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Drug War: The President Is Right After All!

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Army: Examining The Buratai's Paradox

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Emmanuel Onwubiko

In his second term and indeed final tenure of office as the civilian president of the world’s largest black nation known as Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, a retired infantry general and a veteran of two wars (civil war and war against Maitasine Islamists from Cameroun), made a great choice of who should head the rapidly deteriorating National Drugs law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) with his appointment of the erstwhile military Administrator of Lagos State Major General Buba Marwa (rtd).

The previous holder of that position picked by President Buhari in 2015 almost succeeded in destroying what was left of that anti-hard drugs fighting institution. NDLEA used to be effective when IGPs Fulani Kwajafa and Ogbonnaya Onovo headed it at different times. But it later became a nest of crooks.  The last person to occupy the position, although not a crook but throughout his tenure there was a lack of accountability to Nigerians.

Having said that, let me quickly warn that the current Chairman of the NDLEA who has a military background and was loved by the Lagos/Ibadan media for being media savvy needs to know that his position is not a media popularity contest, but his achievements would be assessed based on empirical evidence of successful arrests, prosecution, conviction and the institutionalization of a law-based mechanism that is characterized by transparency and accountability.

So his success or failure will not be benchmarked by how many of these media trials he authorizes his officers to conduct each time a suspect is arrested. Marwa should read section 36 (5) of the 1999 constitution and section 6 of the same Grund Norm.

These constitutional provisions state as follows: section 36 (5) “Every person who is charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed to be innocent until he is proved guilty; provided that nothing in this section shall invalidate any law by reason only that the law imposes upon any such person the burden of proving particular facts.

Section  (6) The judicial powers vested in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this section – (a) shall extend, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this constitution, to all inherent powers and sanctions of a court of law (b) shall extend, to all matters between persons, or between government or authority and to any persons in Nigeria, and to all actions and proceedings relating thereto, for the determination of any question as to the civil rights and obligations of that person; (c) shall not except as otherwise provided by this Constitution, extend to any issue or question as to whether any act of omission by any authority or person or as to whether any law or any judicial decision is in conformity with the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy set out in Chapter II of this Constitution; (d) shall not, as from the date when this section comes into force, extend to any action or proceedings relating to any existing law made on or after 15th January, 1966 for determining any issue or question as to the competence of any authority or person to make any such law. Section 6 is basically about the judicial powers of the Federation domiciled in the courts of law and not court of public opinion or gossip newspapers.

Coming back to the theme of this commentary, I must state that the report in the media crediting the president as stating that drug war is much more complex than war on terror is semantically, logically and existentially accurate. Mr. President has never been this philosophically deep. Perhaps the writer of that speech must have been in a very sober mood.

And so, on June 26th 2021, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari identified drug trafficking and abuse as more threatening to the stability of the nation than banditry and insurgency that are prevalent in some parts of Nigeria.

The president declared that drug abuse had become so endemic in the country now that it already stretches across three generations of grandparents, parents and their wards.

This is just as the media reported that the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has disclosed that within the last five months, no fewer than 2,180 suspected traffickers including five drug barons had been nabbed across the country.

President Buhari, who was represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, spoke at the launch of the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA), an initiative of the NDLEA to mark the United Nations International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking themed: “Share Facts on Drugs. Save Lives.”

According to the president, it is a war that is destroying three generations, because there were clips of some grandparents on drugs, parents on drugs, and by extension, their wards and children had also taken to drugs.

“So, this is a war that is targeting three generations in a stretch. So, it is more deadly than even the security challenges that we are having in this country and I believe strongly that every effort must be put in place to ensure that we deal with the issues of substance abuse and trafficking and manufacture so that we can get to the root cause of the mirage of insecurity problems that are confronting this nation and I believe strongly, with every bit of conviction, that if we are able to deal with the issues of drug abuse, substantially, our security challenges will drastically reduce as we walk towards a drug-free Nigeria.”

The president also charged the NDLEA to intensify efforts at ridding the vast forests of the Southw-West and South-South regions of the country of criminal elements, who have made the places their hideouts, from where they launch criminal onslaughts as well as for farming marijuana.

President Buhari said: “I am directing the NDLEA to develop a robust risk-communication and community engagement strategy that will not only disseminate the four pillars of the plan to responsible entities, but also deal with destroying production sites and laboratories, break the supply chain, discourage drug use and prosecute offenders as well as traffickers, rehabilitate addicts and enforcement of relevant laws.

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“I want to particularly draw the attention of the agency to the fact that the use of many of our forests as criminal hideouts is because large swathes of cannabis plantations are hidden deep within those forests, especially, in the Southwest and the South-South.

“You may, therefore, need to drive these criminal elements from such hideouts, because they use it for the growth of these plants and also as a repository for criminal elements to conclude and plan their adventures on our people”.

He called on all families, schools, civil society organisations, professional associations, religious organisations, the academia, community leaders and individuals to work for the common good in order to rid their communities of drug use and trafficking.

“As your president, I will continue to address underlying causes of drug abuse, including poverty reduction, for which my pledge for lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years and strengthened by the recently developed National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy signposts my unwavering commitment.”

I am tempted to assist President Buhari to adumbrate further and better evidential proofs to demonstrate how so accurate he is on this his very well written and delivered national speech on the wider implications of hard drugs.

First, it is not in doubt that most countries around the world often put measures in place to check the proliferation of drugs trafficking due to the fundamental truism that drugs affect mostly the young population who are at the stage that is scientifically and economically rated as the years of highest National Economic productively. The productivity of the youngest population of Nigeria, obviously, is the driving force of both the formal and informal sectors of Nigeria’s economy.

It therefore implies that if the greater percentage of young people are hooked on hard drugs or are in the business of assisting older drug barons to traffick hard drugs, then the economic wellbeing of Nigeria will shrink significantly and most of the youths engaged in the crime of drug trafficking when caught may spend the greater fraction of their lives in detention facilities.

Already, many young Nigerians have been executed in many Asian nations whereby drug trafficking is a capital offence.
Also, it is globally and statistically proven that most takers and consumers of hard drugs are young people.

These drug habits lead to diverse ramifications, sociologically, psychologically and other wise.
Two cases locally demonstrate the above.

Assuming without accepting hook, line and sinker, the illegal public parade of the 21-year- old student of University of Lagos  Chidinma Ojukwu about the alleged murder of the middle age media entrepreneur Mr. Usifo Asaga in Lagos, what is a lesson from those shenanigans is the aspect of hard drugs and the science surrounding the altering of the mind of youngsters to commit unimaginable crime that if they are in their conscious mind without hard drugs, they may ordinarily never commit such alleged heinous crime.

Let us take the case of a very popular drug amongst youths of Nigeria known as tramadol.  Scientists have these warnings for us: Addiction and misuse: This drug can lead to addiction and misuse, which can result in overdose and death. To help avoid these problems, take this drug exactly as prescribed by your doctor. If you have any concerns about this warning, talk with your doctor.
Slowed or stopped breathing: This drug can slow or stop your breathing. If this isn’t treated immediately, it can cause death. This risk is highest within three days of starting the drug or increasing your dosage.

Accidental ingestion: If anyone, especially children, take a dose of this drug by accident even once, it can cause death. This drug should be stored out of reach of children.

Life-threatening effects for children: In some cases, children’s bodies can process this drug too quickly. This can lead to slowed breathing and death. This drug shouldn’t be used in children younger than 12 years of age. It should also not be used in children younger than 18 years of age who have certain risk factors, or who have just had a tonsillectomy or adenoidectomy.

Neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome: If you use this medication for a long time while you’re pregnant, it can cause withdrawal in your baby. Withdrawal in your baby can lead to death. Symptoms of withdrawal can include irritability, hyperactivity, unusual sleep patterns, and a high-pitched cry. They can also include tremor, vomiting, diarrhea, and failure to gain weight.

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Interactions with certain drugs: Taking tramadol with certain drugs can cause varied serious effects. These effects include increased tramadol levels, possibly leading to seizures and serotonin syndrome. They also include reduced effectiveness of tramadol, and opioid withdrawal symptoms. The drugs that can cause these effects include amiodarone, quinidine, erythromycin, ketoconazole, ritonavir, and similar medications.

Interactions with benzodiazepines: Taking tramadol with benzodiazepines and other similar drugs can cause very serious effects. These effects can include severe fatigue, slowed breathing, coma, and death. (healthline.com).

Just read the report carried in today’s The Guardian newspaper of Nigeria of a young student who jumped to his death after taking some identified hard drug.

The Guardian, the flagship of African media space,  reports that a 400-level optometry student of Abia State University, Uturu, has been confirmed dead after jumping down from a three-storey building.

He was reported to be on drugs when he jumped from his lodge called Favour Lodge located off the campus on Saturday evening.
Reports by students revealed that the deceased, identified as Francis Chibuike, in the video recorded after he took a hard drug known as Colorado, was unable to contain its effect.

According to some students, his friends reportedly locked him in the room and went in search of cassava flakes known as garri to restore him back to consciousness, but the deceased went through the balcony and jumped down from the building with blood gushing out from his head before they returned.

A student from the school, Paul Udo, in his Facebook post, said the deceased jumped from the stairs with head shattered beyond medical help. Another student, Nnadi Thyword, while commenting on the incident, said: “Come to think of it; he is a medical student and ought not to be told the dangers of these drugs. It is doubtful to say that those who take these drugs don’t know the negative effects. This is simply an addiction.”

In the video made available to The Guardian yesterday, the student recording the video, who appeared to own the apartment, where Francis had taken the substance, was heard saying: “I told you not to take it, but you did. I told you I don’t like it. ”

According to a news publication, the Chief Security Officer (CSO) of the institution, Navy Commander ThankGod Evulobi (retired), confirmed the incident, describing it as one of the consequences of hard drugs.

According to him, the deceased, who is from Imo State, drugged himself and told his friends that he was going out only for him to jump out from the window.

Aside from this aforementioned story, stories abound of several cases of suicides by young students which are attributable to the consequences of intake of hard drugs. Some jumped into the Lagos lagoon. Others simply took poisons and died.

Fortunately, Nigeria is not found wanting in the area of policy development on how the theme of hard drugs is textually and contextually formulated.

Nigeria has immensely benefitted from the technical assistance it is getting from the United Nations office on drugs and crime.

The partnership between Nigeria and that United Nations agency is about one of the most effective models that other sectors need to follow.

However, institutionally, Nigeria needs to upgrade the NDLEA to become much more focused on the much- needed coordinated war against hard drugs that won’t be basically media centred and mere popularity contest.

But rather, there is the need for better investments in the area of rehabilitation of  drugs users. A good institution like the NYSC especially under the current wonderful leadership of Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim should be consulted and a sustainable working partnership entered between NDLEA and NYSC to confront the hydra-headed monster of drugs intakes and trafficking especially because the National Youth Service Corps scheme has become a very successful functional brand in the country that focuses on youngsters.

Hundred of thousands of youngsters who are hooked on drugs have had to waste away as criminals and murderers because the Nigerian system has failed them because it has always been focused on being on the front pages of newspapers than on how many drug users have been rehabilitated.

I have had to read through the executive summary of the policy document prepared by Nigeria on the strategy for combating hard drugs menace that covers the year 2021 to 2025. I must say that if the beautifully written policy document is effectively implemented, then I believe the majority of our youths misled into embracing the use of hard drugs, will see the futility in so doing and resolve to stay far away from such life-damaging habits and also deny drugs barons the recruitment markets for traffickers.

NDLEA should focus also on enlightening youngsters on the dangers of the use and trafficking of hard drugs making use of credible civil rights platforms such as the one that yours faithfully coordinates called Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria
A bird’s eye view or synopsis of this policy document will convince us that our problem is not the lack of written texts but rather the bureaucratic bottlenecks slowing down the institutional mechanisms for the effective delivery of these aims and objectives of combating hard drugs which sociologically impact Nigeria much more than terrorism.

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The terrorism of hard drugs needs to be confronted and NDLEA needs funding and operational independence if we must attain these lofty goals. It can’t be going cap in handing begging for funds and receiving paltry allocation through the justice ministry as if it is a Boys Brigade organisation.  The job of NDLEA is very critical.

Before I forget, here are snippets of the policy document aforementioned.

“The overall goal of NDCMP 2021–2025 is to improve health and security for everyone living in Nigeria. It is based on the premise that the problems arising from drug supply and consumption are not limited to people who use drugs, but have wider health, social and economic consequences on the family, community and nation. The plan contains four strategic pillars that culminate in an integrated multi-sectoral strategic and operational plan to comprehensively address drug issues in Nigeria. The pillars are: Supply Reduction; Drug Demand Reduction; Access to Controlled Medicines for Medical and Scientific Purposes; and Governance and Coordination. Each of the strategic pillars is anchored in one or two MDAs of the Government that will be responsible for achieving desired outcomes.”

“The desired result of the supply reduction strategic pillar is to reduce production and supply of illicit drugs, including illicit narcotics, precursors, psychotropic substances, and other nationally and internationally controlled drugs. The five desired outcomes are: 1) Increased disruption of drug trafficking; 2) Making drug trade unprofitable; 3) Reduced diversion from licit to illicit uses of narcotics, psychotropic substances and precursors; 4) Reduced illicit production of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) and new psychoactive substances (NPS); and 5) Reduced cannabis cultivation. NDLEA is the lead agency for this strategic pillar.”

“The strategic pillar on Drug Demand Reduction builds on the sensitization, advocacy, prevention and treatment programmes carried out in the previous NDCMP cycle. The desired outcome is a reduction in demand for drugs, as measured in four areas: 1) Reduced use of drugs (prevention and sensitization); 2) Reduced dependence on drugs (treatment); 3) Reduced harm caused by drug use; and 4) Improved services. NDLEA, FMOH, NAFDAC and NACA are the lead organizations for this pillar.”

The strategic pillar on Access to Controlled Medicines for Medical and Scientific Purposes is meant to address the problem of a lack of availability of controlled medicines for genuine patients and its severe impact on the health and wellness of Nigerians. This pillar, therefore, seeks improved access and appropriate use of controlled medicines, measured by: 1) Increased accessibility, affordability and availability of controlled medicines in public and private health facilities; 2) Rational use of controlled medicines; 3) Health systems strengthening for accessibility, availability and affordability; and 4) Preventing diversion of controlled medicines. FMOH and NAFDAC are the lead organizations for this pillar.”

By and large, I repeat that President Muhammadu Buhari struck the most melodious right chord on this issue. I so submit. Except to say that I’m still dancing to the melodious tunes of the president’s most philosophically written speech in 6 years.

Onwubiko is the head of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) and was a federal commissioner at the National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria.

 

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Opinion

Faith In God Or Guns: Priests, And Divine Protection On Trial

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Witch Burning, Impunity And Abuses Linked to Witchcraft Beliefs In Benue State
Dr Leo Igwe

By Leo Igwe

A recent case where a Catholic priest shot and killed a member of his parish in Imo State in southern Nigeria has occasioned a crisis of faith. The incident has compelled people, believers, and non-believers to raise fundamental questions about the conduct of clerics, and faith in divine protection. As was reported, this Catholic priest shot and killed a church member on December 31, 2024. The church member allegedly threw a knockout or banger at him during an end-of-the-year activity, and in return, the priest shot and killed him. The police are investigating the matter, and the Catholic priest is currently in custody.

Some people said the action of the priest was  not intentional, that he shot the guy in self-defense. That he did not know that what the guy threw at him was a knockout.

Others said it was an accidental discharge. Whatever the case, whether the shooting was deliberate or not, the fact is that this priest shot and killed his church member. And people are asking many questions. People are trying to make sense of this tragic event. A key question in the minds of many people is this: What is a Catholic priest doing with a gun in a church? Think about it. This is a valid question. What was this guy doing with a gun in a house of god? Some are wondering: Does it mean that the priest does not believe in divine protection?

The Catholic church will have to confront these questions for the foreseeable future because this incident highlights some crises, contradictions, and hypocrisies. The killing has caused many to be confused and conflicted in their faith. Look, many people go to church to seek divine protection because they believe that there is a god and that god, not guns would protect them. Priests claim to embody and dispense divine power and protection. Priests, like this cleric who shot his parishioner, are paid to pray and deliver divine protection to the people. The political economy of clerics is largely based on ensuring and trading divine protection. Now, in this case, this priest used the money he got from praying for divine protection to purchase a gun to protect himself. Is that not a contradiction? Is that not deceitful?

Clearly, this priest had more faith in his gun than in god. He does not believe in divine protection of either himself or of others hence he bought a gun to protect himself.

Meanwhile, he profits and professionally thrives on selling faith in god and divine protection to the people. His main business is preaching to people most of them have no guns or cannot afford a firearm that god would protect them.

What priests and other clerics preach and practice do not add up; they do not align. Clerics make their members and followers believe that there is a god who protects them and that they, the clerics, represent that god. They make people trust god or rely on god, not on worldly guns for protection. Clerics make people pay or provide for them in exchange for prayers and assurances of divine protection, which as this case shows they do not believe in. This hypocrisy is not peculiar to the Catholic church or Catholic priests. The contradiction is religion-wide. Prominent religious leaders move around with gun-tottling police officers and soldiers. Armed personnel guard many churches, mosques, and other so-called houses of god.

So the message is clear. It is either there is no god to protect anyone as atheists popularly believe or such a god is too weak and impotent, such a god is so ungodly to effectively guard his houses or protect his people, and estate.

Igwe, PhD , is an ex- Catholic seminarian from Imo State.

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M. Yayale Ahmed: Filling Gaps In Nigeria’s Administrative Reform History

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Prof. Tunji Olaopa

By Tunji Olaopa

This piece was meant to be my address and reflection during a planned courtesy visit in 2024 to the Federal Civil Service Commission of my old boss, Mahmud Yayale Ahmed, commander of the federal republic (CFR), former Head of Service of the Federation, former SGF and Hon. Minister, Ajiyan Katagum, and Chairman of the Governing Council, Ahmadu Bello Univerity, Zaria; a visit, which objective indeed was achieved by other means. When a personality like Mahmud Yayale Ahmed decides to pay a visit to an organization like the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) to honour his mentee, then such a visit is far from being a mere courtesy visit. Such visitation generates reflections and discourses, and activate possibilities. That is the kind of personality Yayale Ahmed is. And such a visit especially to the FCSC carries both the burden of administrative history and reform possibilities. Yayale Ahmed was not just my former boss, he is also a veritable mentor; I owe a significant portion of my trajectory into becoming a bureaucrat-scholar-reformer to his mentorship. He had a fundamental impact in shaping my foray into the maelstrom of public service institutional reform programme management in the federal service. Having such an old boss visit his boy at the FCSC is an event in itself, one that is sufficient to make me tremble at the possible comments I would receive.

However, when he is visiting in his capacity as the national chairman of the Council for Retired Federal Permanent Secretaries (CORFEPS), the matter becomes even more critical. CORFEPS is the association of retired administrative professionals that has been throwing the weight of its institutional memory and competences behind the ongoing efforts to transform the dwindling status and reputation of public administration and the capacity readiness of the public service in Nigeria. Thus, when CORFEPS meets FCSC, we are already not only laying the templates for all hands to be on deck, but also articulating the critical historical and administrative records that must undergird the necessity of institutionally rehabilitating Nigeria’s public administration architecture.

When CORFEPS held its maiden colloquium on 5-7 March, 2024, and had in attendance the administrative bigwigs—from HRM Olu Falae to Amb. Babagana Kingibe and, Dr. Bukar Usman, as lead speaker—the association demonstrates that the past administrative leadership cannot be retired out of the collective responsibility of institutional reform that the public administration and public service sorely need in Nigeria. Indeed, that maiden colloquium brought a new energy into the functionality of the communities of practice and service—retired heads of service and permanent secretaries at both the federal and state levels, platforms of retired directors, pensioners, Nigerian Association of Public Administration and Management (NAPAM), etc.—and the strategic and restorative responsibility for the institutional repositioning of public administration as a noble vocation in Nigeria. And the fundamental objective is clear: how the Nigerian public administration framework, and the public service system, can be reformed to jumpstart Nigeria’s strategic inclusion in the fourth industrial revolution and its implication for infrastructural development to service the wellbeing of Nigerians.

In this piece, my objective is to insert the administrative personality of Mahmud Yayale Ahmed into the reform trajectory of the Nigerian civil service system during the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency. This is with the aim of filling out some missing gaps in the reform experiment at the commencement of Nigeria’s democratic governance in 1999. His proactive role as an institutional reformer par excellence also constitutes the occasion to ask fundamental question about the capacity of the civil service system to reform itself. This will eventually not only provide a historical and administrative basis for situating his significance in Nigeria’s reform progress, but also his current role as the chairperson of CORFEPS and its ongoing efforts to backstop restorative institutional reform.

The years between 2000 and 2007 were significant in Nigeria’s administrative and reform history because they present a moment of a major paradigm shift in change management praxis that contributed a fundamental template of reform progress to Nigeria’s reform architecture and achievements. And Yayale Ahmed was right in the centre of the critical efforts to lay the foundation of a world class civil service institution for the Nigerian state. It was at a critical juncture that Yayale Ahmed took over the reins of administrative affairs of a civil service system that had weathered several reform commissions and reports meant to translate the fortunes of the system into concrete administrative advances that Nigerians can relate with in terms of service delivery. The Udoji Commission (1974), Dotun Phillips Study Team (1984) and Ayida Review Panel (1994), all attempted to ground the public service on a pedestal of managerial efficiency and effectiveness that delivers the goods and the services.

When I met Yayale Ahmed, it was right in the midst of the unfolding reform efforts at making sense of the public service system within Nigeria’s democratic experiment. He was the permanent secretary at the federal ministry of education when I was the head of the policy division, as well as the special assistant to Prof. Tunde Adeniran who later mentioned me to his successor (the late Prof. Babalola Borishade). I was later introduced by the late Prof. Akin Mabogunje to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who then seconded me, on the strength of my articulation through a concept note of the institutional reform challenges and direction of the civil service, to serve as the technical head of the secretariat of the strategy team located within the Management Services Office. I reported directly to the permanent secretary, the late Mr. O. O. Oyelakin, who reported directly to the head of Service, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed.

Given the reputation of someone that the president, Olusegun Obasanjo, referred to as “Mr. Civil Servant,” his in-depth grounding in the dynamics of the system, as well as the crucial understanding of the democratic imperative underlying institutional change, Yayale Ahmed was able to courageously articulate a reform methodology that jumpstarted a new era of administrative reforms in Nigeria. In 2001, as the second phase of the implementation of the Ayida Report was underway, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed faced the federal executive council presided over by President Olusegun Obasanjo, and boldly asserted that the civil service possessed the sufficient resident capacity to diagnose its institutional debilitation, articulate a reform strategy and oversee its own reform. And this revolutionary declaration was coming at a time when skeptics were not sure anything good could ever come out of the civil service.
Indeed, I strongly believed that it was part of the determination to prove the strength of his conviction about the system’s capability to reform itself that facilitated the broadminded learning and proactive space that led to the institutional and professional maturation of someone like me and my eventual transformation into a bureaucrat-scholar. What I mean to say is that under Yayale Ahmed’s watch, I saw the evolution and full maturation of my growing research expertise that came at a crucial point when the diagnostic study and strategic development of the reform methodology was unfolding. No wonder therefore that it was under his ambitious, firm and visionary headship that one of the largest reform programs in the annals of change management in Nigeria was successfully implemented.

Yayale Ahmed’s stature as a public servant cannot be properly decided outside of the reform architecture during his time as the head of service. Indeed, his reputation is tied in with the establishment and fortune of the Bureau of Public Service Reform (BPSR) which is supposed to be the arrowhead of the courageous assertion that the civil service is able to diagnose and reform itself. The BPSR was established in 2003 as the lead reform implementation and monitoring coordinating agency armed with the objective of managing and sustaining service-wide reforms agenda of the Obasanjo administration, while also ensuring that the reform mandate was implemented in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), the operational units carrying out government business. The three major justification for the existence of the BPSR are: The need to create a clearing house, a one-stop-shop of a sort, where all stakeholders could receive information and guidance on all the reform programmes of the Federal Government; the strong conviction that the reforms objectives will not be realized in the long term, through an ad-hoc committee or task force; and the need to have an “engine room” that is enabled with the required capability and resources to leverage local and international knowledge networks and communities of public administration best practices, to support policy, institutional and governance reform processes with required expertise, and good practices on an on-going basis (http://www.bpsr.gov.ng/index.php).

However, the trajectory of the operational dynamics of the BPSR since 2007 has been less than optimal. And so, the question of whether it has been able to live up to its mandate is a difficult one to answer. And this is because of so many crippling circumstances, bureaucratic and political, that attended its operations. Since 2008, the capacity of the BPSR to manage and sustain institutional reforms has been stunted. For instance, by transferring its supervision from the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HCSF) to the OSGF, its mandate was though expanded from being confined solely to the core civil service rather than the wider public service, but at that it lost the required professional supervision it needs so badly to function. And it also implies that it would henceforth be managed as an appendage of the OSGF rather than as an active player in the few significant initiatives that have taken place in the civil/public service since then.

Reform efforts before the BPSR have always been hampered by an oscillation between comprehensiveness and selectivity in the choice of methodology for pushing reform through. And that indecisiveness also played out within the operational dynamics of the BPSR. But then the many attempts at pushing the BPSR into strategic irrelevance could not diminish a paradigmatic reform methodology: there was a decisive transition away from a decade of episodic structural review of the civil service system to a methodological perception of administrative reform as one trajectory of continuous learning and incremental improvement. And this is where the BPSR proved its most fundamental importance in providing the organizing framework for enhancing this paradigmatic reform methodology. It did this by developing a generic guideline for restructuring, streamlining and monitoring the operational bases of the MDAs.

Pilot MDA reforms were carried out as the basis for measuring and documenting the administrative challenges confronted by the public service that undermine its performance efficiency. The pilot study also enabled the scaling up of the reform implementation strategy to other MDAs at: (a) service-wide systemic reform level, (b) the MDAs’ specific level which entails the implementation of performance improvement plans and the deepening and consolidation of reforms as it concerns cross-cutting reform programs with instruments such as challenge and performance improvement funds, and (c) the implementation of such reform programs as pension reform, national health insurance scheme, statistical reform, pay reform, SERVICOM, to name just a few.

It was therefore broad-based analyses of the fundamental assumptions, presuppositions, indications, deductions and findings from the pilot MDAs study that generated the initiatives for designing and firming up the irreducible national strategy for public service reform (NSPSR). The document constitutes a fundamental reform blueprint for articulating the trajectory of reform management in Nigeria. The significance of the NSPSR derives from the host of reform initiatives and achievements that its methodological emergence made possible, especially post-Yayale Ahmed. I could mention a few. There was the finalization of the African Public Service Charter that encompass a continental administrative blueprint around which the NSPSR could also be mainstreamed. There was also a concerted and genuine effort to resurrect the National Association for Public Administration and Management (NAPAM) which fell through because of a lack of push-through by the bureaucratic leadership. We cannot but mention the service-wide significance of the tenure policy and the concern to contain the exploding but unsustainable institutional redundancies that birthed the Oronsaye panel on the rationalization of agencies and parastatals that became a poster initiative for the post-Obasanjo reform era. That reform policy is still the focal point of every effort to deal with the cost of governance problem that bedevils the public service. We must also signal the introduction of the ministerial scorecard as a managerial strategy for performance management under the Goodluck Jonathan administration. This is complemented by other initiatives like online training programme which has been expanded into the formidable Leadership Enhancement and Development Programme (LEAD-P).

In retrospect, the courage displayed by Yayale in insisting that the civil service possesses the capacity to reform itself, and the series of administrative incidences that attended the BPSR’s effort to championing that argument, only makes the issue even more cogent. All across the world, there is healthy scepticism around the possibility of a bureaucracy leading its own administrative reform. And the jury is still out on whether the Yayale Ahmed’s leadership of the civil service was able to undermine that skepticism enough given the undercurrent of the battle-royal between the federal service and the economic management team during the President Obasanjo second-term. And this generates more questions and discourses that public administration theorists and institutional reformers in Nigeria cannot run away from. Institutional reform in Nigeria always appears Sisyphean, as if the reformers are confronted with the task of rolling the boulder of administrative reform up a hill only to watch it roll back down perpetually. So, why is the task of institutional reform a series of motions without many substantive movements? In concrete terms, why is it the case that despite the numerous service-wide reform initiatives from 1999 to date, the federal civil service system is still, on balance, progressively declining in some critical performance indicators and parameters that overall, limit its capability readiness to sustain service delivery to Nigerians?

Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, the French satirist, once remarked: ‘The more things change, the more they stay the same.” In change management terms, this is a crippling observation that not only inhibits the capacity of the system to backstop Nigeria’s democratic governance, but also glosses over, in an unfair manner, the enormous and paradigmatic efforts of institutional reformers like my old boss, Yayale Ahmed. I am however optimistic that Nigeria’s change management discourse will receive a new lease of life. For one, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed is not one to give up easily. His chairmanship of CORFEPS is just one significant indication of that. Second, the collaboration between CORFEPS and the Federal service, if concretized, portends a fundamental direction that brings the institutional experiences of retired permanent secretaries and heads of service in a critical conversation with successive serving administrative leadership in time and space to move the civil service forward. This is why I am excited that my old boss had chosen to reach out to his mentee at the FCSC the way he did.

. Olaopa is Professor of Public Administration, and the Chairman,
Federal Civil Service Commission,
Abuja.

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Opinion

Professor Nuhu Yaqub, 1951 To 2025: The Departure Of A Great Man

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Dele Jegede In Conversation With Prince Yemisi Shyllon

By Toyin Falola

December 8, 2024: Professor Nuhu Yaqub was with us in Abuja, in the company of great minds—Jibrin Ibrahim, Yakubu Ochefu, Chris Ogbogbo, Aisha Maikudi, Chido Onuma, Tunji Olaopa, Paul and Paula Edeh, Adagio, Okello Oculi, John Odah and many more. We did a mini-seminar on Jibrin Ibrahim. I invited Nuhu Yaqub to speak, and he gave a great speech, starting with his introduction to Marxism. Days after, we spoke twice on the phone. An active and healthy man was gone within three days of sickness, leaving us and the world on Saturday, January 4. I was hit by his departure with an emotional anguish that is taking a longer time to heal.

I have known him for decades. As the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja, he invited me twice to give two Keynote Addresses. As the pioneer Vice-Chancellor of Sokoto State University, he and Professor Malami Buba, his Deputy, invited me to give the University’s first Distinguished Lecture. We exchanged family visits in Austin and Abuja. A candid man, he did not require efforts for him to stay in mind on all aspects of national issues.

The phenomenon of death remains one mystery that humans, and maybe all living creatures, may not understand for its strange nature. At the superficial level, death signifies the finitude to everything living, and it is in this category of interpretation that we humans lurk ourselves, not because we are sometimes not inclined to see beyond the anguish that is brought when we lose people who are dear to us, but because the human mind is not conditioned to process the shock, the urgency, and the forever delinking which occurs when we lose individuals or cherished pets.

Death is a leveller, for it takes the lives of everything without concerns about the irreparable damage that it does to the people behind it. Losing a giant intellectual and humanitarian energy such as Professor Yaqub has dug yet another deep hole in our national heart and left a hollow space that may be difficult to fill. We feel this way because we consider his demise not as a transition into another phase of human existence, which it originally signifies, but as a finitude to the material importance for which the man is known to his immediate family, academic family and national brotherhood.

To say that I am overwhelmed is to mildly describe my emotional state at the breaking of the news that the selfless individual has passed on. It is such a case for me because, in academic brotherhood, it is not only difficult to come across people genuinely committed to a lifelong philosophy, but it is almost impossible to come across individuals who have the mental energy or the political goodwill to effect changes when they could walk their talk.

But then I am only consoled by the understanding that although Professor Yaqub’s transition might have done unprintable damage to our emotional health because of the various shared ideas, values and virtues, his passing on has foregrounded the irreplaceable importance of committing oneself to a meaningful philosophy. It is on this basis that I highlight the exceptional contributions that this individual made to the human world before his transition.

As a political scientist, it has been established that Nuhu Yaqub devoted his intellectual ambition towards the actualization of better national conditions by facilitating a radical evolution of Nigeria’s political system in ways that address its specific and unique peculiarities. Aware of its diversity, the outstanding Professor had campaigned for inclusive leadership to be embraced by the political players in the country in the spirit of creating a haven for the citizens and forging a country that is capable of answering to the wishes and aspirations of everyone.

To become a national hero in my book, what matters is to demonstrate some consistency in one’s philosophical conviction as long as it does not endanger the human family. I can say confidently that this man was not only consistent about his conviction but also invested in it in every sense. I remember clearly how he staunchly argued and equally supported courses of action that would see to the rapid departure from the colonially imposed political culture in exchange for one that would fix the country and free people from the shackles of ideological suppression.
Unlike many other academics, Yaqub was very practical with his solutions, especially because he understood that the possibility of achieving greatness lies especially in the ability to be deliberate and disciplined. Perhaps this would explain why he irrevocably supported the idea of clinical scholarship, research, and intellectual engagements that would lead to the enthronement of an academic culture that is both vibrant and resilient. He has never refused to educate anyone who cares to listen that research engagement is at the centre of Nigeria’s and Africa’s political transformation, revealing why it is dangerous to compromise on such a commitment.

Would it not be surprising that such a man was foresighted in his examination of our basic sociological and sociopolitical fate, so much so that he campaigned that education was a necessity for everyone if the country would evolve to become a force in the global society? He was motivated to say this because he understood the underlying potential that is lurking in the human and natural resources that the country is blessed with.

To become an important force in the world, people have always been required to evaluate events from an impartial angle, and that can only be possible on the occasion that people are given a solid education. It is understandable because many issues that are causing problems in the country are founded on the beliefs that are imposed by individuals who constantly take away the right to education of their citizens.

You would begin to understand and not underestimate his position when you appreciate the place of education in the formulation of policies that are needed for the transformation of a country. I have held numerous dialogues with him, and at every opportunity, no matter how little, he would strike up conversations about national issues that are pivotal to the country’s civilizational advancement. In any case, what dominates such conversations is that education is needed in policy formulation because it is through policies that humans transfer their refined ideas to organized guidelines to be used in guiding the decisions of the government to achieve great outcomes. If people are uneducated, there is a possibility that they will be micromanaged by others who have that advantage. This is the fear of the righteous man who committed to such a just cause. He has maintained over time that when people are intellectually refined enough to contribute to the debate of welfare improvement, especially as it relates to them, they would, therefore, be encouraged to participate in the affairs of the country if they are given the fair atmosphere where they can thrive without any external threat.

Away from the strictly professional life that this successful man lived, it would be strange that people of his educational and administrative stature still maintained a life of humility and embrace, as he did not consider himself as being superior to people on account of his giant strides in life. Evidence of his selflessness and humility abounds as people with whom he shared one thing or the other have attested to how he opened his space to anyone who wants to experience it.
For a man who was erstwhile Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja, the information about how to manage opposing opinions to drive the monumental changes that are recorded in the academic institution today cannot cease to amaze people. More than anything, they are indicators that he was professionally inclined and discharged his very responsibility with a great sense of commitment and demeanour. It cannot be overemphasized how his simple nature infected many of the people who have come across the man in different spheres of existence. I cannot stress enough how his sudden demise has brought some hard reality that is difficult to swallow.

How else can we describe the individual as great, especially in the course of academic liberation, if not through a series of great initiatives he made to improve the conditions of things? It was under him as a Vice Chancellor that the University moved out from their temporary site to the permanent one, which required a great deal of sacrifice from members of staff, and he championed it. Not minding the personal and professional costs that this demanded, Professor Yaqub became an important figure in shaping the university. It is no coincidence that his death has sparked a national reflection as people who have either benefited from the largesse of his professional responsibilities or those who had personal relationships with him continue to reveal how his demise has become a national melancholy.

It is understandable for them to feel this way. I have become so engrossed in his scholarly interests and contributions that his sudden departure to the great beyond has dug a hole in my heart.
اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لَهُ وَارْحَمْهُ وَأَدْخِلْهُ فِي جَنَّتِكَ
Allahummaghfir lahu warhamhu wa adkhilhu fee jannatika.

Translation: O Allah, forgive him, have mercy on him, and admit him into Your Paradise.

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