom. As in a Yoruba repartee, enu okere, ni okere fi npe olode (the squirrel is given to summoning the attention of the hunter with its uncontrolled heckling).

In a recent commentary on Nigeria, the Financial Times of London noted ‘It does not help either that the state is implicated in the wholesale theft of oil, depriving the nation’s coffers of billions of dollars’. Yet as we speak, I do not know of a single Nigerian who has been held accountable for the worst scandal in the history of Nigeria. Not only has anyone been held accountable, the key figure at the centre of it all namely Mele Kyari has been commended for a job well done hence his reappointment as the Group Managing Director of the NNPC for another five years tenure. 

The Nigerian President had no qualms directing two hundred million Nigerians to seek atonement for the sins of people like Kyari and his accomplices have largely perpetrated. Where then is the logic in hounding former Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele if Kyari is held not to have committed any crime?

I have just read that the President has signed the N70000 minimum wage bill into law. The question arises, does this amount include housing and transportation allowance? Does it take into account the potential health bill, electricity bill and school fees?. If it does not, can we in good conscience, blame any of these victims were they to seek recourse to extra legal measures to make ends meet? Should we not worry at the mentality of a Nigerian President, who, in the thick of the existential challenges Nigeria confronts, chooses to prioritise an inexplicable fiddling with the National anthem?. 

General Muhammadu Buhari may be the worst President in the history of Nigeria but he is easily one of the most politically effective politicians to emerge from the Northern region. Have you wondered why a man once reputed as the avenging Angel of corruption turned out to have run the most corrupt government? 

No matter how false his anti-corruption reputation is, he must have come early to the realisation that Nigeria is a lost cause (as it stands today). Hence the need to make hay (for his people) whilst the sun is still shining. Given its free fall, there is hardly anyone in a position of authority today (including otherwise good people) who is not mentally and realistically predisposed towards personal exploitation of office. 

The quick learner that he is, his successor has comprehensively followed in his footsteps. You can rightly guess that the main intra Yoruba political argument today is between those who realistically believe that we should stand behind Tinubu and join the multitude to do the Buhari evil and those who do not. 

To quote the Financial Times once again, ‘Nigeria’s elite learnt a lesson that was toxic to the nation’s prospects: why produce anything when you can make a killing through arbitrage?’ What the London publication is telling us is that for Nigeria to endure and prosper there has to be the acculturation of the ethic of a positive correlation between productivity and reward. The prevailing Nigerian status quo ethos is nearly the exact opposite of this ethic.

In the liability for corruption and the damage it does to the country, many will find it difficult to believe that the civil servants often tower over political office holders. Both of them view any capital expenditure of the government from the standpoint of how they individually stand to benefit, how much capital projects are prone to corruption and personal enrichment. Moreso the former. 

Sundry projects have been sabotaged, stalled and killed the more impervious they are to graft. It was within the cesspool of this culture that the National Independent Power Project, NIPP of the President Olusegun Obasanjo government found its Waterloo. Obasanjo domiciled the execution of the project in an inter-agency task force not solely the Ministry of power. 

Nonetheless, the Ministry was charged with the provision of the blueprint of the logistics of delivery, especially the conveyance of the imported power turbines to the permanent sites. The turbines duly arrived on schedule only for the suppliers to discover that many of the access road bridges to the different destinations could not withstand the weight of the turbines. Hence they were stranded in Lagos for years. In prior full knowledge of this incapacity, the staffers of the Ministry of power simply looked the other way.

The theoretical and practical response to the menace of corruption is the dual instruments of incentives and deterrence measures. The deterrence consists of rigorously applied punitive measures for those apprehended of corrupt practices. But you do not need to look far to see the extraordinary failure of lawfully prescribed deterrence measures in Nigeria today. Just go and take another look at the record and reputation of the man who sits atop the Nigerian parliament as Senate president. 

At the moment of his election to the exalted office no one had a worse and active case of corruption culpability before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The dictionary meaning of incentive is “a thing that motivates or encourages someone to do something”. In contemporary Nigeria, is there any better incentive than leading by example and sharing empathy with the toiling masses whose miserable standard of living has been further degraded? Economic recession is not the problem of Nigeria. It is routine stuff for all societies and individuals to go through periodic crisis and challenges. So the prevailing economic crisis of Nigeria is nothing peculiar. 

What matters most at the end of the day is the willingness and ability of the leadership to grapple with the challenge, to mobilise the citizenry behind the effort of the government. When Ghanians saw the publication of a shirtless Jerry Rawlings driving a tractor to cultivate a farm, they were more than happy to line up behind their leader regardless of whether or not they were able to obtain three square meals a day. Whereas in Nigeria, four hundred and sixty parliamentarians were buying two hundred million naira worth of luxury SUVS for each one of them while their country was rated as the poverty capital of the world.

Let Dangote Be

“The Pipeline Infrastructure at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery is the largest anywhere in the world, with 1,100 kilometres to handle 3 Billion Standard Cubic Foot of gas per day. The Refinery alone has a 435MW Power Plant that is able to meet the total power requirement of Ibadan DisCo*.

“The Refinery will meet 100% of the Nigerian requirement of all refined products and also have a surplus of each of these products for export”. 

I do not dismiss nor trivialise the reservations about Dangote but they are inevitably exaggerated. Right now in Nigeria, he personifies, warts and all, the Peter Obi political vision of moving Nigeria from ‘consumption to production’. It is the reason I’m a fan of the Max Weber thesis of ‘the protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism’, especially the inference of attitudinal dedication to money-making and rational self control as sine qua non to capitalist development. 

Like many others, I was struck by the video clip of a home video practitioner, who, in a burst of prescience, accurately predicted the fate that lies ahead of the Dangote refinery, way back in 2015. The sum of it was that it was fated to become the victim of a devious Nigerian dysfunction. That no matter its conspicuous utility it stands to be sabotaged. We can begin to decode the prediction when we factor the vested interest of the oil import cabal with tentacles at the highest echelon of government. 

The likelihood is that a similar vested interest cabal is at the root of the perennial failure of Nigeria to meet ten percent of its electricity power requirement. Let us hope that the panacea recently proposed by the Nigerian President to solve the contrived obstruction against Dangote would be allowed to work. 

Within the past 431 days the breeze has blown in terms of governance across the 36 states of Nigeria and exposed the rump of state governors. Post-May 29, 2023, some of the first term state governors succeeded in hitting the ground running. Others had the uncomplimentary fortune of wriggling through political disputations either with their predecessors or burdening themselves with the excesses of their godfathers.

Although the media have helped Nigerians to guestimate and project the performance of some of these first term state chief executives, in Enugu State certain interesting patterns have emerged. This author had mounted an observatory to, not only monitor the lead up to the March 18, 2023 gubernatorial election, but also gauge the progress of governance in the state.

As one citizen who has kept close tab on the politics, governance and developmental goings on in Enugu State, I make bold to state that Governor Peter Mbah has kept faith with the deliverables in his manifesto and mandate. The lofty vision contained in Mbah’s manifesto aroused curiosity of cynics and pernicious critics, particularly his promise of leap-frogging the state’s economic threshold from $4billion to $30billion.

Apart from economic growth, the governor had set for himself another lofty baseline in the area of provision of critical infrastructure and social amenities, particularly supply of pipe borne water and construction of high quality access roads across the state.

This intervention was not intended to celebrate the achievements of the Enugu State governor, but to bring into national consciousness how far self-motivated sub-national leaders could go to remake governance trajectory in their domains.

Further, the decision to write this piece was propelled by Governor Mbah’s recent high water mark offerings in the areas of agricultural productivity and provision of much needed security of life and property to make life worth living for the people.

It should be registered as a remarkable feat. The determination of a state governor to embark on signposting measurable outcomes of his administration’s policy options. From what have been seen after the new administration took root in the Coal City State, it is apparent that Governor Mbah made his campaign manifesto a scheme of work or course outline. Against that background, he has been religiously implementing the components in a comprehensive manner to achieve set targets.

One recalls vividly how during a three-day executive leadership retreat for senior political appointees, in September 2023, Governor Mbah fired up his aides. He assured them that transforming Enugu State to a $30 billion economy in a space of eight years is doable if only they could believe in it and put themselves to achieving that.

Governor Mbah actually showed that he meant every bit of what he was saying. He also demonstrated his seriousness to properly equip his appointees to buy into the can-do spirit and positive energy he radiates around his vision and mission.

The caliber of resource persons arrayed for the retreat was a pointer to the governor’s determination to bring his private sector experience to bear on his mandate delivery.

With eggheads like the Acting Chief Economist of African Development Bank, Ibukun Awosika; Driver at Synthesia, Mr. Joseph Urama; Joe Abah; Linus Okorie and Sam Onyia, among others, nobody was left in doubt that Mbah, a former playmaker in the Downstream Oil and Gas industry, meant business.

Of course, the Secretary to Enugu State Government, Chidiebere Onyia, had explained that the retreat was programmed to enable the senior appointees of government “to digest the governor’s vision and map out strategies for achieving the targets across the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).”

Stressing the need for his disruptive action plan, Governor Mbah had declared that “applying the hands-on knowledge gained at the event was a sure pathway to disrupting the status quo, which, he said “was no longer acceptable.”

It was possible that some of those that listened to Governor Mbah’s remarks at the closing ceremony of the leadership retreat may have taken his bold declarations with a pinch of salt, based on the broad imperatives of his vision.

But, 14 months of his taking up the mantle of leadership of Enugu State, it is left for all to weigh his words against the works done by his administration in the period under review.

The Enugu State chief executive had stated: “Development history is replete with countries, sub-nationals, and cities where the people have come together and agreed that they would change the narrative, the pattern of growth, and they committed themselves to it, and it happened.

“So, nobody should tell you that what we want to do in Enugu is impossible. With our can-do spirit, we can achieve a $30 billion economy in the next eight years. We can achieve a great city.

“We can achieve access to the best quality education that any child can have access to in the world. We can also have access to high-quality healthcare services in this state.

“We can build 10,000 kilometres of road. We can restore water to Enugu in the next two months as promised by our people and also make access to clean water happen for our people across the state in no distant time.

“We can also achieve zero poverty headcount, eradicate poverty from our state and deliver on every promise we made.

“Indeed we can make Enugu the premier destination for business, investment, tourism, and living. We are already thinking about the future that we want to bequeath to our children, and history beckons on all of us to do something. If we believe in it, if we have the can-do spirit, then we can make it happen.”

Scanning through my random jottings and notes on the quiet renovation and remodelling going on in Enugu State, I saw an entry on May 16, 2024, which read: “I had just returned to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka after going to visit my mum in the village. I was marvelled by what I saw as I drove through Enugu while heading back.

 “It is not that some of us who lined up behind the governor during the last governorship poll are surprised. But, truth be told, we never imagined that in a space of 12 months he will turn the state into a huge construction site.

“He gave us water as he promised and cleaned up the city of filth. The governor upgraded our school system with the smart school initiative and up-scaled the provision of quality healthcare.

“The one that forced me into indenting this post concerns the ambitious bus terminus and interchange that not only promises to modernise Enugu, the Coal City and Nsukka, the second largest city in the state, but also cement the fact that Tomorrow is here in Enugu State.

“Indeed, Governor Mbah is demonstrating courage, vision and commitment to mission, which are the hallmarks of primeval leadership. It would seem patronising to call him the father of new Enugu yet. But, Dr Mbah is enhancing our confidence in his capabilities and competence.”

I was compelled to make these findings public following reports that the Enugu State governor has, apart from targeting N100 bilion from livestock production, but also has a first veterinary hospital in view.

The establishment of a veterinary hospital is the agricultural equivalent of the Governor’s milestones in the education sector, where his smart school initiative has garnered huge mileage in retooling teachers and revising the teaching and learning methods. All these are turning out as part of the expected outcomes that culminate in remodeling and populating the society with better citizenry.

Without making noise about it, Governor Mbah has solved the challenge of funding through increased subvention to higher institutions, particularly the State University of Medical and Applied Science (SUMAS) and its Teaching Hospital.

Coming at a time when the issue of herder-farmer crisis is joining to tossing food security in Nigeria, Mbah has demonstrated surefootedness in his determination to boost the economy and scale up the capacity of farmers in animal husbandry.

The governor made the assertions when the National Project Coordinator, Sanusi Abubakar, led a delegation from the Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (L-PRES) to Enugu for ribbon-cutting of the first Regional Enugu Model Veterinary Hospital in the state.

 The governor disclosed that his administration discovered the need to start putting in a robust policy or a legal framework that can support his agricultural policies, stressing that Enugu has a market size of over ₦100 billion.

He noted that the veterinary hospital was coming at a time the state was focused on scaling up meat and dairy production, adding that the Enugu State Ranch Management Agency Law was conceived to unlock economic opportunities for the state.

This, he declared, would create employment opportunities in the livestock space and contribute to the growth of the Gross Domestic Product from $4.4 billion to $30 billion.

When taken together, Mbah’s policy options, programmes and projects have shown his administration is involved in a contest of measurable outcomes. It is a record, which if governments set for themselves, it makes it easier for the people to reap the benefits of their mandate, thereby ensuring inclusivity.

No doubt, Enugu State has emerged on the front row of promising constituencies of ennobling governance strategies that would in the long run rekindle public confidence in Nigeria’s democracy and responsible governance.

-Prof Ujam writes from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

BEFORE now, I have heard so much about Ola Makinwa, the iconic Professor of Dramatic Arts, a doyen of the film and theatre industry, world-class academic and author of many books, including his much-talked about compendium, Peace Culture. But I never met him.

Here is a man with over 76 celluloid film directing experience, 480 video movies and 163 television series in addition to attending over 450 seminars and conferences , including film, cultural, drama and music festivals, garnering over 300 awards and honours locally and internationally, and who remains one of the few heroes of the FESTAC ’77.

But these giant feats probably don’t define him as much as his quest for peace in Africa, a risky gambit which earned him death sentence in Liberia, does. It was the story of the death sentence that first caught my attention.

I had made futile attempts to meet with him all these years until last Saturday, a day after his 74th birthday in Abuja. The encounter was fortuitous and a story for another day.

But for his Soyinka-like grey hairs, you would hardly know that Prof Ola Makinwa is 74 years already. Gangling, sprightly and full of youthful, vibrant energy, he was engaging and intellectually alert.

Prof Makinwa is sad that most African countries are still badly governed, a veritable recipe for crisis. “I just discovered lately that Africa as a whole is having the same problem of bad governance with the attendant turmoil,” he lamented.

But he didn’t quite come to that realisation lately. Other than his passion for theatre which started from childhood, nothing has occupied Prof Makinwa in all his adult life more than the quest for peace in Africa, which sprouted from his ugly experience in Liberia in 1995.

The fascinating, yet blood-chilling story of his arrest, trial and death sentence can only be imagined. To appreciate why he became an African Peace ambassador, the story needs to be retold and he is not tired of telling it.

“In the mid-1990s,” he began, “I really wanted to know where Africa was headed and when I became the cultural ambassador for Britain, I left London for Germany to buy a caravan which I drove through the Sahara Desert enroute Nigeria. I drove from Morocco to Mali, crossed over to Burkina Faso and to Liberia. I just want to tell you how I came about the African Peace Project.”

When Prof Makinwa and his two subordinates, Kaka and Alaba Nwosu, got to the Liberian border with Burkina Faso, the Charles Taylor-led militia refused them entry on the excuse that the country was in the middle of a brutal war. That was in 1995.

But he didn’t budge, insisting that he was a cultural ambassador of Britain on a tour of African countries for exhibitions. The standoff lasted for about seven hours before they let them in. But shortly after, they were arrested and the nightmare ensued.

“As we were driving, these militia boys accosted us and said they were arresting us,” he explained. They were accused of being spies even after they produced their travel documents to prove otherwise. The arrest led to a 34-day detention. Then one day, when they thought they had been forgotten, they were hauled before a tribunal for trial.

Prof Makinwa still remembers vividly. “Charles Taylor headed the panel and he condemned us to death and they took us back to the cell to await execution. If you were a Liberian then, when you are arrested, they will chop off your two hands. The idea is to ensure that you won’t be able to carry guns again. But in our own case, because we were foreigners, they could not do that to us having seen our British documents. But what they did by condemning us to death by firing squad was even worse.

“We were in the cell for two months and I kept telling the guy who was bringing us food that we were not spies. I remember him telling us after one month that he was going to tell one of their senior officers to see me. When eventually the officer came, I once again pleaded our innocence, reminding him that we were fellow Africans on a cultural trip because of our love for the continent.

“So, I think he went back to re-present our case and after one month, they called us for a retrial and this time, Charles Taylor said because of the travel documents we had and because we were not living in the country and no arms were found on us, we should be allowed to go. He discharged and acquitted us.”

But rather than come back to Nigeria, Prof Ola Makinwa proceeded to Monrovia and on the road he had his Damascus experience that dramatically changed his entire worldview. Corpses, he still remembers, littered the entire stretch on both sides of the road.

He convinced himself on the need to seek audience with President Samuel Doe and convince him to end the brutal war by taking the asylum offered him by most Western countries. After three days in a government guest house in Monrovia, his request to see the President was granted.

In his own words: “At my request, President Doe’s Chief of Staff came and booked appointment for me to see him. I went with Alaba and as soon as we were ushered into his presence, I said: ‘Your Excellency, you will be one of the greatest African leaders if you can take the part of honour, accept the amnesty proposals and leave Liberia. I told him about the uncountable number of corpses that littered the roads on my way to Monrovia, some of them in their various stages of decomposition

“His words were not reassuring.”

“’Do I tell you the truth?’ he asked and when I answered in the affirmative, he retorted: ‘This is my country and I am in charge and I am going nowhere.’”

When Prof Makinwa reiterated the horror he saw on the road, Doe confessed that he had also heard about it but insisted that Charles Taylor was to be blamed and not him, assuring his flustered guest that his then arch-enemy was just killing the people for nothing but cannot achieve anything.

Failing in his self-assigned peace mission having escaped death by the whiskers himself, Prof Makinwa left for Nigeria but what he saw in the war-torn country made him a peace advocate.

“We must work on peace for Africa, for the peaceful co-existence of the African people,” he says. Yet, he is the first to admit that “it is an extremely difficult task because some of these leaders you see are not even peaceful people. They are not interested in peace. They are oblivious of the fact that peace is a weapon that can foster unity.”

But that hasn’t deterred him. After setting up the African Peace Foundation, a custodial of intellectual heritage, he went visiting African leaders; first to Col. Muammar Gadhafi in Tripoli in 1996. The Libyan leader embraced the project and pledged $500,000, which they never collected, not because Gadhafi reneged but because of leadership intrigues in Africa and Western manipulation and interference. Nelson Mandela whom he visited in prison, not only welcomed the idea but offered, without any prompting, to be the grand patron now as President. That was also in 1996. Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia jumped at the idea and so did Jerry Rawlings of Ghana who said he was all for good governance. But Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe objected on the ground that it had Western support.

If all these leaders acquiesced, why has peace continued to elude the continent? At the heart of the conflicts in Africa is the lack of good governance, the reason why Nigerians are today plumbing the depths of misery under President Bola Tinubu’s watch.

On Tinubu, Prof Makinwa posits: “Tinubu’s administration is an eyesore. He might have good intention but what is the intention of those who surround him? Their own reason for being in government is to grab. As it is now, what is killing this country is corruption. We have ICPC and EFCC. In the last one year, what has the EFCC done? That shows you that corruption has eaten deep into the country’s fabric.”

If the economy is thriving and people are able to feed, the unemployed secure jobs, and there is quality education and good healthcare for all, there will be peace in Africa generally and Nigeria in particular, he asserts.

But as dispiriting as the situation is, he is undeterred in his advocacy. The product of his tenacity is the book, Peace Culture: A Monumental evidence for Global Co-existence, our topic for next week.

In February 2022, I interviewed Onyeka Owenu for The Africa Report, a foreign magazine. Onyeka died this week, so let me share that interview with you as a small tribute to a late great friend.

The last two lines, at the end, make me weep.

We are sipping Gold Blend Expresso coffee in Onyeka Onwenu’s apartment in Ikoyi, the most salubrious neighbourhood in Lagos. The décor is pleasingly minimalist.

Today is her 70th  birthday and she’s in an expansive mood.

In her early 20s, she was a tour guide at the United Nations headquarters in New York. In her early 60s, ex-President Goodluck Jonathan invited her to be Director-General of the National Centre for Women Development, NCWD, in Abuja.

In the 40 years that elapsed between these two international and domestic public service stints, Onwenu became an acclaimed TV journalist, composer, singer, actress, author, activist and politician.

“A Squandering of Riches”, a 1984 collaboration between the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, and the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, was the project that transformed her into a star.

This documentary – in typical Renaissance Woman style, she not only researched, scripted and presented it but wrote and sang the theme song – provided global audiences with a vivid snapshot of Nigeria in the wake of the 1970s oil boom and highlighted the chronic dysfunctions that characterised the civilian government of Shehu Shagari, the then head of state.

“A Squandering of Riches” (accessible on YouTube) featured literary luminaries Chinua Achebe and J.P. Clark and was an instant hit.

It focused on corruption, economic mismanagement, infrastructural decay, poverty and angry Niger Deltan victims of the hydrocarbon industry. Onwenu counts it as the biggest triumph of her career.

“Ten years later, long after he had been ousted by the Buhari/Idiagbon military coup, I bumped into Shagari in South Africa, at Nelson Mandela’s inauguration; and he lost his temper and confronted me. I think my reply stunned him,” she says laughing.

“I told him that I stood by everything I had said in the documentary but regarded him as a good man surrounded by bad people.”

All was forgiven. Friendship ensued.

Onwenu’s eventful life has been a kaleidoscope of colourful encounters with extraordinary people, such as revered Afrobeat pioneer, Fela Anikulapo Kuti (who asked her to join his harem and shrugged philosophically when she politely declined his marriage proposal), and the even more iconic Winnie Mandela for whom she wrote a song.

“Winnie broke down in tears when she first heard it at a command performance in her husband’s honour in Nigeria, shortly after he was released from prison. Some journalists told me that it was the first time she had ever cried in public. I admired her so much.”

Then there are the controversies, the most striking of which revolved around her appearance at a concert linked to the nefarious “Million Man March” that was organised in 1998 to support General Sani Abacha, a hated military dictator who specialised in homicides.

Onwenu tells me how she was misled into participating.

In a nutshell, the concert was sold to her by a fellow musician as a fundraiser for the Super Eagles national football team. She provides more details about this toxic drama in her autobiography, titled My Father’s Daughter (published in 2020 and available on Amazon).

This book is a jolly good read and covers her early childhood as the adored daughter of a distinguished father, his premature death, her traumatic experiences as a teenage nursing aide during the Biafran Civil War, her time as a student in elite American colleges…her relationship with her feisty mother, how she became a queen of African pop and Nollywood, her clashes with various institutions, her refusal to tolerate nonsense from obnoxious individuals and numerous other personal and professional stories, including an account of years with an emotionally abusive spouse.

“I won’t because I am a very private person!” is her response when I request the name and occupation of the husband who caused her so much anguish, a man about whom very little is known, even to folks who have worked and socialised with Onwenu for decades.

Given that celebrities attract endless investigations, gossip and exposes, it is strange that someone so high-profile has been able to conceal the identity of the father of her two now adult sons – “my greatest personal achievements” is how she proudly describes them.

But she is at least willing to share the hell that the sadistic mystery man put her through before she finally realised that she’d never satisfy him, no matter how hard she tried to be a “good wife”.

So, she quit bending over backwards to placate him and divorced him to save herself from physical collapse and a mental breakdown.

“He chose to marry a famous woman, then punished me for being famous. He said that he felt belittled by my aura and assured me that nobody else would want me when he had finished with me.

“He tormented me in so many different ways and didn’t contribute financially or appreciate my efforts, even when I begged influential contacts to help him when he got into trouble with the authorities.

“But the thing that hurts me most is that he was truly evil to our innocent children and coldly rejected their loving attempts to relate to their Dad,” she tells me, visibly shaken by painful memories.

Onwenu is, at the end of the day, an indomitable diva of substance and not one to rest on her lush laurels or take the view that surrender is the best policy when old age is creeping up on you.

Despite having tried and failed to become a local council chairperson in her ancestral terrain, her appetite for positive change remains undimmed and she continues to be vocal and politically active.

She swears that she will not vote in the 2023 presidential election if a candidate from her marginalised Igbo ethnic group – a business-focused tribe from Nigeria’s South-East region – is not on the ballot.

Nowadays, she is a National Treasure par excellence. So much so that President Buhari penned a 70th  birthday tribute to her, despite her overt disappointment in his regime (“the situation in this country has worsened so much since he took over from Jonathan in 2015!”).

Meanwhile, she is still an immensely popular entertainer.

A TV series based on her book is planned.

It ain’t over till the slim lady sings.

Heart surgeon, Masoud Pezeshkian, was sworn-in as President of Iran on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. His primary concern seemed to be about lifting the unilateral sanctions the United States, US, had imposed on his country. Reviving the economy is fundamental for the citizenry and the sure way of winning their hearts.

However, he would have been forced to have a change of heart within 24 hours. The first major challenge he is faced with now is how to react to Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh. The latter had accepted Iran’s invitation to attend his swearing-in ceremony. At the occasion, Haniyeh who had been well received, flashed the victory sign. But the very next day, Israel assassinated him in Tehran.

Unless Israel makes propitiation, President Pezeshkian would have no choice but to order a retaliation. Haniyeh had been his guest and he had the duty to protect him. Also, Israel by the assassination, had violated Iran’s sovereignty. On both scores, Iran seems duty-bound to defend its honour.

A similar scenario had played out after Israel attacked the Iranian Embassy in Damascus on April 1, 2024. It killed 16 persons, including Iranian Generals Mohammed Reza Zahedi and Mohammed Hadi Rahimi. On April 13 and 14, Iran sent armed drones, ballistic and cruise missiles into Israel. On that occasion, it deliberately used slow missiles that got to Israel in five hours, thereby giving the latter and its allies, enough time to shoot almost all of them down. This time, it remains to be seen whether Iran would adopt a similar method, or use its hypersonic missile which can hit Israel within 17 minutes.

Also, by killing Haniyeh, Israel has deliberately wrecked the peace process in Gaza. The US, Israel’s chief guarantor, rather than be sympathetic, told the United Nations Security Council it was not sure about Haniyeh’s assassination, but that the killing would not stop the peace process.

But the reality is that the assassination would hinder the peace process and make it much more difficult. This is partly because Haniyeh was not an armed combatant nor was he given to the idea of destroying Israel. I had wondered how he was able to survive in the Hamas leadership given the fact that he did not hide his preference for a two-state solution in which Israel and Palestine would live peacefully within secured borders. Despite his parents having been expelled from their ancestral homes by Israel, his being born and growing up in the Shati refugee camp, his imprisonment thrice by Israel and expulsion to Lebanon, he still held to the basic principles of peace for all in the Middle East. This year, three of his sons and three grandchildren were killed in Gaza in an Israeli air-strike. Despite his travails and personal tragedies, he insisted that negotiations and reconciliation were the proper route to take in the Middle East. The murder of such a moderate can only give rise to more militant figures in the region.

Haniyeh lived in Qatar, a tiny, rich and quite sensible country that has been at the heart of the on-going peace negotiations between Israel and Hamas. It was a clearly frustrated Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani who in reaction to Haniyeh’s assassination wrote: “Political assassinations and continued targeting of civilians in Gaza while talks continue, lead us to ask, how can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side?”

The assassination is coming just days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from a triumphant visit to the US. There, the American Congress opened its hallowed chambers to him. As American parliamentarians lousily applauded every sentence of Netanyahu, sometimes even when he was midway, I wondered if they realised that they disgraced their country and demeaned its democratic credentials by opening their parliamentary doors to controversial Netanyahu.

In an escalation, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in Syria has also been attacked allegedly by Hamas. Earlier, on July 19, 2024, a drone by the Houthis in Yemen struck Tel Aviv killing a man. Next day, Israel attacked the Yemeni port of Hodeida allegedly causing over a $20 million damage.

Now, the stage is set for a regional war in the Middle East. On the eve of the assassination, the US and the United Kingdom were rushing troops to the region. On that day, three US ships, USS Wasp, USS Oak Hill and USS New York were streaming towards Lebanon with 2,200 soldiers on board. US Defence Secretary, Lloyd Austin, in knowledging that his country was sending those ships said: “If Israel is attacked, yes, we will help Israel defend itself. We’ve been clear about that from the very beginning.” On its part, the UK already has its Royal Navy and Royal Air Force operating in the region. Perhaps, buoyed by these actions and steps, Israel, that day, attacked Beirut, the Lebanese capital.

If these actions escalate, there is likely to be a regional war in the Middle East. One that will pitch Israel and its European and American partners against Iran and its allies. Such war will immediately suck in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, the Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Anwar Allah –Houthis in Yemen, the Syrian military, Hamas and possibly, Fattah in the Palestine.

However, there is the question whether Europe on whose soil the War in Ukraine is being fought, would want to open a second front in the Middle East. Except for mercenaries, they do not have boots on the ground in Ukraine, would they send troops to fight on the side of Israel? I doubt it.

The US since its military defeat in Vietnam has been careful about committing its citizens to battle. Its involvement in the Libyan War, was from the air. Yes, it had troops in the Iraqi and Afghan wars, but these might have seemed to be easy wars. Despite this, it relied heavily on the use of mercenaries, especially of the Blackwater company which due to its atrocities against civilian populations, changed its name, first to Xe, and now, Academi.

One country that thought it could start a war because it had American and NATO backing, was Georgia. But neither the US nor Europe was willing to commit their troops to fighting the Russians, so the Georgian War which began on August 7, 2008 lasted just nine days. I doubt if they would ever send troops to fight in the Ukrainian War as French President Emmanuel Macron once canvassed.

Israel might just find that in the event of a regional war, NATO would not send troops to fight on its side. Israel is like an animal skin drum, beating too loudly; it may just go burst.

The job of a presidential spokesperson is a tedious one. It is not for the faint heart. It could be catastrophic when your statement is quoted out of context. Even when you did brilliantly in strategic engagement, you are rarely applauded. Most times, banana peels seem deliberately thrown on your path so you can slip on them. This is the life of a presidential spokesperson, which is daunting in this era of social media. This is aside from the intricacies inherent in the job, especially when the citizens do not align with the policy direction and statements of the president. The incumbent, Ajuri Ngelale, started the job on a fast note. And a very turbulent one.

The appointment of Ngelale as the presidential spokesperson on July 31 2023, indeed jolted many. Who the hell is he, and how did that happen when it is a known fact that the “Lagos boys” control the media? They wondered what magic he would bring to the table, considering the enormity of the task. Some questioned his age. (he is the youngest to hold that office in our recent history). Some also questioned his accent. (That is the hilarious part). They also mentioned his trajectory in the media space against the backdrop of his previous journalistic practice being solely in the electronic media. The print media is generally accepted as much more rigorous than the electronic segment. So, so much is invested in conceiving, rationalising, researching and communicating that news feature, opinion article, essay, or column which aims to fill an entire page or half of a newspaper. His ability to engage the virile Nigerian press was equally interrogated. (he is their darling now).

Ajuri Ngelale reminds me of John Dewey, the renowned American philosopher and advocate for education, politics, and ethics. He asserted that complete democracy was to be obtained by extending voting rights and ensuring a fully formed public opinion, accomplished by communication among citizens, experts, and politicians. This is what Ajuri Ngelale has done in one year. He radically departed from the perception that presidential spokespersons are meant to be attack dogs. His preference for a genteel approach has paid off, saving the president some bullets through his pragmatism.

I have followed Ajuri Ngelale closely since his appointment. At some point, I feared for him for obvious reasons, with due consideration for the enormity of the task at hand. The conversations around the removal of fuel subsidy was the litmus test.

I recall that his press statements were philosophical. An attribute that is not associated with previous presidential spokespersons. Instead of a straight statement defending the president’s decision, he availed any analysis that encouraged critical thoughts on the president’s decision. For example, he stated, “Tinubu was the “implementer” of the subsidy removal, but the plan was already in place before he assumed office.” In a recent interview he granted, he stated, “I raised that because many people are of the understanding that the president on his own said it’s gone, and it was just his policy.

Yes, he is the implementer, but it was envisaged before he got there, so there was a deadline on which the payment for the subsidy would be removed by June 1, 2024. Mr. President made the pronouncement on May 29, 2024. As of June 1, he is now in the seat and getting the report. I think, to some extent, that maybe he wouldn’t get it as a president-elect. However, now he is getting the full rush of it.”

This response pattern takes us back to John Dawey’s analysis that “complete democracy can be achieved when there is a fully formed public opinion, accomplished by communication among citizens, experts, and politicians.” You can question several attributes of Ajuri Ngelale. But it would be best if you respected his competency and grasp of fundamentals in strategic communications. I think he engages rather than informs. He puts the conversation in perspective for progressive education, emphasising understanding and action as learning goals instead of rote knowledge. Rote knowledge is the process of memorising information based on repetition. That was the trend.

But Ajuri Ngelale changed the rule, and the president is pleased with his efforts so far, culminating in his subsequent appointment as the Special Presidential Envoy on Climate Action. In the annals of your democratic experimentation, this is the first time a presidential spokesperson holds a strategic portfolio alongside his portfolio. The expectations of Nigerians from presidential spokespersons have been limited to information dissemination alone.

However, more emphasis should be placed on public engagement and enlightenment. This is what Ajuri Ngelale has done differently.

It has been a year of turbulence for Ajuri Ngelale as the presidential spokesperson. But he has carried on with the job calmly and decorously. There has been no established confrontation in his public engagements since his appointment. He has proceeded with finesse, avoiding distractions and controversies. But for a few instances, however. The reason is simple. It also takes us back to John Dawey’s philosophy. This informs us that “Communication is consummatory as well as instrumental. It is a means of establishing cooperation, domination and order. This is a sublime strategy that any presidential spokesperson should resonate with. Ajuri Ngelale took a first in this regard, and it is commendable.

There are takeaways from Ajuri Ngelale’s one year as the president’s spokesperson. Presidential spokespersons are not mediums for information dissemination alone. They are also a medium for strategic engagement with the public on behalf of the president. As such, they must understand the issues beyond word values to sustain the conversation. The overarching objective is to sensitise and not inform. This has been the turbulence of Ajuri Ngelale as the presidential spokesperson in the past year.

It takes much effort to weather the storm. It is a terrain that requires brilliance and mastery. I congratulate Ajuri Ngelale for holding the aces thus far.

Ocheja, a military historian and doctoral researcher, is an alumnus of the Nigerian Defence Academy.