Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda And Appointees Rejection Trend

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has faced a lot of criticism, with many of his ministerial and other top-level appointees being rejected by Nigerians.

The reasons for the rejection of these appointees have been a source of debate, with some claiming that it was based on their lack of experience and qualifications, while others have argued that it was a political move and it is becoming more of a trend.

One of the popular slogans of Tinubu during the presidential campaign was ‘hitting the ground running’. However, with the trend of rejections of his appointees, who are expected to help him achieve the desired fits, it remains to be seen how President Tinubu will respond to the situation and the implications of the recurring events for his government.

Tinubu’s Appointments

Thus far, Tinubu has designated 47 ministers, along with several special advisers, board chairs, and agency heads, to assist in advancing his “Renewed Hope” agenda. Although many of these appointments have been commended, certain ones have generated controversy due to either the appointees’ qualifications or the public perception of them.

Below are some of President Tinubu’s appointments and the controversies that greeted their appointments.

Nyesom Wike

Former Governor of Rivers State and a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Nyesom Wike, is one of the forty-seven ministers, screened and confirmed by the Nigerian Senate for appointments into Tinubu’s administration.

Wike was screened and confirmed as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Shortly after his appointment, Wike embarked on a reshufflement tour, sacking heads of 21 agencies of government in the FCT.

Naija News reports that the development was commended by some Abuja residents who described it as ‘good riddance to bad rubbish’.

However, Wike subsequently became a ‘thorn in the flesh’ of some FCT residents after he embarked on an ‘illegal’ structure demolition tour. One of the notable critics of these events is the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC).

NLC, a member of the trade unions in Nigeria, outrightly rejected the demolition exercise being carried out by the FCT Minister, saying it was targeted principally at the poor working class.

It would be recalled that the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) announced in August 2023 that it had marked 500 illegal houses and structures for demolition in Dutsen-Garki in the Apo district of Abuja.

FCTA director of the Department of Development Control, Mukhtar Galadima, made this known after a meeting with the community leaders. Galadima, who was represented at the meeting by Hassan Ogbole, FCTA deputy director of monitoring and enforcement, said all structures found to have been illegally acquired or built would be demolished.

He expressed concerns that many residents are in the habit of acquiring properties and lands from the natives without approval from the FCTA.

Subsequently, a strict directive from Wike for the massive clearance of invaders of the proposed transitway corridor along Abuja’s Mabushi and Katampe Districts generated a barrage of reactions.

Scavengers, also known as ‘Baban Bolas’, mechanics, and furniture manufacturers were among those most affected by the operation, which was dubbed “the mother of all enforcement exercises” since it encompassed the demolition, clearing, and evacuation of enormous cashew plantations and shanties.

During a visit to the site, Wike described the place as an eyesore and said the area seems like a place where people commit crimes and run in to take refuge.

NLC Criticism

Reacting to some of the events, NLC president, Comrade Joe Ajaero, during an interview, described the demolitions as improper, saying the workers the government ought to provide houses for but failed to do so are now witnessing such tragedy from the Wike’s administration.

Responding to a question during an interview on AIT, Comrade Ajaero said: “Shelter is among Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and you go and demolish it and ask them to go to hell, and your so-called master plan is in your pocket.

“Nobody knows where your master plan is. And you watch NLC draw a battle line over Wike’s demolition plan in Abuja. Some of them use their retirement benefits to start a foundation (and you demolish it), that will not continue,” Ajaero had said.

Umahi Must Go Protest

Nigeria’s Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, was shown a rejection card in September 2023 after he reportedly locked out some civil servants from the ministry.

Naija News reported that the Minister prevented workers who came to work late from accessing the ministry. However, after the gate was opened, the Housing and Works Ministry workers reportedly refused to enter their offices.

The aggrieved workers were said to have occupied the gate entrance and insisted that the Minister must come out to address them.

They also claimed that he stopped engineers and directors from doing their work and has been breaking public service rules since his appointment by bringing in consultants to run the ministry’s affairs.

The protesting staff were chanting “Umahi Must Go” and lamented that they reside far away and there was no way they could come to the office early.

Dele Alake

Again, one of President Tinubu’s appointees who faced rejection was Dele Alake, who was assigned the portfolio of Minister of Solid Minerals.

However, there were concerns among certain groups that a ministry with the potential to revitalise Nigeria’s economy should have been entrusted to an expert with relevant experience rather than Alake, whose career has primarily focused on information management.

Recall that Alake was a former Lagos State Commissioner for Information. However, in response to the criticisms surrounding his appointment, Alake justified Tinubu’s decision by emphasising his sense of responsibility, expertise, and proven track record.

“My portfolio has been the upset of the entire cabinet because given my antecedents, exposure, and experience in the area of perception, information management, and the likes. So most people have pigeon whole me for information, and so we decided to shock everybody,” Alake said.

Hannatu Musawa

On August 24, 20223, Nigerians woke up to a bugging report that the Minister of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, is a serving National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member.

Naija News reports that Musawa’s appointment while she was still undergoing the mandatory one-year national youth service became a subject of controversy on and off social media.

Reacting to the President’s appointment of the young lady, the Director of Press and Public Relations of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Eddy Megwa, described Musawa’s occupation of public office while still serving as a breach of the NYSC Act.

According to him, Musawa was initially mobilised in 2001 for the youth service and deployed to Ebonyi State, where she had her orientation programme, but later relocated to Kaduna State to continue the programme.

Megwa added that she absconded and did not complete the programme when she got to Kaduna.

Also, a prominent lawyer, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, in a statement titled: “A Youth Corps Member is not Competent to be a Minister in Nigeria”, said that it was a violation of the law for anybody to accept a ministerial appointment while serving in the NYSC.

Ola Olukoyede

Last week, President Tinubu appointed Ola Olukoyede as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to replace the agency’s former boss, Abdulrasheed Bawa, who was suspended indefinitely “to allow for proper investigation into his conduct while in office.”

The recent appointment by Tinubu, however, generated intense discussions, particularly among legal practitioners who are divided over whether he met the requirements for the position as stipulated by the EFCC Act.

The Act provides that the person appointed as EFCC Chairman must have been a serving or retired member of any security or law enforcement agency, have 15 years cognate experience and must not be below the rank of assistant commissioner of police or its equivalent.

Joining in the arguments, Daniel Bwala, an Abuja-based lawyer and aide to Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), described the appointment “unlawful and illegal,” noting that “it runs foul of the provisions of Section 2 of the EFCC Act.

“This is the point; there is a line. The baseline is that the person must come from a security or law enforcement agency of the government, the reference is the government, not the private sector. Security is one that is covered by the National Security Agency Act, which comprises DIA, NIA and SSS. Law enforcement compromises the EFCC, the police, the NSCDC and the rest. He never investigated a single case because he did not come as an operative.

“Attending seminal courses as a private legal practitioner can’t equate to 15 years of cognate experience contemplated by Section 2 of the Act. He only has a stint as Chief of Staff of Magu, the former acting EFCC Chairman and later became a secretary of the commission, all of which lasted less than 6 years,” Bwala said.

In contrast, a former Chairman of the Section of Public Interest and Development Law (SPIDEL) of the Nigerian Bar Association, Monday Ubani, faulted Bwala’s stance, insisting that Olukoyede was qualified for the position.

“A lawyer for 22 years and having worked either five or six years in law enforcement agency has garnered that ‘cognate experience’ we are talking about since the Act itself is not specific. If you look at it, it doesn’t mention that you must continually be in a security agency. The man is qualified,” Ubani said.

Tola Odeyemi

Furthermore, the recent appointment of Tola Odeyemi as the Chief Executive Officer/Post Master General of the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) was met with strong opposition from the workers.

In a post that has since been deleted from X (formerly Twitter), NIPOST claimed that the previous CEO, Adeyemi Adepoju, had been reinstated, disregarding the official announcement made by the spokesperson for the President, Chief Ajuri Ngelale.

Naija News had earlier reported how workers, as a result of their discontent, took action on Monday by shutting down the head office of the service in Abuja as a form of protest against Tola Odeyemi’s appointment recent appointment by President Tinubu.

Addressing journalists during the protest at the NIPOST headquarters in Abuja, the President of the National Union of Postal and Telecommunication Employees, Nehemiah Buba, expressed his concern that the new appointment goes against the best interests of the workers.

“Under Adeyemi Adepoju, NIPOST was able to clear the debt it owed, and that is the reason why we are having a smooth process in our service.

“We have seen a situation crumble this organisation the past three years, and today we are saying no to it. Today we are requesting that the postmaster general should be allowed to continue the good work he has started,” Buba said.

Rejection Trend In Tinubu’s Govt, What Must Be Done

Institutional Reforms Advocate and Convener of EndSARS, Segun Awosanya, also known as Segalink, shared his opinion with Naija News on the latest trend of rejection and criticisms of President Tinubu’s appointment.

In his submissions, Awosanya said, “Nigerians do not like Change/Reforms (they only celebrate the idea of such) and will always loathe anyone that executes reform successfully or shows promise in doing so.

“It was true in my father’s case in public service, my case wasn’t any different with the Police Reform, and as we can see in recent developments, nothing has changed because of the age-long ideological subversion that reinforces demoralisation. When fighting for the emancipation of Africans, scholars have posited that this must be done with one hand while the other hand should be reserved for the protection of the self from attacks from the very same people you are fighting for.

“I celebrate Distinguished Sir A.G. Abubakar of the CAC, who was also ganged up against by the civil servants based on his strict reforms, and I know posterity/history will be kind to him.

“He is an outlier and a reform-minded Patriot who did everything humanly possible to remove human interference in the CAC processes, thus blocking avenues for bureaucratic corruption, and you can see how the civil service responded with a celebratory protest when he left office.”

Tinubu Has Rights To Appoint Anyone

Speaking on Wike’s appointment by President Tinubu and the Minister’s ‘strict’ operations being heavily criticised in the country’s capital since he assumed office, Awosanya said: “Abuja residents have no control over the appointment of the FCT Minister, and it remains the prerogative of the President to appoint anyone he deems suited for the job as done. Anything else is a mere distraction.”

NIPOST CEO Protest

On the protest staged by workers at the NIPOST headquarters over Tinubu’s appointment of their new head, Awosanya said, “The illegal and antagonistic shutdown of NIPOST is not in the spirit of progress and must be condemned in the strongest of terms. It is clear that there is hunger in the land, and people will sink as low as possible to earn their keep as persuaded by agents of chaos.”

Umahi: Workers Not In Position To Dictate To Their Boss

Commenting on the protest weeks ago at the federal Ministry of Works and Housing in Abuja, where Minister of Works, Umahi reportedly locked out some staff for coming late to work, Awosanya said that if there are challenges, it can be settled amicably.

He disagreed with workers dictating to their boss what, how and when to report to their duty post.

He added, “Umahi is not wrong to demand commitment to duty from civil servants, they are in no position to dictate to their boss when to report to work. If there are challenges, this can be visited and ameliorated, but a Mexican stand-off must be avoided at all costs.

“In the history of man, the tyranny of the majority has never yielded anything positive. Would we celebrate the folks who chose Barabas, a known murderer and rogue, over Jesus Christ and celebrate such as Vox Populi?

“How then can the agents of demoralisation and known cancerous nodes within the system dictate to the leadership who should direct the affairs of Ministries, Directorates and Agencies?”

Nigerians Must Respect Tinubu’s Decisions

According to Awosanya, the electorates, by majority vote, elected Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and must respect his decision enough to let him choose people he deems fit to convey and direct the vision of his administration at the MDAs.

He said: “Their alleged rejection should be seen as the right litmus for progress because anyone they celebrate would most likely allow for the culture of impunity within the bureaucracy to flourish.

“There is also a deeper level of the unconscious mind that all human beings share, which Carl Jung called the collective unconscious. Collective unconscious is not dependent upon our personal experiences but rather is inherited from prior generations of humans. The pattern of this strain shows why development is an arduous task in Africa due to the consideration of mindset change as a curse.

One of my favourite authors, Carl Jung wrote in his journal —the Madness of Crowds – “If people crowd together and form a mob, then the dynamism of the collective man are let loose – beasts or demons that lie dormant in every person until he is part of a mob. Man in the mass sinks unconsciously to an inferior moral and intellectual level… It is certainly a good thing to preach reason and common sense, but what if you have a lunatic asylum for an audience or a crowd in a collective frenzy? There is not much difference between them because the madman and the mob are both moved by impersonal, overwhelming forces… Look at the incredible savagery going on in our so-called civilised world: it all comes from human beings and their mental condition the whole thing blows up, and an indescribable hell of devastation is let loose, nobody seems to be responsible… All one’s neighbours are in the grip of some uncontrollable fear, just like oneself. In lunatic asylums, it is a well-known fact that patients are far more dangerous when suffering from fear than when moved by rage or hatred.” (Carl Jung, Civilization in Transition).

“As you can see, there is nothing new under the sun. The woke mind virus is what must be curbed within the bureaucracy and the country as a whole. Nothing should be treated with kid gloves, as the civil service is due for a holistic overhaul.

“Our people will forever work toward the rollback of most reforms if there is no provision for effective and sustainable monitoring and evaluation of the policies.

“We are a peculiar people worth studying. Our society is jaundiced and decrepit, and we are mostly our own problem.”