LET HADIZA BE

Hadiza Bala Usman

Buhari-bashing is ok. It is his lot to be bashed. So there is no issue with that. But sometimes I can’t help but wonder what we really want as a people.

You say it is nepotism for Buhari to appoint someone you term as an "inexperienced" green horn to head the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), but your state governor has appointed people who could pass for street urchins and area boys as commissioners and special advisers and you see nothing wrong in that.

How you arrive at the conclusion that Hadiza Bala Usman is inexperienced beats me. This is a young woman who was Enterprise officer at the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) for four years (2000 to 2004). In that capacity she participated in the execution of the privatization policy of the Obasanjo administration.

She also worked for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) for the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) for another four years as Special Assistant to the Minister on Project Implementation. In this position, the implementation of UNDP projects for the FCTA practically fell on her. Did she disappoint? No.

Next she became the Executive Director of Strategy of Good Governance Group (SGGG), a Non-Governmental Organisation for another four years (2011 – 2015), a position from which she, along with Oby Ezekwesili and others, prosecuted and internationalize the Bring Back our Girls (BBOG) campaign.

BBOG – perhaps the most vociferous campaign to come out of Africa – was created as part of the effort to have the 274 Chibok school girls kidnapped in 2014 rescued. The campaign attracted buy-in from international high and the mighty including US President Barack Obama and his wife. Hadiza was prosecuting this campaign until she was appointed Chief of Staff to Governor Nasir El-Rufa’i of Kaduna State, a position she held until her appointment as boss of NPA.

I cannot understand how anyone could conclude that this background does not place her in good stead to head the NPA. One of the criticisms against her is that her appointment was some sort of favouritism in pursuit of the "northernization" and "islamization" agenda of President Bhuri. Another is that she had not been in the maritime sector before now. I will leave the first criticism for another day since it has more or less become a familiar refrain of the wailing wailers. On the latter, we might as well ask if Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi had any experience in that sector prior to becoming Minister.

 Nobody knew Charles Soludo before he was made Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor. Soludo was not known to hold any high profile appointment prior to becoming CBN governor, but he proved to be one of the best CBN governor's Nigeria has had. Willy Obiano was also not known beyond his town before he became Governor of Anambra State. Today he is performing wonders.

Ditto Babatunde Raji Fashola. He was not known beyond the legal profession. He was not known to have managed any corporation. He was only Chief of Staff to then Lagos State Governor Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a position from which he became governor of the state. Fashola proved to be one of the best governors the state has had. The same could be said of the current governor of the state, Akinwunmi Ambode. Who knew him beyond the Lagos State civil service? Today he is the best performing governor in the country. What war experience did General Buratai have before he was appointed Chief of Army Staff? But today, he is the scourge of Boko Haram. He has decimated and decapitated the terror sect. You may agree or disagree.

When President Buhari made his ministerial appointments, it was greeted with skepticism. Many cried that the cabinet was populated by familiar old faces and we wondered why it took him so long to appoint them in the first place. We asked for young unknown faces who would bring a new approach to governance. We asked for women to be given more opportunity in the government. Now the President has given a young internet-generation face and we are again complaining.

I ask again, what do we really want as a people? Do we want performance or do we want experience?

For me, I don't mind a 28-year old appointed as minister. What matters to me is performance, not experience. If he/she does not perform, nothing stops the President booting him/her out. What is the use of experience if it only ends up bringing us the familiar disappointing experience we have been having in governance over the years?

We need people who will bring a new approach to doing things. If we harp on experience every time an appointment is to be made, then the youth of today may never get an opportunity to step up to the high table. Again you may agree or disagree.

Any good recruiter would tell you that experience is not always an overriding factor in hiring even at chief executive level. Sometimes what I call the “6CAP” – Character, Confidence, Commitment, Compatibility, Competence, Capability, Adaptability and Passion – is given consideration ahead of experience.

Ponder this, of all the familiar "experienced" old faces President Buhari took months to search for, and appoint as ministers, how many of them are performing today?

Please let Hadiza be. It is her lot to perform or get booted out.