For the first time in my recent writing history, I am going to praise the president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He deserves the praise not because he is the performer of the deeds but because he is the one who brought Olubunmi Tunji Ojo, who’s been doing increditably well, into office as the Minister for Interior. Nigeria almost lost the services of Tunji-Ojo when at the time Beta Edu, Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation was suspended for allegedly putting her hand in the till, Tunji-Ojo was also accused of taking a contract from Beta Edu’s ministry in a manner that abused his office. But Tunji-Ojo escaped the axe because Tinubu found that he had followed the proper protocol and was therefore not guilty of what was alleged. Beta Edu is yet to be restored more than two years later.
Tunji-Ojo is now showing Nigerians what putting a square peg in a square hole can do to the progress of the nation. Before him and even now positions are filled not on merit but on nepotism and ethnicity. Such appointments leave out the very good and brilliant ones and let the dregs of the nation run the show. For President Bola Tinubu at least, Tunji-Ojo and one or two of his colleagues, Bosun Tijani in the Communications and Digital Economy ministry and the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo (SAN) can be said to have been well head-hunted.
During former President Muhammadu Buhari’s reign, a lawyer and Islamic scholar ran the ministry of Communication and Digital Economy. When he was removed for non-performance, Buhari replaced him with another Islamic fundamentalist whose credentials were doubted, as if that ministry was dedicated to Islam. He also failed. Even now there are many ministers at the Federal level who should be minding their children and wives at home in charge of crucial ministries - just because they are connected and they have political relevance to the appointing authority.
But the performance of Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo at the Ministry of Interior is showing Nigerians which way to go in government appointments if the country must develop. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo came into the ministry with a rich background in tech training and a lot of zeal. He was seen on video earlier as he resumed duty, yelling at some immigration staff in their office. He told them bluntly he came into the Ministry with a zeal to change things and that he was not going to tolerate sloppy work attitude. Today, the changes ensured by Tunji-Ojo have reduced corruption at the Immigration department. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo started reading Electronic Engineering at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ife but transferred to the UK after three years. He has a bachelor’s and a master’s, and before he was 24 years old he had garnered 18 certifications in tech. He is also a certified Ethical hacker. If that was what President Tinubu saw to place Tunji-Ojo at the Interior Ministry, evidence abounds three years later that the appointment was well made.
About two weeks ago, seven commanders of the dreaded Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists were arrested at the Katsina Airport as they returned from pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. If you live in the West the arrest will mean nothing to you but if you live in Nigeria it is a breakthrough. Without the firing of a single gun shot these dreaded commanders who had wrecked havoc on Nigeria and had dared the whole nation were flagged as they approached the airport by the integrated data base Tunji - Ojo had installed. They were flagged as the tech language puts it, even before they set foot on Nigerian soil. The seven were subsequently arrested, flown to Abuja and handed over to the men of the Department of State Services, DSS.
Who could dare these men of evil, but they could not hide from technology. The Governor of Katsina sponsored seven of them to Mecca with the tax payers money at 10 million naira each which makes a total of 70 million naira, though he denied. Two wives of one of the most dreaded bandits travelled to Mecca last year. They were arrested in Saudi Arabia, not in Nigeria. Nobody knows the latest about them as at the time of writing. A local government chairman in Katsina State went to the house of some bandits in a rural area and acceded to their request to renovate their houses and give them 25 motor cycles. Such is the stranglehold of bandits and terrorists on Katsina State that the man at the helm is still calling himself a governor. The meaning of the achievement of Olubunmi Tunji - Ojo is that Nigeria must let technology take over all of its operations. I asked Gemini AI what the accomplishments of Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo have done to the lives of Nigerians; it gave a list:
# Cleared a 204,000 backlog of passport applications in a record breaking three weeks. He thus restored confidence in Nigeria Immigration Service.
# Faster processing timelines of strictly two weeks. Nigerians think this is a revolution.
# Contactless renewal ensures a corruption free renewal of passport teaching Nigeria that corruption will be greatly minimized if the public will not make contact with public officials.
# Nigeria’s first centralized passport personalized center in Abuja which ensures passport security and speed up printing.
# Digital Visa system which automates visa application system ensuring a 48 hour processing time.
Others are:
# E - Gates at five airports which reduces waiting time for travellers
# Deployed Advanced Passenger Information that ensures real time passenger data analysis improving border control and ability to intercept security threats.
# Global passport verification which integrates ICAO Public Key Directory allowing Nigerian passports to be verified anywhere in the world.
The efforts of the Minister are also felt in other areas of his ministry. He deployed “Mining Marshalls” to prevent illegal mining and protect the nation’s solid minerals. He has improved response times of the Fire Service so that properties lost to fire have been reduced. The focus of the Correctional Facility has been shifted from the correction and rehabilitation of inmates into society and the renovation of the facilities. A section of the NSCDC has deployed women to protect schools because of the current attacks on schools by insurgents.
The wide gap between the digital influence on some sectors and other sectors where human contact is still allowed is noticeable. The improvement in the Correctional Facility has not stopped the invasion of it by insurgents while schools have continued to be attacked and pupils carted away into the forest by insurgents. That paints the necessity for the application of digitalization to improve or stop these incidents which have become a national embarrassment. As the government is making laws to decentralize the policing system in the nation, it is apt to suggest that the Inspector General at the federal level and the commissioners that will head state police must be men and women who apart from their security training must also have a good background in the digital economy.
First Published in METRO
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Tunde Akande is both a journalist and pastor. He earned a Master's degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos.
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