By Yushau A.
Shuaib
While Crisis
Management and Reputation Management are Public Relations functions, Conflict
Management is another process of limiting the negative aspects of conflicts
while increasing the positive aspects.
An
interesting feature of President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet and in fact his
ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC) is the amalgamation of good
fighters and good managers.
The fighting
skills as well as managerial expertise of some of the members catapulted the
party to victory in the last general elections. For instance, Rotimi Amaechi
aided the emergence of the Buhari government when he successfully initiated a
fight, as the Governor of Rivers State, against President Goodluck Jonathan. He
tactically joined forces with other members of the People’s Democratic Party
(PDP), including Senator Bukola Saraki of the National Assembly and Governor
Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State among others in fighting the government. This
helped to bring PDP down to its knee after 16 years as the ruling party.
Rotimi
Amaechi,
even as the current Transport Minister has never stopped been a good
fighter. He recently took on his counterpart, Petroleum Minister of
State, Dr.
Ibe Kachikwu on Niger Delta issue. The two Ministers are the unique
faces of good fighters and managers in the Buhari
administration. While Amaechi, as a politician believes in taking
decisive
actions on critical issues, Kachikwu is an advocate of managing any
issue to a logical conclusion rather than through confrontations.
At a recent
Federal Government Town-Hall meeting at Uyo in Akwa Ibom State, Amaechi defended
the decision of the Muhammadu Buhari administration to scrap the Maritime
University project on the ground that the previous administration of Goodluck
Jonathan had paid too much to acquire a land for the university.
Describing
the project as a “misplacement of priority”, Amaechi said: “My argument about
Okerenkoko is that the land alone is N13 billion. If you give me N13 billion, I
will buy half of Lagos. That N13 billion has built the university already.”
He added
that anti-corruption agencies should be mandated to recover the N13 billion
already paid for the land, then he would build the university for the Niger
Delta region.
Like a bull
in China shop, Kachikwu rose to defend the university project adding that he
would source for the money to complete the project.
Kachikwu
said; “I disagree with the Minister of Transport. Any facility that is located
in the South-South we should work closely to develop it. I don’t care the
circumstances under which you are placed. It’s not in my position to determine
whether land was valued at N3 billion or N10 billion. The appropriate
institution, which is at the costing system, will determine that. That has
nothing to do with development of infrastructure. And as far as I know, so much
has already gone into the university.”
The drama
must have generated heated debates but the great lesson is that we can fight some
of the time to win but we should also devise ways of managing victory. Skilled
managers rather than good fighters are required for political stability and
economic growth.
Amaechi
started his political fighting from the University of Port Harcourt, when he
fought his way to become the President of the National Union of Rivers State
Students (NURSS) after fighting for students’ rights. After his graduation, he
joined Pamo Clinics and Hospitals Limited owned by Dr. Peter Odili, his
political godfather who became Governor of Rivers State and facilitated
Amaechi’s election into the Rivers State House of Assembly where he emerged the
Speaker in 1999. Their harmonious relationship was truncated when Amaechi
launched a campaign against the State government, and fought Odili in an effort
to succeed him as Governor in 2007. When his name was substituted as winner of
PDP’s primaries for Rivers Gubernatorial election that year, Amaechi fought his
way to the Supreme Court where he was pronounced the rightful candidate of the
party and became the Governor on 26 October 2007. He was re-elected for a
second term of four years in April 2011 with less fight.
Meanwhile, Dr.
Kachikwu has never been a typical Nigerian politician who can fight his way to
power and reckoning. He is an outstanding manager who has proved his worth in
the media, academics and corporate world. Apart from bagging a first class
degree in Law from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Nigerian Law School
with multiple awards, he also obtained outstanding Masters and Doctorate Degree
in Law from Harvard University. He had
worked with the Nigerian/American Merchant Bank, Texaco Nigeria Limited from
where he joined Exxon-Mobil where he rose to the position of Executive Vice
Chairman and General Counsel of Exxon Mobil(Africa).
Apart from
his deep involvement in the politics of Niger Delta, Amaechi as Transport
Minister has succeeded in the extension of rail lines across Nigeria and the
completion of ongoing rail projects initiated by the previous administration,
especially the Abuja-Kaduna route that is likely to be commissioned in July
2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Meanwhile
Kachikwu as Petroleum Minister and GMD NNPC was able to cut operational losses,
deregulate the downstream sector, initiate a creative means of meeting the
Joint Venture (JV) contributions and ensuring prompt payments of revenue to the
federation account among others.
Kachikwu’s
endorsement of first class engineer and thoroughbred bureaucrat, Dr. Maikanti
Baru, as the new Group Managing Director of NNPC, is quite encouraging as the
Minister now chair the NNPC Board of Trustees to oversee the complex oil sector
and undertake critical consultations with stakeholders towards political and
economic stability.
While we
urge the fighters and managers in the cabinet of President Buhari to work
closely and collectively towards political stability, national security and
economic advancement, they should limit the negative aspects of their conflict
and increase the positive aspects of the struggle. What Nigerians want now is more
focus in managing the economy and security situations rather than in-fighting and
internal-agency rivalry.
Yushau A.
Shuaib
Abuja
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