I was amazed by the level of integrity and probity displayed by Ahmed Joda on the particular case in question. I wanted to be like him from that moment on in my career. I am pleasantly surprised to know he is still alive and well enough to be considered for that assignment.
The choice of Alhaji Ahmed Joda as Chairman of the Transition team is a choice made from Heaven. I worked for Ahmed Joda when he was one of the 4 super Permanent Secretaries of the Federation comprising Allison Ayida, Philip Asiodu, E.M.E Ebong and himself while Yakubu Gowon was Head of State from July 1966 to 1975.
The 4 Permanent Secretaries along with their colleagues were quite unhappy when Murtala Mohammed and Obasanjo regime decided that Permanent Secretaries were to be seen and not heard because they felt that the Permanent Secretaries had become too powerful in Government. They wanted to cut them to size. They insisted they should only accompany their commissioners to the Executive Council meetings as advisers and no more as spokesmen for their Ministries.
The commissioners won and the permanent secretaries lost. A few of them took the new gag order personally. Unflappable E.M.E. Ebong was one of them. The others including Ahmed Joda went along albeit reluctantly because they were all very competent and proud bureaucrats and they knew a lot more than their transient political appointees.
Other Permanent Secretaries who were a force to reckon with in those days but were not listed among the 4 included the great Abdul Azeez Attah, the first son of Ohinoyi, the Attah of Igbira Land, Chief Festus Awoniyi of Mopa in Kwara state and Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji a Sokoto prince who later on became the power behind the throne when Shagari became President in 1979. Shagari did not take any decision without first of all running it by Abubakar Alhaji. (Tripple A)
I proudly served as Secretary to National Council on Education and Secretary to the Ministry's Tenders Board under Ahmed Joda as the Permanent Secretary. If you are looking for an incorruptible Nigerian who shares all of the personal attributes of General Buhari as an incorruptible leader, that man is Ahmed Joda from Girei in Adamawa State of Nigeria. I accompanied the man a few times to his village and I came to know him very well as a Nigerian without blemish.
The man served for many years as Chairman of Liquefied Gas Company or Commission of Nigeria and I believe he was chairman of Peugeot Automobile Nigeria PLC at one point in his distinguished career. I knew he was a journalist by training and the man was a prolific writer. He has been everything that he wants to be in Nigeria and he has served in all of the positions with distinction and integrity. If he is a thief he would have long become the Bill Gates of Nigeria.
General Buhari could not have picked a better choice to serve as Chairman of the Transition Committee. He would do a fabulous job because he knows the Federal Public Service inside out, and he is as smart as hell. Age may have slowed him down a little bit but I think he is still one hell of a bureaucrat. He looks a bit old and worn out from his latest picture I have seen in the social media but he remains a monument for integrity in the Public Service.
He is without any doubt one of the best northerners I have ever met or served under. The others of course are Abdul Azeez Attah and Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji a prince of the Sultanate of Sokoto, Alhaji Damcida and late Yusuf Gobir the dapper don Permanent Secretary from Ilorin who was my Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defense. There was Francesca Yetunde Emanuel nee Perreira from Lagos. She was the pioneer lady Permanent Secretary in the Federal Public Service. There was Late Grey Eronmosele Longe from Sabongida Ora and Chief Oluyemi Falae now Kabiyesi the Oluabo of Ilu Abo in Akure North Local Government who retired as Secretary Federal Government and Minister of Finance.
I became who I am today because all of them have touched my life in so many ways. Ahmed Joda in particular had the greatest influence on me when I served under him in the Federal Ministry of Education. I remember him as if it were yesterday.
That man nearly fired his Yoruba Deputy Permanent Secretary whose name I would keep to myself for now because the man was proved to have taken some bribes in cash and kind from one of the contractors supplying food items to all of the Federal Government Colleges in Nigeria at the time. I was reluctantly made to play the role of a whistle blower on the occasion because the man who was Chairman of my Tenders’ Board had wanted to make himself the victor and me the victim. I was the Secretary to the Board and I kept record of all that transpired including a Dozier on each of our contractors at the time. It was my notes that saved me because Ahmed Joda does not play.
I was amazed by the level of integrity and probity displayed by Ahmed Joda on the particular case in question. I wanted to be like him from that moment on in my career. I am pleasantly surprised to know he is still alive and well enough to be considered for that assignment.
Ahmed Joda taught me all I knew as an administrator and as Secretary to the National Council of Education headed at one point by Chief Wenike Briggs and later on by Chief A Y. Eke a former Registrar of the University of Lagos. Those were the days. The Civil Service was at its best I might add. Ahmed Joda insisted that all minutes of meetings must be ready within 24 hours after the end of the meeting come rain or shine. I must give him my draft of the minutes for him to look over and correct in the plane as we both flew back to Lagos. By the time we landed at Ikeja he had already made his corrections and the minutes would be ready for circulation latest by the next day.
I took that habit from him and it remained part of my routine till tomorrow. When I became the Director of the Salvation Army Emergency Center for Children and Families at Bushwick in New York more than 30 years later, I could not shed the habit. Who says the northerners are inferior to the southerners? Those who say that are southerners who may never have met “workaholic” northerners like Ahmed Joda. Nigeria would be a great country with more of Ahmed Joda and General Buhari. I am awfully proud to be one of them
I take off my hat for that man and I shout “Ranka Dede” as I put finishing touches to this tribute to a worthy Nigerian public servant I would never forget.
I now know that General Buhari means business by picking Alhaji Joda to be the Chairman of his Transition team. The President-elect can go to bed easy tonight and not have sleepless night on whether or not Alhaji Joda is going to do a good job and serve the nation to the best of his ability on that chair.
I now see a reason for greater optimism in Nigeria come June 1st 2015 and thereafter.
God bless Nigeria and long live our new President.
Dr. Wumi Akintide