A few good men

To clear any doubts that may ensue regarding this article, let me start by stating unequivocally that I literarily voted with my two hands and two legs for General Buhari in 2007, 2011 and 2015 and have been a great supporter of the man Buhari for many years. However, one of the things I promised myself in the build up to this last election and thereafter, was that I will be as brutally honest as possible on issues where I believe the President and his team are getting it wrong, so that they do not become like the King in the old fable who went into the toilet and came out with poo-poo stains on his long coat, but his loyalists were so loyal that they couldn’t tell him the truth, and allowed him to stink all day long, bringing shame and disrepute to himself and his kingdom.

I must declare that I am not very impressed with the President’s approach to putting together his team. Firstly, the long-awaited list of Ministers was at best disappointing: the list looked clearly like it was full of political stalwarts and associates of the President from his APP to CPC and now APC days – while there is nothing wrong with that it means that we run the risk of having government ministers create a system of patronage that has always been the problem with our public service, which if left unchecked may continue to cause great harm to us.

Very recently, the Vice President was quoted as saying that it was getting increasingly harder to find people who could serve as Chief Executives of government agencies, hence the slow pace in replacing the exited ones. Already for the few appointments that have been made – SMEDAN and NIMASA – you can still see the consistent pattern of falling back on political stalwarts. Let me also be categorical in saying that the fact that you are a political ally who has paid your dues to the President or the party does not make you a bad or unfit person. It just pre-disposes you to the temptations of political patronage and the inherent consequences that sometimes follow a system of political patronage.

Our President is approaching this challenge in an old, conventional way. My advice to him and his advisers is to try a more radical and potentially more innovative approach – cast a wider net. I think that the President is under-estimating how much of a real inspiration he has become to many decent Nigerians out there who can truly add value. By limiting himself to people that he has known before and who he therefore trusts, he isn’t tapping into the potential of the immense human capital in Nigeria that shares his vision and inspiration. When I shared this thought with someone the other day, he gave the example of the President’s media aide who didn’t exactly come from his direct circle of political influence – that is a great example, but it is the exception rather than the norm. I am not saying that loyal party men who are credible shouldn’t be on the President’s team, all I am advocating for is to cast the net wider, and tap into the pool of highly inspired professionals with the right pedigree and a shared vision out there waiting to serve.

I come from a private sector background, with a very good practical understanding of the workings of the public sector through years of interaction through my career, and here is what I have found: The only way to get the public service better is to make it run more like a private institution would. This is not just about hiring people from the private sector to take C-Level jobs in the public sector (as some people have done in the past), it is about changing the mindset of the public sector jobs by changing the processes by which people get those jobs in the first place – moving away from patronage (You came highly recommended by a party leader/minister) to pure meritocracy (you applied for the job, were evaluated amongst other candidates and you were found to be the best fit). We need to get people to actually indicate an interest and compete for these roles. I recall when there was a vacancy at the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the President at that time came out to declare that the job as well as other Chief Executive roles that required technical/professional expertise will be advertised going forward. I believe that Dr. Jonathan actually delivered on that promise and advertised the job, but I don’t think the process was followed to the end. The strategic resourcing for the headship of any organization sets the tone for what happens thereafter and while it is good to look out for loyalty and trust, experience shows that you can get even more loyalty and trust from competent people who share your ideals, passion and focus. My radical approach: advertise the jobs, work with experienced search consultants with very clear competency frameworks and assessment tools and put together a winning team for your agencies. This is what happens in right-thinking Corporate Nigeria, and if you ask the Entrepreneur/CEOs, on many occasions C-level executives hired this way end up becoming as loyal, valuable and even more impactful than those in their traditional circle of influence. Doing this not only helps our President find the Few Good Men he seeks but creates a pool of future leaders for our country who will indeed share his vision and create a legacy that transcends this Government.

I believe that one of the lessons we can take away from the last Buhari government that was overthrown in 1985 was that he perhaps did not build a large and powerful enough coalition of supporters – the Few Good Men that every Corporate CEO tries to build around him/her to ensure that the change vision sticks (John Kotter of Harvard Business School). There is a lot of bright energetic talent out there that is inspired by the President’s vision and focus and can help him run with his vision for a better Nigeria. Sourcing the next generation of Nigeria’s leaders requires a radical approach that deviates from the patronage of traditional selection to the meritocracy found in corporate placements.

Omagbitse Barrow