By Dele Sobowale
“Every manager eventually gets promoted beyond his level of incompetence”.
Peter’s Principle.

Back in the 1970s, in the United States of America, every MBA student or fresh Master’s graduate felt he knew more

than his boss who rose through the ranks, either without a university degree or with a “humble” B.A or B.Sc and we drove our bosses mad by quoting Peter’s Principle. I was one of those happy, if excessively brash, MBA holders in 1970.

We thought we knew everything having undergone the Harvard University pioneered Case Method which almost every university offering MBA programmes tried to copy.

We were mostly wrong. But, we discovered we were remarkably right on one point – never appoint someone as Chief Executive Officer, CEO, for a giant, multinational organization, employing hundreds of thousands of people and impacting the lives of millions who happened to be the last man standing after an accident – for the simple reason that they generally don’t know how to manage simple, not to talk of complex organizations.

Which board of directors of any organization and its shareholders, for instance, will accept as the CEO someone who had succeeded to the position because each and every time his boss fell flat on his face? That is the question confronting us now in Nigeria. Any one wanting to rule us must publish his C.V; telling us what he had accomplished in the past to justify his claim to the leadership of our country – including Jonathan.

So before those who want to bamboozle us into accepting what they call “divine intervention” as if they personally have God’s GSM number, they also will have to help us by publishing Jonathan’s track record; in other words, what he has achieved on his own and how those achievements have benefited, Bayelsa state in particular and Nigeria in general.

That should not be a difficult assignment. After all, even an applicant for salesman, or production supervisor for XYZ Inc, has to do that. So, the CEO of Nigeria Incorporated, Jonathan, who wants to continue on the job should be able to tell us what he has accomplished, on his own, in the past – including since he became president.

However, they should skip three or four things, known to all of us, which clearly demonstrate a lack of purposeful leadership. We need to recollect that Yar’Adua “stepped aside” November last year. Since then Jonathan, as “Spare Tyre”, minded the shop until he became President.

One major task of good governance Yar’Adua left undone, and which Jonathan inherited, was the passage of the 2010 Appropriation Bill; otherwise known as Budget 2010. Till today, this country, which court jesters tell us will be among the top 20 by 2020, has no budget. Jonathan attended the G-8 meeting and pleaded for Nigeria to be included among the G-20 without bothering to find out which other member of G-20 is operating without a budget for this year.

We are already in July, and without a budget every Ministry or agency of government is operating without a capital legal vote.

That is leadership Jonathan style. Instead of facing this urgent and important task he has been going about “commissioning” Mugu projects in states. He will soon be off again.

By now everybody has heard about the N10 billion naira budget for the celebration of Nigeria’s 50th Independence Anniversary. Three things are significant about this transaction. First, the real cost proposed is not even N10 billion; it is more than that because they had a rehearsal of this worthless jamboree in London a few weeks ago. That gulped its own billions.

Second, budget allocations to several government agencies – SFG’s office, Army, Police etc – add another N2-3 billion. So altogether, the bash will cost almost N16 billion. Third, and this is the most disgraceful part, when the lid was blown open on this absolute irresponsibility, the government shifted the blame to a “Yar’Adua Committee”, which apparently was established without Jonathan’s knowledge, and whose recommendations must be accepted by President Jonathan.

A more responsible President would have made sure that the recommendation did not see the light of the day by throwing it in the waste paper basket and ordering a more sober celebration which is more reflective of our current situation in the world.

TO MY BROTHER JEGA —2
“0703-939-3889
I disagree 2 d question u’ll ask Prof. Jega. Why wud he run away? Iwu had d choice of resigning if his credibility was muscled. But, nay, he chose public odium! Besides any Nigerian dat refuses INEC or NPC job is a credible coward. The jobs are dat of d conscience. Will u run if called upon? I wouldn’t!

It is difficult to determine the age of the sender of this message But, his idealism un-tempered by real experience is obvious. But, he poses a serious question and provides an answer both of which need to be addressed in order to understand the precarious situation in which someone called to serve in sensitive positions, like INEC, find themselves.

The courage he claims reminds me of the quip by Dr Samuel Johnson who told us that, “it is easy to be generous when there is nothing to give; courage is easy when danger is far away”. Since the British left in 1960, at least one million people have served in various positions in public service which has in the 50 years produced abysmal results.

Yet, less than half a dozen have ever resigned their appointments even when confronted with corruption and poor performance which are endemic. If the sender of the message ever gets to top office and resigns, he will be one of a handful who did so.

But, I know from experience in Abacha’s detention that “talk is cheap” The question is; why don’t people quit? Let me provide some answers because Professor Jega might not be aware of the pitfalls yet.

However, let me quickly add that as a practicing consultant, I also know from experience that it is better to present clients with all the options when faced with an important decision; stepping back from a difficult situation is always an option and it does not always denote a lack of courage. After all discretion is still the better part of valour.

Back in 2006, in a series of articles on INEC and the odds against its conduct of a free and fair election in 2007, I warned Professor Iwu about the dangers ahead for many reasons but mostly on account of the time available for him to undertake two vital functions – review the voters’ register (and verify the authenticity) and print the ballot papers and distribute them on time for the elections. As it turned out, over ninety per cent of the damage to Iwu’s reputation arose from those two factors alone.

Unfortunately, Professor Jega is faced with a steeper uphill climb than Iwu. Again, he might not be aware of it. And by the time he is entrapped resignation will be the last thing on his mind because that will mean tenure elongation. I hope to explain these in subsequent parts of this series…….

PRESIDENTS AS MUGUS-3
A story in BUSINESSDAY of Tuesday, July 5, 2010 has demonstrated once again how presidents run around getting fooled by commissioning projects. According to the story, the IPP which Jonathan commissioned in May this year and designed to generate 100 MW generates only 18MW and even that cannot be evacuated. So, it is virtually useless.

As I understand it, the same Jonathan is heading for Akwa Ibom to”commission” another IPP. That is not very funny because Obasanjo “commissioned” both IPPs before he left in 2007. God help us!! Will the president please come to “commission” the Carter Bridge in Lagos?