PRESIDENT’S NAME, OATH AND TIME

go in.

The next problem is, at precisely what time will Tinubu become President of the Federal Republic and Commanderin-Chief? Everyone has been saying that he will become President on May 29. Since there are 24 hours, 1440 minutes and 86,400 seconds on May 29, we should be more precise than that in order to avoid a constitutional crisis. On January 20, 2009 when Barack Obama was being sworn in as 44th US President, the official program had it that the Chief Justice of the United States will administer the oath of office on him precisely at noon. But there was some delay in the program and when the clock struck noon, they had not reached the point where Obama will take the oath of office.

However, at the stroke of the hour, all the television networks zeroed in on Obama as he patiently sat on his chair. They declared that he was now President of the United States, oath of office or no. This was very important because if, God forbid, someone launched nukes at the United States, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will know who to take orders from at the stroke of noon. Our National Assembly should therefore buckle up and pass a law to fix the precise hour, minute and second at which the new president will take over, even if the Government Printer forgot to send a copy of the oath of office to Eagle Square.

What about if there is a mistake in the oath? On the day Obama was being sworn in, Chief Justice John Roberts told Obama to recite after him, but he made a mistake in reading the lines. Obama, who is very smart, noticed the mistake, smiled and recited the correct sentence. US newspapers later reported that the Chief Justice went to the White House the next day and administered the oath anew on Obama, this time correctly. In Nigeria here, if such a mistake is made in administering the oath, however minor, Obidients will rush to court and ask for the Inauguration to be declared null and void on account of it.

The Nigerian propensity to go to court after every election, when will we ever overcome it? On the day he lost the US presidential election in November 1960, Richard Nixon’s aides had some reason to think that the election results from Illinois were rigged. Northern Illinois, which is urban including the huge city of Chicago, usually votes Democrat while southern Illinois, which is rural and conservative, usually votes Republican. At some point the race for Illinois was neck and neck and television networks projected that whoever won the state will win the election. So, a nervous Democratic candidate John Kennedy put a call through to Chicago Mayor Dick Daley, the original political godfather. With results still uncertain, Daley told Kennedy, “Mr. President, don’t worry. You will win this state.” But when his aides advised that he should contest the Illinois results in court, Nixon stoutly refused, saying it would harm America’s image abroad. Those people here who are busy writing to the White House not to recognize Nigeria’s election results, did any American write to foreign countries in 1960 and asked them not to recognize Kennedy’s victory because of what Dick Daley may have done in Chicago?

When President Tinubu is settling down in his office, which newspaper articles should he be worried about and which calls from media editors should he personally answer? Well, there are some guides, again from the United States. In 1977, new US President Jimmy Carter read an opinion article critical of himself in the New York Times. He picked his pen, wrote a rejoinder, signed it and sent it to his Press Secretary, Jody Powell, for dispatch to the paper. Powell decided that it was beneath the President’s dignity to respond to a letter to the editor, so he put Carter’s letter aside and wrote his own.

Editors can be very imperious. In 1964, Managing Editor of Time magazine, Otto Fuerbringer, phoned the White House and asked to speak to President Lyndon Johnson. He was told that the president was attending a function, so he said, “When he returns, tell him to call me back. It is important.” Johnson was annoyed when he heard the editor’s order, but he called back. With his well-known habit of mutilating people’s names, Johnson said, “Who is that Foos-binger who said I must call him back?”

Smart Press Secretaries also know that it is not every presidential order that is to be obeyed. An order issued by the president in a fit of rage, one that could ruin the presidency, is not to be quickly obeyed. US President John Kennedy, who was very smart, was once so angry with CBS television network that he ordered his press secretary, Pierre Salinger, to call Federal Communications Commissioner and tell him to revoke CBS’ TV license. An hour later, President Kennedy emerged from the Oval Office, accosted Salinger and said, “Have you carried out my order?” Salinger said, “No, sir.” Kennedy said, “Thank you!”

For that matter, an editor should not cave in to every presidential threat. In 1961 when New York Times scooped the story of the CIA’s impending Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, President Kennedy called Times’ publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger and said if he published the story, American soldiers’ blood will be on his hands. Times withheld the story and when the invasion failed, Kennedy said Sulzberger should have published the story, which would have forced a cancellation of the invasion and would have spared the President terrible embarrassment. Correction On this page last week, a photo of Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni was used to illustrate the column titled Governor Without a Program. Some readers got the impression that he was the governor without a program. This was totally erroneous. While the episode in question happened in 2007, Buni only became a governor 12 years later. He is a dynamic governor with a coherent governance program. The wrong impression created is sincerely regretted.