ATIKU ABUBAKAR: THE HEADHUNTER; When Competence Has No Tribe Nor Religion —Lauretta Onochie

 

One of the enduring problems of governance in Nigeria is not simply that we lack brilliant people. Nigeria produces brilliant people in abundance.

Our problem has often been how we choose the people who govern us.

Too frequently, appointments are viewed through the prisms of ethnicity, religion, political patronage, friendship, family connections and social status. The first question becomes: Where is he from? Who recommended her? Which political camp does he belong to?

But there is another philosophy of leadership: find the best person you can find and give that person the opportunity to serve.

That philosophy is central to one of the less discussed aspects of the public career of Atiku Abubakar — his reputation as a political headhunter.

Long before today's arguments about technocratic government, Atiku was deliberately searching for professionals, intellectuals and administrators who could bring competence into government.

Indeed, Atiku has explained that at the beginning of the Obasanjo administration he told President Olusegun Obasanjo that politicians alone could not do the job. Nigeria needed some of its best professionals.

He recalled bringing together people including Professor Anya O. Anya, Fola Adeola, Bode Agusto and Charles Chukwuma Soludo, who spent months working on economic-policy ideas. 

Atiku's proposition was simple: the politicians should provide political leadership while technocrats supplied specialist expertise and helped implement policy.

That tells us something fundamental about Atiku.

He understands that leadership is not knowing everything. Leadership is knowing how to find people who know what you don't.

THE PEOPLE AROUND THE HEADHUNTER

Consider some of the people whose recruitment, recommendation, supervision or political grooming has been associated with Atiku.

1. Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo

Atiku specifically names Soludo among the professionals brought into the early economic-policy process of the administration. Prof. Soludo would subsequently become Chief Economic Adviser to President Obasanjo and Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

His governorship of the CBN became particularly associated with the historic banking consolidation programme.

Atiku saw an economist. Nigeria eventually saw a Central Bank governor.

2. Bode Agusto

This is perhaps one of Atiku's clearest headhunting stories. Atiku has personally recounted recommending Bode Agusto for appointment as Director-General of the Budget Office. Agusto was earning considerably more in the private sector than government could offer. According to Atiku, Agusto was prepared to serve without salary rather than allow remuneration to prevent him from contributing to Nigeria.

That is headhunting in its purest form: identifying expertise outside conventional politics and persuading it to serve the country.

3. Nasir El-Rufai

El-Rufai's professional acumen and capacities, did not escape the watchful eyes of Atiku Abubakar, so his rise in the Obasanjo administration was closely connected to an institution directly supervised by Atiku.

El-Rufai became Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises and Secretary of the National Council on Privatisation, spearheading the privatisation programme under Vice-President Atiku's supervision. He subsequently became Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, later Governor of Kaduna State and today, he is a Prisoner of conscience.

4. Nuhu Ribadu

When the newly established Economic and Financial Crimes Commission needed pioneering leadership, accounts from Atiku's political circle credit him with identifying Nuhu Ribadu for the job. Ribadu went on to become the pioneer Executive Chairman of the EFCC and one of the most recognisable faces of Nigeria's anti-corruption institutions.

Again, the lesson is significant: Ribadu and Atiku are both from Adamawa, but the wider recruitment record shows that Atiku's talent pool extended far beyond his home state.

5. Fola Adeola

Atiku identifies the distinguished banker and co-founder of Guaranty Trust Bank among the experts he assembled in the formative period of the administration to help think through economic policy. Here was a politician reaching deliberately into the private sector for knowledge.

6. Professor Anya O. Anya

The distinguished academic and scientist was another person Atiku specifically identified as part of the intellectual group assembled to contribute to economic-policy thinking. An Igbo intellectual from the South-East working with a Fulani politician from the North-East should not be extraordinary. But in a country where ethnicity too often determines access to power, it illustrates something important:

Competence has no state of origin. Intelligence has no tribe. Excellence has no religion.

7. Emeka Ihedioha

Ihedioha served as an aide to Atiku during his first term as Vice-President before building his own political career. He subsequently rose to become Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and later Governor of Imo State. This illustrates another dimension of Atiku's headhunting philosophy. It is not merely about appointing already famous people. It is also about identifying people who can grow into larger responsibilities.

8. Dr Olusegun Ajuwon

Ajuwon had been Atiku's family doctor in Adamawa. According to an account by Atiku's former media adviser Tunde Olusunle, Atiku introduced him to President Obasanjo.

Ajuwon subsequently became Obasanjo's chief personal physician and later Chief Medical Director of the National Hospital, Abuja.

9. Jide Adeniji

An engineer who had worked in the Adamawa State civil service, Adeniji was recommended by Atiku and became the pioneer Managing Director of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, FERMA.

The significance is easily missed.

A headhunter does not ask only, Who is famous?

He asks, Who can do this job?

10. Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo

Journalist, author and intellectual Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo was initially appointed as Atiku's media aide in 1999. He was subsequently reassigned by President Obasanjo to become Managing Director of the Daily Times of Nigeria. Once again, an individual recruited into one position was recognised as capable of much greater institutional responsibility.

11. Garba Shehu

Garba Shehu served in Atiku's media operation and would much later become a senior presidential spokesman under President Muhammadu Buhari. Whatever today's political differences may be, his subsequent career demonstrates the calibre of professionals who passed through Atiku's political organisation.

12. Adeolu “Dele” Akande

Academic, journalist and communications professional Adeolu Akande was another member of Atiku's communications team. He subsequently became a professor and Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Nigerian Communications Commission.

Again, the pattern repeats itself: identify, engage, expose, develop.

13. Boni Haruna

Boni Haruna's relationship with Atiku predates the Fourth Republic. He eventually became Governor of Adamawa State and served from 1999 to 2007.

Historical accounts, identify Haruna among those he groomed for leadership.

AND THEN THERE WAS THE WIDER TECHNOCRATIC REVOLUTION

As Vice President, Atiku, constitutionally chaired the separate National Economic Council. In this capacity, he reached out to the world bank who in turn, introduced Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to him. Atiku should also, be celebrated for bringing in the established Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as part of that extraordinary reform era.

Academic research on the period notes that, through the influential Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, the administration recruited technocrats into economic policymaking. And Atiku himself describes an earlier process in which he assembled professionals such as Anya, Adeola, Agusto and Soludo to develop policy ideas.

THE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECT: SEARCHING FOR BRAINS

Perhaps the most revealing evidence of Atiku's philosophy was the creation, more than two decades ago, of what was known as the National Development Project, coordinated by Dr Usman Bugaje.

According to an account by Tunde Olusunle, the organisation deliberately searched for intelligent Nigerians who could contribute to governance and national development.

Think about that.

Not a committee searching for loyalists.

Not an ethnic association searching for kinsmen.

Not a religious organisation searching for brethren.

A deliberate search for brains.

That philosophy may is one of the most important qualities Nigeria will get from the incoming President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar. 

A PRESIDENT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THE SMARTEST PERSON IN THE ROOM

There is a dangerous misconception about leadership: that the leader must personally have every answer.

No.

The great leader builds the room.

The great leader knows the economist to call when the economy is failing.

He knows the engineer to call when infrastructure is collapsing.

He knows the administrator who can reform an institution.

He knows the banker who understands capital.

He knows the academic who understands policy.

He knows the young professional nobody has heard about — yet.

And most importantly, he is sufficiently secure in himself to surround himself with people who may know more than he does in their respective disciplines. No inferiority complex nor low self esteem. 

That is the essence of headhunting.

LOOK AT THE MAP

Now look again at the people associated with Atiku's political and professional network:

Soludo — Anambra.

Ihedioha — Imo.

Bode Agusto — Lagos.

Fola Adeola — Ogun.

Anya O. Anya — Abia.

El-Rufai — Kaduna.

Ribadu — Adamawa.

Ajuwon — from the South-West.

Onukaba — Kogi.

Garba Shehu — Kano.

Adeolu Akande — Oyo.

Boni Haruna — Adamawa.

Different regions.

Different ethnicities.

Different religions.

Different professions.

One qualification:

Ability.

That is what makes the record worthy of examination.

NIGERIA HAS A HEADHUNTER: ATIKU

Nigeria's next great transformation will not be accomplished by one man.

No President can single-handedly fix power, education, security, healthcare, agriculture, infrastructure, industrialisation, monetary policy, technology and public administration.

The job of a President is therefore partly the job of a Chief Talent Officer for the Federation.

Atiku Will Search Nigeria.

Atiku Will Search Africa.

Atiku Will Search the diaspora.

He will find the Nigerian professor in Boston.

He will find the engineer in Aba.

He will find the technology entrepreneur in Lagos.

He will find the agricultural scientist in Zaria.

He will find the doctor in London.

He will find the economist in Washington.

He will find the young genius in Yola, Enugu, Ibadan, Sokoto, Warri, Port Harcourt, etc.,  whose name nobody in Abuja knows.

Atiku Will Ask only:

Are you competent?

Are you honest?

Can you deliver?

Will you serve Nigeria?

Atiku will give them the tools and political backing to work. That is how serious nations recruit. And there is evidence that Atiku Abubakar understood this principle long before it became fashionable to talk about technocratic government.

Atiku's greatest asset is therefore, not simply what he knows. It is his ability to recognise people who know what Nigeria needs — and bring them to the table.

Nigeria has enough tribesmen in government.

Enough religious balancing without competence.

Enough jobs for the boys.

Enough appointments made to repay political debts.

What Nigeria desperately needs now is something different:

An Atiku Abubakar government that hunts for talent.

A government where your surname does not qualify or disqualify you.

A government where your church or mosque is irrelevant to your CV.

A government where your state of origin does not determine the height of your ambition.

A government where excellence is rewarded and competence is recruited.

That is the deeper significance of the Atiku headhunting story.

ATIKU ABUBAKAR: THE HEADHUNTER.

Because when the task is rebuilding Nigeria, competence must have no tribe, excellence must have no religion, and talent must have no social status. Stand For #AtikuIsComing.

Lauretta Onochie.

@Laurestar.