I POSED this same question to former President Muhammadu Buhari here on Sunday July 24, 2022. I noted then that this is a time to be cynical and censorious about the state of the nation. It isn’t too much to claim today that things have become more complicated than what they were in July 2022 when I asked the then president whose government was directionless and wobbly.
Doubtless, this is also a defining moment to counsel crisis merchants who live by the temple of sycophancy and propaganda that they should sheathe their swords at this perilous time. We need to tell them that they should allow us to reflect on our own Bukola Elemide a.k.a Asa’s redemption song she sang boldly inside Aso Presidential Villa when she visited on July 19, 2022 that: There is fire on the mountain…and no seems to be on the run…’
This time is also not a time for any public relations gimmicks about global meltdown and Buhari’s reckless times, that some praise singers are beginning to blame on this house that is falling. It is a time to ask whether our leader who promised to fix this country before May 29, 2023, is aware that the country he promised to fix is no longer a desirable place for citizens. It is regrettable that citizens of different faiths are now asking for Chinua Achebe’s last classic, ‘There was a country’. It will therefore be relevant to allow he president’s men and women to begin a series of television presidential chats, which will allow us to ask our president if he really understands that he is presiding over a failing and volatile nation at this time?
How does the president sleep well these days when insecurity is overwhelming the North again? How does he reflect on the state of the economy and how people are coping with difficulties arising from growing incompetence of his presidential bureaucracy? How does he perceive rampaging return of media trials in the name of fighting corruption that has returned in full force? Is the president aware that most people go to bed on empty stomachs these days even as the same hapless citizens see extravagance and flamboyance of state actors? Where are the president’s risk analysts who could tell him about the danger of headline governance of tokenism of stimulus packages here and there?
What else shall we write about? We have written about how our leader should read writings on the wall of the nation. We have written about how our duty bearers should watch that debilitating ailment called ‘near-success syndrome’ (NSC). We have written about the mediocrity of presidential bureaucracy and how the civil service should be restructured for service delivery. We have written editorials on growing lack of respect for the rule of law and danger of electoral justice system that is eroding sovereign power of the people. We have written about why the federal character provisions in our constitution should be respected. We have covered how only quality in education can trigger country and global competiveness in the context of development.
We have written about how the toxic unitary system of government ‘the federal republic of the Nigerian army’ forced on us in 1966 should be dismantled to restructure our federation. We have written several times about the expediency of overhauling the federal bureaucracy to reduce cost of governance. We have raised several alarms on the need to show clarity in the opaque fuel subsidy complexity to reduce corruptibility in the oil and gas sector. We have deconstructed on the futility of abusing the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) implementation while NNPCL transits with a meretricious change of name while all former documented failings remain solid, sorry valid. We have contextually reported on the reproach of president’s medical care in the United Kingdom and France for seven years without equipping even one apex hospital at home. We have written on the danger of keeping a cabinet of mediocrities. What else shall we write about? How many revelations should a country’s media publish or broadcast before a country’s leader can pursue a common good?
And here is the thing, after barely seven months of this administration, it is getting curiouser and curiouser to all as in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ clear that most of our leaders in Nigeria don’t care about the weight of verdict of history. They listen only to sycophants who supply dubious consultants to them. They ‘kill’ prophets and oracles around them. So, they also listen to unethical orators who mesmerise them with sophistry that doesn’t build any monuments. This has been our experience in the last almost 25 years that the locusts have eaten.
Democracy has thus been demonised and is now being seen as a weapon of mass deception of a country, no thanks to our democrats who celebrate mediocrity, impunity, profligacy, selfishness and arrogance. From president Olusegun Obasanjo, through Musa Yar’adua/Goodluck Jonathan to Muhammadu Buhari, we have witnessed all these banes. They never listened to voices of reason and wisdom.
Sadly, we are beginning to notice again that our President doesn’t want to listen to the people who want him to finish strong. As I was saying, this is just a time to ask whether Nigeria’s leader really understands the perilous times and season we are in. I would like to share this ancient word with our leaders on the expediency of ‘understanding the times’ and knowing what they ought to do for the country and states they govern. In other words, as I was saying here, our leaders need to understand that most times, they don’t have to work with only their ‘permissive will’. They need to work with the perfect will of God through the constitution for the people to prosper and be in good health.
This is the origin of why men should have understanding of their times: “… men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do—200 chiefs, with all their relatives under their command” (1 Chronicles 12:32 NIV).
As I was saying, often when believers talk about “understanding the times,” it is a common assumption that we are focusing on prophecies relating to the second coming of Christ. As much as we love studying these kinds of prophecies, they only present a limited scope of what God intends for us to be aware of in our culture and throughout the world. “Understanding the times” according to Dave Butts, is a mindset and a lifestyle that includes, but is not limited to, issues relating to the second coming of Christ.
There was an amazing group of people in the ancient times who lived that kind of lifestyle. They are called in Scripture the “men of Issachar.” In the Chronicles, it was said that these men “understood the times and knew what Israel should do.”
We should therefore believe our Creator is still raising up a new generation of this kind of spiritually sensitive, discerning people today – so that we know what we ought to do in the world’s most populous black nation on earth.
Scripturally speaking, true understanding comes from the fear of God. When we place ourselves before God and surrender our lives to His sovereignty, we begin to gain a more accurate understanding of what is happening, not only in our own lives but in the world around us.
As the Spirit of God permeates our lives and we do the right things, there is an increased awareness of His perspective on events. We no longer look at things around us from the limited perception of our own experiences, but are able to discern matters from the viewpoint of the one we call in our national anthem, ‘the God of creation’ we intentionally ask to ‘direct our noble cause’.
That is why we may quickly add to our leaders and managers, rather than watching the news or reading the newspaper and shaking your head over bad events, why not add to your watching and reading a prayer for discernment? As world events unfold, instead of submitting to despair or anger, seek the God of creation’s insight over what is occurring. The result will be an understanding of the times we live in.
The historical context, however, does not end with the men of Issachar merely understanding the times. They also knew what Israel should do. This adds wisdom to knowledge. Knowing information is one thing. Having the wisdom to know what to do with that knowledge is immensely valuable, in this regard.
We live in turbulent times and there appears to be little understanding of the times. There is probably even less wisdom to know how to deal with those times. Which is why we hardly make progress even in our development strides. The economy is a shambles. Unbridled corruption has complicated economic woes. Nigeria isn’t a member of G-20: South Africa is and we are told our economy is bigger than theirs. Our currency is bleeding. BRICS countries, the authentic emerging markets were receiving applications from Iran, Argentina and other minors, the other day, Nigeria couldn’t apply because it isn’t qualified yet. The engine room of governance, the civil service has curiously collapsed.
I complained here in July 2022 that the Chief of Staff to the then President was posting Permanent Secretaries in Abuja without recourse to the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation. Again today, we are beginning to witness a radical shift in the management of presidential bureaucracy: Today, it is the President’s Special Adviser on Media that announces appointments and dismissals of all federal appointments, of even heads of agencies and extra-ministerial departments instead of the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF). Every day you read bizarre un-presidential postings, ‘Tinubu Appoints’, Tinubu Dismisses, Tinubu Probes’, etc. This isn’t the norm. Is there no institutional memory in the presidency?
If the office of the president is too political to understand something expedient about the memory of that institution called the presidency, two of some of the best memories are domiciled in the office of the president as Special Advisers, namely Dr. Aliyu Modibbo, former FCT minister and Dr. Hakeem Baba Ahmed, a retired federal permanent secretary. They are loaded with knowledge of the executive presidency. President Obasanjo, for instance inherited Dr. Modibbo inside Aso Villa in 1999 and he was instrumental in the restructuring and integration of the office of the president and vice president in 2003. Dr. Ahmed was permanent secretary in the General Services Office (GSO) in the SGF’s Office.
That is the engine room in the OSGF. They are there to guide and resolve complications arising from the complexity in the presidency. What of Professor Tunji Olaopa, the new Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC)? He was permanent secretary, State House during the Buhari administration. He too can assist in shaping an efficient office of the president. The office is still chaotic at the moment as I noted here the other day. I just think the president’s men can’t be living by the riverside and be washing their hands with spittle. These technocrats should be treated as ‘knowledge workers’ who can help in resolving the chaos in the presidency at the moment.
Oloja is former editor of The Guardian newspaper and his column, Inside Stuff, runs on the back page of the newspaper on Sundays. The column appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Mondays.