Ministerial/presidential aides: No Contribution, no consumption (NCNC)

BY JOHN CHIEJIMA

NIGERIANS are anxious to know who becomes minister and which office they get for different reasons. But for whatever reason the ministers will be appointed for the purpose of keying into the vision of the President and serving Nigerians.

In appointing these ministers, the President would have considered many factors including professionalism, patriotism, loyalty, competence, capacity, region e.t.c. Before the declaration of Mr. President on 18th Sept, 2010 for the presidential election, we had Ministers and Presidential aides. Some of these appointees then in one way or the other displayed their total support and loyalty to Mr. President  at one time or the other. Among these appointees who displayed great support and loyalty for Mr. President were Chief Mike Oghiadomhe, Mrs. Deziani Alison-Madueke, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia (SAN), and Chief Adetokunbo  Kayode (SAN).

My reason for specifically naming these persons can be drawn from their activities before, during and after the declaration of Mr. President for the 2011 Presidential election outside their official capacities as Ministers and Aides respectively. They were highly involved with different groups calling on Dr. Jonathan to declare his intention to contest the 2011 presidential election.

On the day of declaration by Mr. President on 18th September 2010 at Eagle Square, Abuja, I saw Chief Mike Oghiadomhe at about 1a.m ensuring that all was right for the declaration. And on the day of declaration by Mr. President, only the duo of Mrs. Alison-Madueke and Mr. Ajumogobia were dressed in personalized GoodLuck Jonathan T-shirts, Jeans and Trainers with at least 100 young men and women following each of them to demonstrate their support, loyalty and patriotism to a cause they believed in.

Now is the time for ministers and aides to be appointed, some persons are kicking against the appointment of persons like Mrs. Alison-,Madueke and Chief Adetokunbo Kayode and Chief Mike Oghiadomhe. This is surprising but expected because in this part of the world, people reap where they did not sow. You can imagine persons who outside the major assignments they were appointed for, spent their spare time gathering support for Mr. President by openly educating, supporting, financing and gathering different groups (youth and NGOs) to ensure the re-emergence of Dr. Jonathan as President. Now some persons have come out to say that these persons should not be re-appointed.

I want to believe that Mr. President knows Nigerians very well because of his kind of development from nothing to becoming President and that change is always met with resistance by those who believe in the slogan “Na so we dey do am,” whether they are right or wrong. These persons believe in change which they have displayed in the various offices they where appointed to.

I say this because there were other appointees who never bothered to do anything but were busy amassing wealth for themselves, families and cronies. So this is the time for those who took risk, worked, contributed, gathered support and ensured the re-emergence of Dr. Jonathan as President, to be recognized and rewarded.

Also, the President should show to Nigerians that change has come and the era of people not contributing to the cooking of the food only to bring plates to be served food when it  is cooked  is over. That this is the era of no contribution, no consumption (NCNC). And Nigerians should learn to appreciate the efforts and sacrifices of persons who contribute to ensure that change is effected in our great country, Nigeria.

*Barr. John Onyebuchi Chiejima, MNIM, is National Co-ordinator, Youths Ask for Goodluck (YAG).