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•Warns Tinubu to beware of political jobbers
From Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
Elder statesman and Dean, Borno Elders Forum, Prof. Khalifa Dikwa has pleaded with Nigerians to manage mistakes and misunderstanding from the last elections for the existence of the country as a new president takes over the nation’s leadership.
Khalifa in this interview warned the new president against appointing political jobbers into office among other issues.
As Nigeria enters another phase with Tinubu’s inauguration as president on May 29 amid multiple challengers, mixed feelings; does this appear unusual?
Not at all. India’s case was worse than our own. India had a scenario of creating problems from outside where power was attached to money, where those who had money were the one having access to power. Indians managed them even during military interventions. They didn’t bring down the country for whatever reason. So rather than calling for interim government, there are issues which should be tabled by the aggrieved parties and possibly form a government of national unity consisting of the eight political parties.
Already, we have huge problems in the country and the unity of our country is very important. If politicians continue to fight over their personal interest, this will be an invitation for the civilian population to demand for their resignation. Therefore, let Tinubu make his administration an open one.
The truth is that all the four major political parties have spent millions of money in the last election.
Whoever invest huge money will also be expecting to recoup his or her money; this is the truth. The political leaders should not be attacking one another. Are we not same Nigerians? The political leaders have one thing or the other in common: four of them contested and one won. The one who won should learn to accommodate others for the sake of the unity of the country. They should realize that nothing lasts longer than a specific time. Soon, four years will be over. Someday, life itself will be over.
It behoves on them to help the stability of this country.
Let us manage our mistakes and misunderstanding rather than allowing external forces to infiltrate us and make our case worse than it is now.
What exactly do you mean by asking Tinubu to form open government. Government for every dick and Harry ?
I mean the new president should bring in people from all walks of life but not those who will subvert the government. Imagine under Buhari, some of the government officials were alleged to be doing what they like because there was no supervision by the president and this is why our foreign policy does not have a clear direction.
Open government means bringing competent people into government not people who will be scrambling for money, political jobbers and those who will be using public resources to travel; globetrotting in the name of international engagements. They will lead the new administration into hopelessness and compound our problem in this country as we’ve seen in the last eight years.
Imagine South Africa and Egypt leading the voice of Africa over the Russia-Ukraine war! Nigeria lost her voice and leadership role in the continent. This should change!
There must be a departure from the way the outgoing president has been handling things. There should be a change because President Buhari hardly react or respond to certain happening like security threats, killing or attacks on Nigerian. Even when things happen while he is planning to travel, he won’t utter a word at least to calm the nerves of the people. He will just be attending international events while citizens are under severe threats of security.
Some said Buhari, a retired combatant army general couldn’t successfully halt escalating insecurity in the country. From your experience about terrorism/insurgency in the Northeast, do you think Tinubu and Shettima could make any change?
We find ourselves in this trouble and this has continued for about eight years now because our president gave people jobs to do but couldn’t monitor them. It appears the president does not cross-check his appointees. A lot of money have been released for the security issue but it seems the president doesn’t monitor or call for scoresheet of his appointees and request for how they spent money approved. I don’t think President Tinubu and Shettima will act this way. One thing that may work for him in tackling the security challenge is the fact that he said he is not opposed to appoint even those who know better than him to get things done.
Your words to the people
Nigerians especially those aggrieved by whatever happened during the February election should be patient. We should understand that our country needs to be at peace to enjoy democracy and do elections.
