When this piece reaches the public, assuming all other factors remain constant, President Bola Tinubu will have sworn in all 48 nominees who underwent screening for confirmation as cabinet ministers during the senate plenary. They will have started the process of settling into their offices as cabinet ministers, thus effectively becoming members of the federal executive council.
Together with members of the national assembly with whom they share the same partisan convictions, the ministers will occupy the front row in the implementation squad of the Renewed Hope agenda of the Tinubu administration.
However, disregarding general positive action in favor of inclusivity, women’s representation in that cabinet falls deplorably short. Moreover, they entirely excluded the physically challenged group, and someone suppressed their participation in a deeply troubling manner. Not even a senate imbued with a more disagreeable pedestrian discernment would have let such fundamental flaws go forcefully unremarked at any point during the entire exercise.
Some individuals already view the minimal number of confirmed women as ministers and the disregard for people living with disabilities as a worrying indication of “business as usual.” They are awaiting convincing evidence to the contrary as the administration continues with the process of governance.
Anyhow, congrats to the ministers. They are welcome to a new slippery turf as political appointees who will manage men, materials, and money in the overall interest of society. Although for a couple of familiar faces among them, it has been a well-trodden path in the past it has to be said.
For ministers like Nasir El-rufai, Nyesom Wike and Festus Keyamo, it is a familiar ground. But the times are now different. Increasingly, Nigerians are becoming more aware of what political leadership means to their lives and the development of the country. Therefore, at no time have Nigerians desired a more qualitative leadership from the custodians of power than the prevailing period of unprecedented anguish resulting from decades of extremely poor leadership worsened by the outgone government.
The Tinubu administration is repeatedly touted in high quarters as being a “corrective administration.” The proof of this stirring assertion would begin to unfold more meaningfully as ministers roll out their programmes and engage the public in the days ahead. What is important though will be the extent to which this new crop of ministers help this administration push back on widespread corrupt and unethical practices, as well as what appears to be an enduring assault on basic freedoms and the rule of law which has continually constricted valid and sincere civic participation in the political, economic, social and cultural life in the country.
However, it’s important to note that at least two of these new ministers, during the same period in the Buhari administration, held top positions in government institutions. They received attention for almost simultaneously supervising varying degrees of unspeakable retaliation against whistleblowers who worked under them in the interest of the public. The African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) addressed these whistleblowers’ hardships while advocating for justice on their behalf.
Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi, a lawyer for almost four decades and nicely spoken gentleman of seemingly impeccable erudition and a silk to boot, was the chairman of the governing council of Yaba College of Technology which serially attacked a whistleblower, a chartered accountant and chief lecturer in the college’s department of accountancy, for his tenacious disclosures of corruption and other unethical practices in the college.
One of the whistleblowers reported a case of corruption involving the N1.68 billion revenue that the college generated internally between 2008 and 2014. However, this amount could not be accounted for in the purse. He fingered some top management staff for stealing the money. All efforts he made to get the governing council to address his concerns were rebuffed. The frustration resulting from not being able to have access to those who have the power to act on his concerns forced him to go public in an open letter to the chairman of the council, published in The Nation newspaper (August 25, 2017) appealing to him to act on the complaints he raised.
And that’s one characteristic of whistleblowers; they frequently take significant steps to have their concerns addressed within the organization. They turn to external whistleblowing, involving the media or law enforcement and anti-corruption agencies, only when their internal efforts go unheard.
For no other reason than being a strong voice against practices that could cause severe damage to the college’s reputation, this whistleblower, who was also at a time the bursar of the college, suffered all kinds of humiliation under the Yabatech governing council, which culminated in the ailment that led to his admission in a private clinic in Lagos. On March 9, 2018, just eleven days before his retirement from service and while still lying sick in the clinic bed, they delivered a letter of dismissal to him. This dismissal was based on the utterly absurd reason that he had taken the college matter to the media.
Even though the Senate intervened, vindicated him, and issued an order for him to retire honorably, only after the council insisted and he apologized (for doing what is right), did his dismissal change to mandatory retirement in December 2021. But that still didn’t stop the punishment from continuing. He remains the only retired principal officer that was denied all the perks attached to that privileged position. This whistleblower lives with that trauma till this day.
Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, an architect and mortgage financing expert who served a full five-year tenure as the managing director/chief executive officer of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), stands as Fagbemi’s partner in persecuting whistleblowers. During Dangiwa’s tenure, two internal auditors, acting as whistleblowers, faced victimization for two primary reasons.
First, for insisting on due process in the contract awarded by FMBN for the renovation of the Mamman Kotangora House, which was the bank’s headquarters in Lagos before it moved to Abuja. And second, for refusing the management’s directive to endorse the bank’s 2016 half-year income validation report which indicated a surplus of income over expenditure totalling N423,653,187. The internal audit group insisted it was a loss and not a profit as the bank’s management wanted the world to believe.
Many government workers are persistently inflicted with reprisals for exercising the right to refuse to partake in wrongdoing in their offices. This must stop in the Tinubu administration. FMBN launched its own retaliation in 2017. One of the whistleblowers faced suspension, while the other had their appointment terminated. The one who was suspended eventually resigned from their job upon being recalled and receiving a punitive reassignment from Abuja. The other struggled for two years, leading to their reinstatement. However, like their colleague, they were first reassigned from Abuja and subsequently dismissed in 2020. But persuaded by the justness of his cause, he has gone to court to seek redress.
Today, Fagbemi and Dangiwa, as definite honourable ministers, are charged to reflect on these horrid episodes and resolve not to re-enact them in their new tour of public duty at a higher level. As heads of ministries, departments and agencies and key functionaries in the executive arm of government, ministers are to manage their offices in a way that ensures fruitful implementation of government policies and promotes democratic accountability. They must commit to upholding the ideals of democracy by not only denouncing impunity but also punishing it and safeguarding the rule of law.
To succeed in that journey, they need as partners human rights defenders among whom are workers who are public interest whistleblowers, and journalists. Ministers should know that there are legions of public sector workers who do not possess the ability to see something wrong in their workplace and not say something. Instead of viewing such workers as disruptors of institutions who should be humiliated, ministers should embrace them as partners exercising a fundamental right to broaden the democratic space of free speech. As a result, they deserve full protection.
That’s a viable route to take if the Tinubu administration is genuinely interested in encouraging citizens to lend a patriotic hand in giving the country a refreshing break from the ugly past.
Again, congratulations to all confirmed ministers and hoping that they become the fulcrum of a concrete turnaround in the country’s quest for purposeful leadership.
Godwin Onyeacholem is Programme Manager at African Centre for Media & Information Literacy (AFRICMIL).
