Ribadu’s ‘Bankruptcy’ Declaration: Tinubu’s Move To Extricate Self From Buhari’s Failure Image, Tunde Abatan
Ordinarily, members of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, of which Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, erstwhile anti-corruption Czar belong should not be the one admitting that the previous regime headed by General Muhammadu Buhari, left behind a bankrupt country.
The disappointment with Buhari is not because he possesses the magic wand when he took over in a messianic acclamation in 2015, but because with the perceived level of personal integrity, he brought into office, the least was expected of him.
But it is quite evident that by the time Buhari constituted his cabinet after six months of foot dragging looking for saints to work with, he ended up in the midst of wolves.
It was quite clear after six months in office that the hopes that he will breathe a refreshing air to the nation’s governance is a forlorn hope after all.
With the assemblage of square pegs in round hole and the gradual Fulanisation and Islamization of governance at all levels of his administration, it was clear to all that, the Change mantra has been compromised through and through.
Coupled with appointment of ethnic bigots headed by likes of his chief of staff, Abba Kyari, Abubakar Malami and others, Buhari’s administration completely set aside the engine room of those who assembled the Change mantra and foisted on a nation, people whose attitude and agenda reflected Buhari’s clannishness, hidden all along from his promoters.
Thus, when Ribadu spoke last week in an address he made to military chiefs in Abuja, he confirmed few things which President Bola Tinubu and some of his close aides will not say for purely political correctness.
That Ribadu can declared the financial bankruptcy of Buhari’s regime to military personnel is to ‘plead’ for understanding why Tinubu with an empty purse had to impose far reaching economic measures to get funds to run a bankrupt inheritance and implement the Renewed Hope programme during which conception he never knew he would meet a bankrupt economy.
Secondly, by choosing to address military circles, Ribadu cleverly told the audience who are also feeling the pains of Tinubu’s bold economic measures that they have to support Tinubu in spite of the pains and get the military constituency which politicians who lost out at the court may resort to in order to get back by sabotaging the government or as they say in Yoruba kaka ki eku ma je sese a fi se awadanu.
Ribadu’s courageous declaration is also a Strategic move by Tinubu to position a core Northerner whose role in fighting corruption under former President Olusegun Obasanjo remains the yardstick by which his successors are measured.
What is more, as a blue eyed Fulani, Ribadu made the statement to win his people to the side of Tinubu as doing so himself may not go down well with those Northerners in the APC opposed to Tinubu’s emergence during the Presidential primary.
Ribadu’s open declaration is also akin to Yorubas dictum…Omo Ina laa ran si Ina.
That in spite of Buhari’s perceived financial discipline, those who he assembled in government for eight years has misled him and failed the party which brought Buhari to power is not in doubt.
Ribadu’s declaration is a conscious demystification of the Buhari image and government invisibility when it comes to financial prudence.
A government spending 98% of its resources to service debt and making anticipatory spending of the remaining 2% proceed from foreign earnings for next couple of years, is akin to grounding the incoming government by making it mandatory to fulfil payment of the staggering debts through future earnings.
Yes, to many, Ribadu’s statement could be taken as one of those declarations but a cursory look will reveal, ‘desperation’ of the Tinubu’s government to explain its handicap to the citizenry in the light of the painful policies it has to implement to stay afloat a bankrupt inheritance.
Hear him, “it is okay for me to tell you we have inherited a bankrupt country, no money to a point where we can say that all the money we are getting now, we are paying back what was taken is serious”.
Ribadu’s open indictment of Buhari’s regime is in a way a justification for the trial of former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele and the removal of many of Buhari’s nominees in MDAs who are yet to complete their tenure but given the boot by Tinubu.
It may also be a subtle way of getting rid of deadwoods and inept appointees whose style may not fit into Tinubu’s target and eagerness to perform.
Obviously, by Ribadu’s labeling of Buhari’s legacy after eight years rule, it is an indication that Buhari was not only ‘asleep’ while his government was being ran by incompetent hands but also a portrayal of his limited capacity to supervise those he appointed. It has also revealed his lack of the acumen and intellectual capacity to know when his government is being surreptitiously undermined.
The activities of the clannish cabal which hijacked his government while he threw up his hands in resignation! In whatever way, Buhari should accept the blame for his government’s failure for he ran a cabinet devoid of supervision.
Ribadu’s admittance before the military chiefs could also be a strategic way of sending message to Northern power brokers to be ready to step on toes if he must make a change thereby using their son who is knowledgeable enough to know the import of taking drastic measures to reverse Buhari’s clannishness.
The warnings and threat being given out by Ministers of various ministries to civil servants after the Presidential retreat is also an indication that things will never be the same for those who stand in the way of Ministers who are bent on retaining their jobs by meeting the performance bond they signed with the President.
All said and done, considering Ribadu’s record in his last public post and the lasting impression he made, using him by Tinubu to whip appointees and military establishment into line is a deft move by Tinubu and indication that when his tenure is up, he may have somebody with Ribadu’s image in mind as a successor.
Tinubu’s encouragement of Ribadu to contest on Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, platform in 2011 is a test of the young anti -corruption czars capacity to perform while his latest appointment as National Security Adviser, NSA, is also a strategic move to draw him closer to deeper workings of government for obvious penetrating of North’s young ruling political class.
His presence in cabinet could also be an appeasement of Southern elite who may prefer a more Cosmopolitan young breed from the North to work with.
Ribadu is definitely somebody to watch out for in Tinubu’s present and future political calculations.
