Now that President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration has formally ended, it is time for us to show interest in how to handle the reckless injury-time appointments he made. Although a renowned legal luminary Prof Itse Sagay has already used the appropriate words to describe the appointments as ‘morally improper and politically immature’, the posture of some analysts that the appointments be dissolved would be simplistic if not more juvenile. This is because a look at the modus operandi of Jonathan’s government does not in any way suggest that his last minute appointments were worse than those made much earlier.

Here we are, at the edge of the precipice, an opportunity so rare but, long awaited. This moment cannot be wasted and cast aside; we have an opportunity, a golden one, too precious to lose. This very moment, I hope we can look back with pride and tell our generations to come that, we all played our part.

Arnold did not put a question mark in the statement above. I introduced it because it seems appropriate for our current situation in Nigeria.

As I was saying, many top-level administrators, managers, technicians and civil servants were either persecuted or dismissed from their positions because they were Igbo. The grotesque federal character provision or quota system enshrined in the 1999 constitution is a testament to Igbophobia, indicating the depth of anti-Igbo sentiment and the extent certain elements of the Northern-dominated ruling elite at the federal level can go to entrench tribalism in the country.

With the inauguration of President Muhamadu Buhari as the president of Nigeria on Friday, Nigerians expect the promise of the transformative initiative on which his party, the APC, ran to be fully put to force. That time is now. At the Eagle square, the president said all the right things, and gave a heartwarming speech. He also set the tone of this government in the simple unostentatious ceremony that dispensed with many flowery rigmaroles, and went straight to the heart of the matter.