A civil society group, Centre for Leadership Legacy Int’l (Centre LLI), has advised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to avoid recruiting people with failed past leadership engagements into his government as public servants.
Specifically, the Centre LLI warned against prioritising party patronage over competence, character, pedigree and track records.
A statement signed by the Centre’s executive director, Dr. Yakubu Yiri Idris, reminded the president that the buck stopped on his table, and that if he failed to meet the expectations of Nigerians on account of appointment of people of questionable character, he had posterity to contend with.
According to the statement, the CSO told Tinubu that no one would share the blame with him if he allowed politicians with selfish motives to misguide him.
It specifically gave an instance of a former managing director of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) who, it said, was being paraded before the president for appointment after being eased out of office following allegations of sleaze, high-handedness and abuse of office.
“As MD of the agency, the former boss severed NPA’s relationship with Intels, notwithstanding the huge amount of revenue and infrastructure upgrade that the company brought to the Authority. Before the outsourcing of the service to Intels for management, the Authority was earning a paltry sum of $6 million per annum from service boat operations, but when the company took over, it deployed modern facility and expertise, helping to grow the revenue from about $6 million in 1998 to over $200 million per annum.”
It said, “As growing oil and gas economy, the need for the development of an oil and gas logistic zone in replica to what obtains in the East was necessary. Just like Intels that took a lead in the development of an oil and gas logistics base in the East, Messrs Ladol limited also took a lead in the west. However, following the mismanagement of the dispute between Ladol and one of its tenants, Messrs Samsung ltd, the matter became an issue of litigation and eventual intervention by the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation following a presidential directive.
“There are reports that there are plans to impose certain persons whose track records are tainted on the president for appointments into his cabinet. The need for the president to appoint individuals of unblemished character is more urgent now than ever.
“It will amount to playing Ostrich, if we tread old paths and expect a positive change. Tinubu has a golden opportunity to re-work Nigeria. We would be behaving like the Ostrich if we continue to repeat old mistakes and expect our system to get better. Tinubu has a golden opportunity to re-write the history of this country.”
