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Issues in
the Jigawa ministerial exports
By Adagbo Onoja Newsdiaryonline Mon Aug 8,2011
Min of State, Dr Nurudeen Mohammed, Amb Ade Adefuye, Amb Femi
George, Gov Sule Lamido, Foreign Affairs Minister, Gbenga Ashiru
& Prof Ruqqayya Ahmed, Educ Min during Lamido's visit to the
ministry
Before the crisis of
state spoilt everything in Africa, it was the norm for the
leaders, i. e those who were actually leaders, to sniff around
little rascals, give them state responsibility in one form or
another and see them grow politically. It was a carry over from
that element of Platonism that said that because the state is
about the guarantee of the good life, those who must be leaders
must be groomed in the art. But because Plato did not believe
that everyone is sufficiently gifted to lead, he insisted that
leaders must be groomed in the political skills of justice
administration or the system would fall into the hands of
equalitarian ‘anarchists’ whom Plato must have anticipated
because Plato’s sense of justice is an invitation to perpetual
anarchy in any society).
Surprisingly, both those
who came to leadership through western missionary education and
those who did so as guerilla fighters among the first generation
of African leaders accepted that approach to leadership
recruitment and the management of power. And that was how, for
instance, Julius Nyerere picked then 25 year old Salim Ahmed
Salim and sent him to the UN with instructions to take himself
seriously and shoot as high as possible. For Nyerere, the point
was to prove that even though small and poor, his country or an
African country should deliberately prepare herself as to be
able to jam any power. Hence his refrain to the product of his
ideological school to read all the documents in their area
seriously so that when they speak, they won’t suggest to anyone
a lack of the strategic and tactical perspectives of the issue
in question. Politically speaking, Salim was the archtype
‘rascal’, the praxis that made him dance so energetically to the
eternal anger of the Americans when Communist China was admitted
to the United Nations. Many still think the Republicans in the US never forgave him as that must
have been part of his problems when he sought to be
Secretary-General of the UN many years thereafter.
There is a sense in
which the nomination and confirmation of Dr. Nurudeen Mohammed
as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs is comparable to that
‘ancient’ pattern of recruitment. This is what the 35 year old
minister probably recognized when he said that Sule Lamido and
President Jonathan did away with dogma by giving him the job
which is normally given to those with sufficient grey hairs. He
is right. Unlike in
the First Republic
when 24 year old men were made ministers and ambassadors, that
has not been the tradition since the rentier mentality made
political office a do-or-die affair such that even those who
have basically expired don’t mind doing anything to be minister.
I am not sure if Lamido
or the minister himself have any illusions, the governor being a
realist, but there is no doubt that foreign affairs is a
leadership training ground because of the core principles which
underlines the very nature of international relations. Foreign
affairs, certainly more than any other sphere of government,
sensitizes anyone more quickly to the real worth of Nigeria in
Africa and the world though without making anyone forget that
Nigeria has not successfully managed herself well. That Nigeria is, in fact, a laggard.
It is in recognition of
this contradictory scenario that might have prompted Governor
Lamido to pay a high profile solidarity visit to the eaglet
minister in Abuja last week, with,
among others, another Jigawa minister, Professor Ruqqayya Ahmed
Rufai, in tow. The point, according to Lamido, was to
demonstrate to Dr. Mohammed that the entire Jigawa is behind him
and the expectation is for him to excel. For Lamido, both
Professor Ruqqayya and Dr. Mohammed are Jigawa exports to Nigeria in the
sense of a high quality strategy he embarked upon as a critique
of the image of Jigawa as the poorest in the country. On this,
the governor is happy that wherever both Professor Ruqqayya and
Dr Mohammed speak, they counter that old image of Jigawa in
favour of an emerging image of functionality. He expressed
gratitude to the staff of both the Federal Ministry of Education
and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their existing and
anticipated support for the ministers, saying their fusion is
the kind of blending he wants for Nigeria.
In the end, the visit
turned out into a re-union and a superb blending on a
micro-scale as Gov Lamido, the education minister and the
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs were joined, first, by
Ambassador Olufemi George, a retired ambassador and now Special
Adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs as well as one of
those who worked closely with Lamido when he was in the
ministry; Professor Joy Ogwu, herself former Minister of Foreign
Affairs and now Permanent Representative of the UN; Prof Ade
Adefuye; the ambassador to the United States; Dr Martins, the
Permanent Secretary of the Foreign Ministry and another of those
who worked closely with Lamido years back. It was this
congregation as it were that converged on Ambassador Gbenga
Ashiru, the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs.
What a convergence in
the new foreign affairs complex which is Nigeria’s real window on the world
in its impeccable and inherently motivating environ!
Onoja works in
Govt House, Dutse
Sule Lamido:
Between the Distinction and the Disaster-By
Adagbo Onoja
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