It is the blunder of our times. A 70 years old, sickly president who took 6 months to constitute an executive council of recycled politicians and professional political jobbers, only to crash the country’s economy and lead us into the worst recession in living memory, cannot be counted to do right by any means.

Mohammadu Buhari is possibly Nigeria’s most incompetent leader and he has finally outdone himself. It took him two years to collate hundreds of names of appointees into the Board of government agencies and ministries. What was released instead was a clownish mixture of the living and the dead; of deadwoods and political jobbers.

The appointments of 209 board chairpersons and 1,258 board members were announced on Friday with controversies surrounding the inclusion of dead persons and the duplication of same names on different boards. They even appointed people into the Nigerian Football Federation that is an independent body.

As of today, the list of the dead people on our President’s list of Board appointees includes:

• Senator Francis Okpozo
• Rev Fr Christopher Utov
• DIG Donald Ugbaja(retd)
• Garba Attahiru
• Umar Dange
• Magdalene Kumu
• Dr Nabbs Imegwu
• Comrade Ahmed Bunza
• Asuzu Okpalaibekwe

Senator Francis Okpozo who was appointed chairman of the Nigerian Press Council died in December 2016 at the age of 81. President Muhammadu Buhari himself sent a letter of condolence to the family and eulogised him for championing social justice in the Niger Delta, during his long history of service to the people.

Chief Donald Ugbaja who was appointed a member of the Consumer Protection Council (CPC), died on the 29th of November, 2017.

Reverend Christopher Utov who was appointed member of the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research, died in March of 2017.

Senator Shehu Sani: “Posthumous awards is okay but not posthumous appointments.

Some things are just absolutely incredulous for the senses to comprehend but this just about takes the cake.

And in a show of how shameless this administration can be, the president’s Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Shehu

Garba, claimed there was nothing

“scandalous or extraordinary” in the inclusion of the names of some dead persons in the list of appointments into boards of some agencies released by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation on Friday because the list had been prepared over two years ago and nobody could stop some of those included on the list from dying between then and now.

This is the official position of a government lost in the silliness of their actions.

I have said repeatedly that President Buhari and his journeymen cannot offer us the leadership this country deserves. Where our common objective should have been the promotion of the Nigerian ideal, our current crop of leaders have shown themselves so inept and unprepared to deliver the Nigeria of our dreams. We will need to keep chopping and changing until we get it right.

A more detailed article on this issue coming soon.