When EVERYTHING GOES WRONG, Blame Fashola, Kemi & Buhari!

We are a blame-centric people. Nigerians are quick to point fingers in any direction and to anyone that is anyone other than ourselves. It’s in our nature to deny responsibility for actions or in-actions mainly because it’s less stress having to explain to people the “hows” and “whys”. For many of us, actions doesn’t always have to result in consequences. For instance, everyone dumps their refuse in a nearby canal on our street instead of the government approved waste bin. When the rains come and waste water floods our homes and weaken the roads for want of a channel to pass, we groan and murmur and the next logical thing is to blame the government for our misdeeds. 

Another example is when parents who probably had no business having more than 3 children end up having 10 and neglect raising them well, they turn to miscreants and bring so much heartache to the populace and the next best thing to do is to point fingers in the government’s direction for not providing employment to the “teeming youth population”. Consider a man who bribes his way through the governance system to get approval for a parcel of land located in a choice area of town and he eventually lands a sweet morsel of real estate located along the designated water channel on the City’s Master Plan. After he has built his dream house there and another “pharaoh that didn’t know Joseph” takes over and decides to return to the initial Masterplan, we all raise our heads in a bitter cry of persecution and blame government for all our woes. Why? Because it’s the most logical thing to do. Poverty is the reason why some women sell their bodies for money; not indiscipline, Unemployment is the reason why young people peddle hard drugs; not greed, Low minimum wage is the reason why the civil service is in shambles; not incompetence. The blame list is endless. Like I said earlier, for many of us, actions don’t come with consequences. 

Now the President has released his list of Cabinet members; more than 5 months after he stepped into office. And at this time, Nigerians have since given up on Pa Buhari on the over-stretched issue of Ministers mainly because most Nigerians feel that a government (any government for that matter) is judged by the caliber of its constituent members. It is an unwritten rule in Nigeria that the success of any administration is dependent on the quality of people you select to work with you. If the health ministry is functional, it’s because the President had the sense to bring in a performer to run the place. In times past and in the years to come, Nigerians will always judge its leaders by their lieutenants a.k.a The Subjects of Blame (See Jonathan vs Diezani & Okonjo-Iweala). From the point where the Ministerial Nominee list was presented to the Senate President to the screening or what I will tag “Ask Dumb/Unintelligent Questions So Nigerians Will See Me Speaking” to the presentation of portfolios, we have followed the processes steadily with bated breath and now it is certain. We now have 24 Official Subjects of Blame for the remaining 3 years of the life span of the Buhari/Osibanjo reign. 

Chief among them and in my own estimation and most deserving is former Governor of Lagos State Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN- the second Raji to rule the state after Col. Raji Rasaki. I must admit that while studying the President’s body language before, during & after the elections, it came as no surprise to me that the publicly acclaimed Lagos Golden Boy will move to Abuja to work closely with the Nigerian No.1 citizen judging by the closeness the two of them seemed to be in recent times. In fact, I make bold to declare that Governors Fashola and Fayemi are true men after the President’s heart and for that reason, it would have been impossible not to entrust them with the sensitive stuff based on their pedigree and ability to deliver. So while Dr Fayemi got thrown into the deep end of the Ministry of Solid Minerals, his Lagos counterpart was bombarded with the last three of the Big Five most powerful Ministries which include Finance, Petroleum, Power, Works & Housing.
I am totally sold on the idea of merging ministries as I am also convinced that Fashola is able to the task of managing any of the ministries given him judging from his amazing feats in Power through the numerous million dollar Lagos IPPs or his outstanding performance in the Works sector of Lagos by delivering major road projects (Victoria-Island-Ajah & the Toll Gates are my personal favorites) or in the Housing sector with the numerous Housing Estates springing up around the state through the now famous Home Ownership via Mortgage scheme and not forgetting the ambitious Eko Atlantic City, Lekki Free Trade Zone among others. In these aspects, Fashola scores an A and the President was right to place these three big Ministries in his care. 

Nigerians have found in Fashola, a credible whipping pole to blame when the Lights go out justifiably or otherwise (even when we haven’t paid the light bill), previously Professor Chinedu Nebo was the Subject of Blame (SOB) in this regard. Now Journalists have a face to place in their articles when they want to bring the attention of Nigerians & the FG to the terrible Calabar-Itu Road or the Enugu-Onitsha Road hitherto it was Mike Onolememen. During the Jonathan-era of 2011-2015, the chubby cheeked bespectacled International Economist & former World Bank Vice President Dr. Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had her photograph splattered on pages of the National Dailies and online with her trademark headgear for mostly the wrong reasons. 

If she wasn’t tackled by pundits for allegedly destroying the Economy or depriving States of access to the all-important Sovereign Wealth Fund, she was most likely having allegations thrown at her for missing monies from time to time or she was at the receiving end of constant and vicious attacks by men who today occupy top positions and have risen to the pinnacle of their political career on the back of these public attacks like our new Minister of Transport and ex-Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, controversial former CBN Governor and now Emir of Kano, H.E Lamido Sanusi Lamido or Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole. Now that power has changed hands, the British trained and deeply accented ex-Ogun State Finance Commissioner will be the new SOB. She should expect missiles from familiar and not-so familiar quarters, perhaps Governor Fayose of Ekiti State and PDP’s Sole Pugilist/APC’s biggest headache will take constant swipes at her like Amaechi did Okonjo-Iweala or maybe not. Her visits to the National Assembly for hearings will be frequent, her reception by the sharply divided chambers may not be as cordial, but she must be ready to be blamed for anything and everything relative or not, relevant or otherwise under the sun.
Aha! We come to the Petroleum portfolio! I sincerely thought that by now our President should have learnt how to deflect attention from himself especially in this era where new media channels have pulled off the hinges off the gates of the ordinarily streamlined one-source conventional media and access to information is now universal, seemingly Buhari seems to revel in all the courtesy granted him, but who can blame him? Nobody looked his way since his last job as PTF Chair during the Abacha Years. 

Now it seems is the time to embrace the spotlight, and our Number One man figures the best way to keep being “relevant” is to grab the Petroleum Ministry portfolio for himself for effective oversight. If it is attention he seeks, it is sure that it is attention that he will get…and an abundance of it. However can someone  tell Buhari & his handlers to refer to The Book of Diezani for more details of how to escape with only your skin as a SOB for Petroleum, it is not a position work envying even if you are doing it for a second time as in the case of President Buhari.