What manner of secretary?

Some of the top echelons of this government have had terrible moments wherein they put their feet in their mouths speaking words they later came to regret. Cast your minds back to that moment when a minister told us that the economy was out of the president’s control and that altercation between two ministers over a maritime university. Perhaps they were following the president’s gaffe when he said those who did not vote for him should not expect the same treatment like those who supported his candidacy.

It is, however, gratifying that President Muhammadu Buhari appears to be retracing his steps as he said over the weekend that no Nigerian will be marginalized under his watch. One hopes that he will match his words with action by taking a look at the recent recruitments by the Central Bank, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and the Nigerian Prison Service (NPS). The recruitments were done illegally and secretly without allowing millions of jobseekers in the land to know and thereby submit their applications.

But what do we say of a public official whose penchant for gaffe seems unending? Babachir Lawal appears to have perfected the art of saying the wrong things whenever he chooses to speak to the public. One wonders why he suddenly got interested in a suicide mission of not choosing his words carefully as his last public statements revealed him not as an insensitive person but a jester who has not allowed the public office he occupies to put a restraint on his choice of words. Words, carefully chosen, and wisely deployed, are instruments of cohesion and persuasion making others see a different perspective and perhaps embarking on a different course of action. Just as Simon Kolawole asked rhetorically yesterday, how did we get to be so discourteous in our public conversations as a nation?

Perhaps Lawal, an engineer, was not content with coordinating policy design and formulation by ministries, departments and agencies for approval by government as the website of the office of the secretary to the government of the federation describes one of his numerous functions, he decided to speak on several issues publicly. The first was on the ongoing trial of the senate president and his deputy, which he claimed was not political. Lawal is not one of the spokespersons of the president, four at the last count, just as he is not the information minister, an aberration in a democratic setting – that’s a discussion for another day, yet he turned himself to a defender of the government. Good enough that he spoke out for a government he serves but why covering our eyes with wool on the political or otherwise nature of the trial? This column had asked Bukola Saraki to stand down as far back as last year so no one should misconstrue this as a support for oloye’s son, but Saraki’s greatest offence was becoming the senate president.

That pale into insignificance when compared to his description of the national conference organised by the Goodluck Jonathan government as “job for the boys”. Bolaji Akinyemi, a former foreign affairs minister, who served about three decades ago and the deputy chairman of that conference, has replied Lawal adequately and one does not need to add to the professor’s statement, but it bears repeating that such a statement is unedifying for a top official of this government which has not been able to deliver on most of its promises before election.

“If you remember, it was reported that almost everybody in the committee got N7 million and we consider it essentially as job for the boys. They probably produced a document that is good and commendable but I mean, this government is too busy with very more vital areas of governance and we are not intending to spend our time reading reports,” Mr. Lawal said. Naturally Nigerians can see how busy the government he is part of has been in vital areas of governance even as internally displaced persons from the northeast region where he is from are suffering in their camps with money budgeted for them growing wings. We can see how busy the government has been with many going down the poverty lane in the last 12 months. Lawal’s defence of Boss Mustapha’s appointment as managing director of Nigeria Inland Waterways Agency does not hold water too. Mustapha is a Kilba man like the secretary but cronyism and nepotism remain two serious evils bedeviling the Buhari administration which some of the supporters are finding it touch to justify any longer.

The engineer has other serious issues to engage his attention as secretary to the government and he will do well to focus on them. He will also benefit from a crash programme in public communication so that he will know how best to communicate more efficiently. Before then, it will be good if he listens more than he talks.