Buhari’s kitchen cabinet

The Daily Sun of last Friday, August 28, really cut to the chase, as Americans would say in relation to the latest appointments of President Muhammadu Buhari. Its headline, Buhari unveils kitchen cabinet helped me in making greater sense of the appointments in view of the fulminations, particularly in the media, that trailed the last set announced last Thursday. This prompted me to research the origin of the term, kitchen cabinet, in our political lexicon.

It was first introduced by opponents of a former United States president, Andrew Jackson, to describe his collection of unofficial advisers known as the ginger group, which he consulted in parallel to the cabinet in 1831. “In colloquial use, kitchen cabinet refers to any group of trusted friends and associates, particularly in reference to a President’s or presidential candidate’s closest unofficial advisers,” says Wikipedia. And this is why we should be worried, very worried, as increasingly; our president is retreating into a cocoon, a provincialism that will not do his government, and by extension, Nigeria, any good.

For a pluralistic society like ours, appointing people from a particular zone or area into offices that by virtue of the work those who occupy them perform, they have unfettered access to the president and to a large extent, help in shaping his policies and implement his plan of action, reeks of triumphalism and an insensitivity that will do more damage in the long run. Indeed we may disregard the analysis of the appointments made so far which shows that the north west zone, of which Katsina, the president’s home state belongs, has 13 appointments, which translates into 43% while another zone, south east has zilch, but we should be more concerned about those in the kitchen cabinet.

Presently, the ADC to the president is Lt. Col. Abubakar Lawal from Kano State who is also the husband to the president’s foster daughter, the State Chief of Protocol is Lawal Abdullahi Kazaure from Jigawa State, the Director General of the Department of State Security is Lawal Daura from Katsina State just as the National Security Adviser is Babagana Monguno from Borno State. Others in the kitchen cabinet include the Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari from Borno State; the Director General of Budget Office, Aliyu Gusau from Zamfara State, while the Secretary to the Government of the Federation is Babachir David Lawal from Adamawa State. Completing the list is Femi Adesina from Osun State who is the Special Adviser, Media and Publicity with Garba Shehu from Kano State as the Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity from Kano State. Whatever the rationalization made by the rabid defenders of our president, these are the folks he will likely see first in the morning and last in the night before going to bed. They will shape his itinerary, policies, and communication plan more than even ministers. How do you justify this coterie of aides for someone who has been head of state, governor, and minister who should definitely have a pan-Nigeria outlook as a leader?

Many have bandied the words ‘merit’ and ‘competence’ around as if those appointed so far are the only competent folks in a nation of over 150 million people. By the way, if these were the parameters used in making the appointments, how come that Buhari’s spokesperson has been forced to admit that more appointments will be made and so the imbalance would be corrected? Against the background of the gaffe committed by the president as seen in the 95% and 5% on his American trip, it is tactless excluding the south east zone from all the appointments announced till date.

I’m always amused when folks announced gleefully that they don’t care who is in government as long as things work forgetting that ours is still a politics of identity where ethnicity remains a factor. Even President Barrack Obama of the United States, an advanced democracy, has been accused of surrounding himself with people from Chicago despite the fact most of them are not even his official advisers. Some of those who are yet to come out of the apotheosis of our president even claim that the past president surrounded himself with his own kith and kin, so why the bother? But must we continue in our old and bad ways of doing things? By the way, only one woman has been named among the 35 appointments announced till now which says so much about how well the president rates our women.

Buhari cannot continue with his narrow network that forces him to rely on old loyalists as this makes his circle narrower. Let’s hope the president has not forgotten that he won a national mandate and his appointments should reflect this.