Canticles...
When would the newly-appointed board members to Federal Government agencies be inaugurated? The dead are yet to confirm the venue and the time. The inauguration will take place soon as they are agreed on those details. What do you mean?
Exactly what I said. I spoke English. What kind of stupid English did you speak? I am talking of appointed Board members and you are taking us to the morbid realm.
It is not me that is taking you to the morbid realm. It is our President. Or did you not hear that he appointed (folding each finger as he counts) one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight men into various Government agencies and parastatals? Or did you hear that he has replaced the names of the dead Nigerians so appointed?
Come on, don’t be cheeky my friend. Everybody knows it was a mistake. The presidency has even apologised. So why are you over-dramatising the human error? After all, to err is human and to forgive divine.
What kind of apology is that? In a country where unemployment is rising so faithfully and dutifully, a country where over four million jobs have been lost in the last two years, a country where companies are shutting down and even those who are employed cannot be paid, leading to suicide, then a government is unabashedly announcing the appointment of eight dead persons when the living are itching to be employed. Awwwww, take it easy. The government has said the list has a history and that…
(cuts in, raising his palm, like a traffic warden) Please spare me that nonsense.What kind of history? Why did you not ask them if the list also has a Geography?
They explained that the list had been drawn up two years ago. And that at the point of releasing it, they could not check to edit and update it. Why would a list even last in their hands for two whole years? What were they doing with it?
Is that not the narrative of the incompetent and the weak? Only in Nigeria will such a faux pas be explained away in such vexatious negligence and everybody will carry on as if nothing was wrong. The next thing they will say now is to set up a committee to investigate when and how the people affected, died without official notice to the secretary to the government of the federation. And a few millions of Naira will flow out. That’s how we roll! You are being unduly comical. It was an error, and it’s been acknowledged. Let the nation move on.
What kind of error? Did you not hear one presidential appointee, Prof Itse Sagay, a SAN for that matter, defend the action, asking whether President Buhari should have gone knocking from door to door to ascertain who was dead and who was still alive before making his appointments? Is that the tone or language of a government that is apologetic? Itse Sagay, is neither the spokesman of the government nor of Mr President. So, you will do well to ignore such side and off-record commentaries.
Ok, do you know that over 70 per cent of the said appointed dead people died at over 75 years old? In a country where the youths are idling away because of joblessness, a government that is devoted to growing the economy is thrusting government business into the hands of septuagenarians and octogenarians? People who are already in the Departure Lounge of life! What fire do such people yet have left in them to drive government business in a modern world driven by technology and stiff open market competition? I am sure the likes of Edwin Clarke and Balarabe Musa would have also made the list if they were not vocal voices in the opposition camp. You know experience is not what you can buy in the market. Many of these people you are referring to are doyens of administration and…
(cuts in) You mean analogous doyens?
Look, the point to make is that these experienced people know and understand how government works.They understand the intricacies and nuances of bureaucracy.They are a lot more careful, unlike the rash and rave of younger folks who are …
(cuts in again) It is this “nuances and intricacies of bureaucracy” that has put Nigeria where we are today. The old crooks who are never willing to let go, or allow the younger folks to step in… they have perfected all the tricks in the book on how to circumvent the Nigerian system. They know all the short-cuts to fraud and all the untraceable password to the public till. They are why Nigeria is where she is.
I think you should free your mind. President Buhari means well in looking for people who can deliver. It is unfortunate that death had claimed the affected persons. No doubt, there are many able and intelligent Nigerians that will soon be appointed to replace those who have joined their ancestors.
I want you to first admit that President Buhari has an uncanny love for old people like him. That was how he went to appoint an 82-year-old papa, Sylvanus Nsofor, as Nigeria’s ambassador to the United States. Is it that Mr President does not trust the Nigerian youth?
How can you say that? Who else but Buhari has ever appointed a 40-something year old as Minister of Finance? Or how else can a youth be, if not a Kemi Adeosun? Do you know that the likes of Kayode Fayemi, Rotimi Amaechi, Abubakar Malami , Mrs Aisha Abubakar, Femi Adesina, Garba Shehu etc., are all very young people?
Look, I don’t care how much defence you mount for Mr President. Go and tell him that it is bad enough that his appointment pendulum is often tilting to the old and the weak, yet it will be damn unpardonable if he finally starts looking into the club of the dead to appoint. Stop overplaying the point. It was an error and it won’t happen again. Please let the dead rest in perfect peace.