president yaradua's re-tooling exercise

If there is one Nigerian other than President Yaradua who is not in any way staggered by the breath-taking speed with which he has conducted the affairs of the country since his return from Saudi Arabia, that person would be this writer. His current action has always been a possibility since his statement in one of his media outings where he had promised an action-packed administration from the second year of his government.

In two of my recent comments posted on the Nigeria village square as a thread and on my personal blog titled, Nigerians: make haste slowly and the other, President Yaradua’s graduation, I had elected in the first essay, to use the penchant of most Nigerians to invest in schemes they scarcely understand and the resultant loss to underscore the need to allow the president invest all the time he wanted on planning. Specifically, I had opined that it was better if 80% of the time available to Mr. President was devoted to planning than have the burlesque of the last administration repeated.

In the second, which was my reading of the retirement of the service chiefs, I had declared that with that action coupled with the demotion of Ribadu, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission that the president had without doubt, concluded his lessons on how to be the president Nigerians had always wanted him to be. The events of the past days it would seem, have confirmed my postulations.

Until Monday the 8th of September, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, late Chief MKO Abiola, running mate in the June 12th 1993 presidential election, and three times minister under the Abacha’s government, first as foreign affairs, then internal affairs and later, power and steel and former president Obasanjo’s special envoy to war ravaged Sudan; was acknowledged by all as the heart of the government of the federation by virtue of his position as the secretary to the government of the federation.

But the head who, while away to Saudi Arabia for the umrah in addition to the first rumoured then meanly admitted health matter, had apparently while convalescing, reflected on his government and the personalities that populates it vis-à-vis his ideology and targets as coded in his seven point agenda, and decided there was a need for a change of the heart and as Nigerians are expects, of some of the hands.


So, Dr.Babagana kingibe, a man you can not help but respect for his charismatic personality made possible by his acute intelligence that is complimented by good modulation became the latest victim of the president re-tooling exercise.

So many raison d'être has been given by those with access to the media and not necessarily those who should know as to why he was sent packing; the reasons so far given ranges from the implausible to the somewhat believable.

One of the probable reason making the rounds as to why he was relieved of his appointment centres around his vaulting ambition to be president of our natural resources saturated country, Nigeria. There would have been no problem with this since he is qualified both legally and otherwise to do so if not that proponents had added that he sought to do this not through the means and ways known to the rest of us but through uncommon strategy of unconsciously asking the heavens to “permanently incapacitate” the president; a wish, the heavens were not too disposed to granting considering the type of harm such would have caused the nation rather, they put it in the president to “permanently incapacitate” him as the secretary to the government of the federation.

As for Kingibe who has been accused of many selfish exploit since his sack was announced including but limited to the masterminding of the scrapping of the office of chief of staff; an office he has been sharing the awesome powers of his office with and influencing the president decisions in favour of a particular ethnic group; I have this message for: you are not yet out, a use would soon be found for you in this government; you are too intelligent to go with the wind. My personal Igbo interpretation of your name is: “gba ba gana gana eze Ibe” (keep keeping on, king Ibe).

While Nigerians were still busy theorizing about the sack of Kingibe, the president moved to re-configure the structure of his government by creating new ministries and unbundling of some of the existing ones thereby indicating the end of an Obasanjo inspired government model and the beginning of his.

One of the historic creations from the exercise is the ministry of Niger delta. The new ministry as announced, would be in charge of the infrastructural development of the region as well youth matters which I suppose, would include coordinating the negotiating of hostage ransom fee and the regulation of the business because it would amount to wishful thinking for anybody to imagine that those in the hostage business would give it up because of this creations. The business is too lucrative and the disincentive too inconsequential. The possibility for any form of youth programme the ministry might embark on to serve as an effective discouragement is too far-fetched.

The re-jigging exercise would very soon, be used to calibrate the politicians in the country especially those of the PDP extraction. This would happen as soon as the ministers are sent packing. Then there would lobby and counter lobby and the candidates of the new men of power would emerge victorious. I strongly believe that among those who need the calibration to send home the message that there is now a new man in charge is the one that masterminded the destruction of public institutions in Anambra state. The sudden lose of his vice-like grip on the leadership of the PDP in Anambra state led by his own loyalist or rather, former loyalist, Comrade Tony Nwoye seems not to have conveyed the message. There is a saying that those who the gods wants to destroy, they first make mad. One of the new power brokers that would emerge from the exercise will be the former governor of Delta state, Chief James Ibori; this is irrespective of his EFFC travails.


Finally, President Yaradua is a man blessed with venerable leadership qualities. According to those who should know, including members of the opposition political parties like the hard working Governor Peter Obi of Anambra state, he has a listening ear and is easily swayed by superior arguments, talks less and as a chemist, is given to analyzing situations to find his best fits before acting. He might turn out to be everything we lacked in a president in the last eight years. His government to my mind has finally taken off.

Ilobi Austin. ilobidominic@gmail.com an event analyst resides in Warri.