Kashim Imam As FERMA Chair -By Ochereoma Nnanna

President Bola Tinubu has continued to ruffle feathers in the polity with the manner of individuals he is bringing into high positions of his government. What I can see running rampant through most of these appointments is that he is still trying to say “thank you” to people, particularly his kinsmen, cronies and Northerners, who helped him to controversially realise his presidential ambition.

The dust is yet to settle on the appointment of Hannatu Musawa as the Minister of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy while she was still officially undergoing the mandatory National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, scheme. A spokesman of the NYSC Directorate, Eddy Megwa, had in an official statement, pointed out that her appointment breached the NYSC Act. She has since been sworn-in, nevertheless.

Hannatu Musawa was a very enthusiastic political canvasser for Tinubu in the run-up to the general elections. On January 10, 2023, she had written an opinion which I saw on Sahara Reporters. In that article, she had named Tinubu “Person of the Year 2022”. This article was obviously timed to coincide with the date that Tinubu went to Aso Villa to formally notify Muhammadu Buhari that he was interested in replacing him.

You know how Tinubu loves flattery. This is a trait he shares with his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari. It was in the same manner that Buhari handed jobs to the likes of Femi Adesina and Lauretta Onochie for sweet-talking about him that Tinubu violated the rules and gave a ministerial job to Hannatu. What I still don’t get, though, is why 43-year-old Musawa would be deemed eligible to be a serving NYSC member. Couldn’t she have just applied for a waiver on ground of age? It was the certificate, and nothing else, that brought the shade of scandal to her nomination as minister.

New dust is being raised on the appointment of Kashim Imam, a 24-year-old fresh graduate with zilch experience as the Chairman of the Board of the Federal Roads Maintenance Authority, FERMA. The social media is as usual abuzz with this appointment, with some Nigerians applauding it and others thumbing it down. Some are saying it is another of Tinubu’s spirited efforts to divert our attention from the controversy over his certificate.

On the surface of it, the appointment of young people into big political offices should be seen as a positive sign that the Tinubu regime wants to bring in young men and women into his government as he promised during his campaigns. It is also in step with the spirit of the Not-Too-Young-To-Run, NTYTR, Act signed by former President Muhammadu Buhari on May 21, 2018.

This Act was a culmination of agitations for the replacement of the old and tired leaders with vibrant young people to recharge the engine of governance for greater productivity. I remember the valiant efforts of Sampson Itodo, the current Executive Director of YIAGA Africa, in pushing that initiative right till Buhari signed it.

Young people have always proved their mettle when given tasks and opportunities. It is only in recent times that the youth have been misbranded as a lazy, indolent and idle lot by the likes of Muhammadu Buhari. Even in our history, this has been proved. Few of the founding fathers of our independence were above 40.

The late Dr. Sam Ikoku joined the Obafemi Awolowo’s Action Group, AG, and defeated his father, the illustrious educationist, Dr. Alvan Ikoku, in an election to the Eastern Region House of Assembly in March, 1957 at the age of 34. Pa Ikoku had stood for the United Nigeria Independence Party, UNIP. Imagine such political sagacity, 66 years ago!

Also, Navy Lieutenant Alfred Diete-Spiff, was appointed as the Military Governor of newly-created Rivers State in 1967 when he was 24 and had just returned from training abroad. Before that appointment, Spiff had been an orderly to Navy Commander Okoh Ebitu Ukiwe before the war broke out. Both oga and boi suddenly found themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. Diete-Spiff went on to administer Rivers State for the next nine years. Chinua Achebe wrote his global epic novel, Things Fall Apart, at 28. Yakubu Gowon became Head of State at 31, while Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu became the leader of Biafra at 34. People are at their best when they are young, okay?

Those who support Imam’s appointment argue that the chairmanship of FERMA is a non-executive political job usually parcelled out to beneficiaries for political purposes. Imam’s dad, Ibrahim Kashim Imam, the scion of a well-rooted political family in the North- East, played a front line role in promoting Tinubu’s political interests on his way to Aso Villa. I suspect that Tinubu offered this job to Imam Senior who probably preferred to pass the favour to his son. With Vice President Kashim Shettima looming large in the picture, it was not difficult to swing Tinubu give the lad a chance.

In my view, it would have been a good idea if young Imam was put in a lower position that would have enabled him to acquire some executive, cognate experience, such as Board Member. It is not just academic qualification that matters. Experience does, even more so. Even Sam Ikoku and Diete-Spiff had their fair shares of work experience before being thrust upon their big tables.

Our public offices belong to the Nigerian people. They do not belong to the person(s) currently occupying them. Our presidents and governors should be properly schooled on this. The prerogative that the Constitution gives them to make appointments also assumes that strong elements of decency, maturity and patriotism are factored into making these choices. Track record of performance, character and probity must be tested before greenhorns are plonked into public office. It is not a toy for toddlers.

We must preserve the sanctity, aura and mystique of public office.