Lessons From Tinubu’s Reward System

Rewards strategy aims to motivate politicians, compensate their performance and maintain their loyalty within the political space.

As mentioned above, we will be drawing some lessons while looking ahead.

The National Working Committee of the All Progressive Congress (APC), on Monday 8th May, 2023, zoned the positions of the Senate President of the 10th National Assembly to the South-south, Deputy Senate President North-West, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, North-West and Deputy Speaker, South East. The ruling party also agreed on a consensus that the former Governor of Akwa Ibom State.

Senator Godswill Akpabio has been anointed as the next Senate President, Deputy Senate President, Jubrin Barau, while Hon. Tajudeen Abass from Kaduna State and Hon. Benjamin Kalu from Abia State were anointed as the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House respectively.

The next day, while I was reminiscing on why the National Working Committee of the All Progressive Congress (APC), did not zone the position of the Senate President to the South East Geopolitical zone of the country, I was shocked to the bone marrow watching the former Acting National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Hilliard Eta, clarifying why APC ignored Orji Uzor Kalu for Godswill Akpabio.

According to him, he said that President-elect, Bola Tinubu, is coming with a new agenda of rewarding the party loyalists.

In his words, “Orji Uzo Kalu is imminently qualified to be the President of the Senate but even from out of the party, I do know that Orji Uzor Kalu did not contribute much to the success of the party in this election”.

In the past 8years, the party did not reward hard work and loyalty. Tinubu and Shettima are beginning a new era, where the party will reward loyalists and those who worked very hard for the party. Going by this, they adopted Akpabio.

I do not feel the South-East has been marginalized by the party, the party has not finished allocation of offices. Until the allocations are done and none went to the South-East, then we will talk of “marginalization”.

Before the National Working Committee of the All Progressive Congress (APC), zoned the positions of the Senate President of the 10th National Assembly to the South-south, the Chief Whip of Senate, Orji Uzor Kalu, has signified his interest in becoming president of Nigeria’s 10th Senate and said that the position be zoned to the South-east by the All Progressives Congress (APC).

As a matter of fact, he said “And I hope that Nigerians will pray for me to be Senate President because it is my turn. The 10th National Assembly will be inaugurated in June. I will like the party to zone it to my zone, to my village in Igbere because the President-elect needs people of high character to turn around the economy and work for the masses and make laws that will enable him turn around the economy”.

“This because I am an economic person, an entrepreneur, the most qualified Senator for the position based on the Senate rules as well as pedigree.

The Senate has rules. Let me be honest with you, if we practice true democracy, I should not be in contest with anybody, because apart from the Senate President, Deputy Senate President, the Senate Leader, I am the next ranking member in the Senate going by the position I occupy today in the 9th Senate.”

“It is virtually impossible that the Senate will elect or zone it to a new member of the Senate. The Senate is an established institution that needs somebody with an experience, someone with the skills and will be able to relate,” Senator Kalu said.

Senator Orji Kalu was banking on the political illusion that the Senate President is the prerogative of the South East as part of inclusiveness despite the fact that the South East did not vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential candidate.

Unfortunately, Senator Kalu forgot that power is not given for mere asking, power is negotiated and taken.

Many analysts are of the opinion that the choice of Senator Godswill Akpabio was based on loyalty, commitment and dedication, which translates to reward.

Many also are of the opinion that the President-elect and the APC leadership were not stupid in their decisions, that Senator Kalu attended only 3 Presidential campaign rallies across the 36 states, while Akpabio attended 33 and you want them to give Kalu the Senate President just like that.

Political pundits argued that Senator Akpabio started his consultations very early, even before the campaign began. As a matter of fact, Senator Akpabio started positioning himself for the number one Senate seat the moment he stepped down for Senator Bola Tinubu.

He gave APC the highest votes from his Senatorial Zone at the just concluded Presidential election. Many are of the view that reward system is going to be the watch word of the incoming administration of Senator Bola Tinubu.

People who contributed in his electoral victory will enjoy the spoils in the incoming government.

We pray that this reward system will play out from the Federal, State down to Local level of governments.

In most scenarios, party loyalty, commitment, dedication and reward are sacrificed for the greed of elected President or Governor as witnessed under President Muhammadu Buhari and many of the State Governors, who abandoned those who helped them to power.

This poor reward system needs to be changed and Tinubu deserves commendation for bringing the desired change and rewarding loyal party men and women and should be emulated by State Governors, among others.