A drive to the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha, tucked right inside the Shehu Shagari Complex, within the Three Arms Zone, Abuja, presented a rather distinct picture of the nature of assignments the office is cut out for. Far-flung from the familiar hustle and bustle often associated with federal secretariats, the serenity here spoke volumes; although on a weekend, its character, it was said, never changes. With a visibly organised setting, including the human and material coordination of the office, Mustapha didn’t waste time with informal exchanges and with a business-like mindset, gave the go-ahead for the engagement with THISDAY, which lasted a little over two hours. Excerpts:

What’s your passion? Seeing this picture of you with a horse, one wonders what your passion is all about.

I am passionate about keeping animals, particularly horses – racing horses. I have a few that I keep here in Abuja, and back home in Yola, I have quite a couple of the local breeds: the Sudanese, the Arewa. They are all racing horses.

Do you hire them out?

No. They go for competitions – local competitions. I also have horses in Kaduna – Pichoka. They are preparing for the race in Jaji, which is being organised by the armed forces sometime in November. You know, horse-racing in Nigeria used to come with a lot of royalty during festivities. That was then. It’s now gone to the scale of what polo is. It used to be much more in terms of colour than polo in those days. But after a while, polo took over and I believe that it is going to return and that’s what we are trying to do.

Now, let’s get down to brass tacks. What is your job description as SGF, what do you do? Someone once said the position of the SGF is making tea for the president. Is that what you do?

Well, the Office of Secretary to the Government of the Federation is a creation of our Constitution, the 1999 constitution as amended, particularly section 171, which provides for the authority of the president to appoint people to certain offices. The first on that list is the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. Basically, the mandate of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation is to coordinate government policies, monitor and ensure full implementation of those policies, programmes and projects.

I also serve as the secretary to the highest policy-making body in the country, which is the Federal Executive Council (FEC), and also the Council of State. The membership of the Council includes the 36 state governors, the FCT minister, former Heads of State and former Chief Justices. So, those are the two most important functions. Also, the office is structured in such a way that we are the front-line advisor institution to the president.

You seem to have a lot on your plate.

Yes!

So, will it be correct to say this office is the brainbox of the federal government?

Whether brainbox or not, I will just say this is the office that provides the operational basis for the presidency. Technically, we provide the President with the secretariat to function efficiently and effectively. We also provide advisory support to the presidency and government’s institutions. The office is structured in such a way that you have to coordinate the activities of government from a wide perspective, because you are dealing with agencies of government, ministries, or institutions, etc. So, it’s really a mixture of a lot of things.

The job description you just reeled off is quite enormous. How do you coordinate? What’s the biggest challenge coordinating all the ministries, MDAs, etc. and ensuring everything is in sync?

Yes, the skill you bring to the office is very, very helpful in your understanding of the responsibilities that are entrusted. One of the things that I know has helped tremendously in coordinating the office and also in ensuring that the contending forces do not fall apart is this: You see, in providing secretariat to the federal executive, we have 43 ministers, two have been dropped, so we have 41. If the president replaces the two, that will come back to the 43. They all come from different constituents with different needs and backgrounds.

Your ability to coordinate that will be based on your strict adherence to extant rules and procedures. Once you do that, you will get a grip on what is happening.

The other thing is that I have received tremendous support from the President and that has been a source of strength for me to do some of the things to ensure that the government machinery was not in any way impeded, and work in harmony – collaborate, ensuring that there is a smooth working relationship with all agencies of government. I also interface with the National Assembly on behalf of the government. The interface is very, very important in dealing with the challenges of the office. It is better you do not underestimate the challenges. But try as much as possible to interface as often as possible, so that if the challenges are brewing, you’ll be able to deal with them before they manifest and become a problem to the administration.

You came at a time the office was bedeviled with all sorts of allegations, and your appointment seemed to have turned the tide, stabilised things, while the image of the office has improved. What attributes did you bring to the office that have helped in reshaping public perception?

The first thing I will say in this regard is truly, the confidence that the President has in my ability to man the office. I came with a modest ability of managing men and resources, having served in different capacities, and having been involved in the eyes of the public in different fora. He has been a great source of support and strength. This has helped tremendously, taking into cognizance the fact that this office, as you rightly observed, is the front office of the president.

The ability and the tact you bring to the office in managing all tendencies have helped tremendously. You remember when I came in, the first thing I did was that I visited the National Assembly. That’s one area, where at the beginning of this administration, there was a very, very sour friction. I paid them a visit and I told them that we are all in this together. That it’s a partnership and shared responsibility. We know that they are an independent arm of government, but there’s a dependency and we cannot promote that. This modest skill has helped me to also bring some harmony in the workings of government, because we have consciously come to realise that if we don’t work together, we will not be able to achieve much.

Tell us, how did you get this job?

I have no idea. I ascribe my appointment to God, who laid it on the heart of the president to appoint me at the time. But let me put it in context. In 2014 after the nomination of President Muhammadu Buhari, then a candidate, I was asked to be part of the campaign organisation and as the director of contact and mobilisation, my responsibility was to organise the campaign structure in terms of rallies, town hall meetings and logistics in terms of even movement, hiring aircraft, or hiring buses.

It was such an all-encompassing responsibility. I will say that was the last time I got into close proximity of walking with the president, then candidate Buhari. And I was part of the management of the election processes. We eventually won and I was appointed the Managing Director of National Inland Waterways. It was from there that I was appointed secretary to the government. So, that’s why I said, I won’t in any way know who recommended me but as I said before, I ascribe the appointment to God, who laid it on the heart of the president to appoint me.

Did managing campaign issues prepare you for this position?

One, I have been in the political process for a very long time and served at different positions in party politics. At the time that we merged and became the All Progressives Congress (APC), I was a deputy national chairman. So, I had operated within the sphere of political influence to a large extent.

But what is your relationship with your predecessor, Babachir Lawal?

My relationship with all my predecessors is excellent. I will say from Chief Ufot Ekaette of blessed memory, who I served when I was winding down the PTF; I worked with him closely. If there’s one man that was prophetic about my life, it was Ufot Ekaette. When I was serving him, one day, he looked at me, this was around 2000 or 2001, he was so impressed with the way I took on that responsibility, called me and said, Boss, keep doing what you are doing; you have a great future in public service ahead.

Did he see you rise to become the SGF?

He was alive when I was appointed SGF. He was so excited. I even represented the government at his funeral. Babagana Kingibe, who came after Ufot Ekaette, is somebody that I was with at the Constituent Assembly in 1988 when I represented my constituency. He was appointed secretary of the Constituent Assembly that produced the 1989 constitution. After that, we were both in SDP. I was the chairman of the SDP in Gongola State (Adamawa), while he was our national chairman. We have had a long political relationship.

Then Yayale Ahmed came. He is somebody I have known since 1988, when he was working in the Ministry of Internal Affairs with the late John Shagaya as minister. I think that was the first time I met him and we were very good friends and we had a harmonious relationship.

Then Pius Anyim Pius, whom I have related with, and we have been very good friends. I’ve had very cordial relationships with all my predecessors that are alive. I have tapped from their wisdom, and from their wealth of experience. I consult them when I am at a crossroads and that has enriched my ability to administer this office. I have a very cordial relationship with all of them.

The thrust of that question is, are you related to your immediate predecessor, Mr.Babachir Lawal?

We come from the same community in Adamawa. We speak the same language.

One of your major assignments has been to coordinate the national response to Covid-19 and for 19 months, you have led the charge at the Presidential Task Force. What are the challenges and can you say the worst is over now?

Let me start by saying this is one of the most daunting experiences in the last 19 months – to run a national response to a virus that is unknown, unpredictable. It has been a daunting experience but I thank God. The challenge with the COVID-19 was the epidemiology of the virus, when it hit the world. It has been described as the most devastating virus so far. The truth about it and let me say it out loud and clear, the COVID-19 virus is not going away soon. It is here to stay. The question now is, what do we need to do to ensure that we are safe? What do we need to do to ensure that we remain here (alive) too?

For me, that is the biggest challenge. You are dealing with something that is not going to go away soon. The second is the fact that the epidemiology of the disease was unknown when it hit the world, and that accounted for why every country and every community was having one form of restriction or the other, and resorted to all manner of formulae on how to deal with the virus. Initially, we had a challenge of technology and availability of testing materials, because we needed to test to detect before you can put somebody into isolation and provide care.

Everything about COVID-19 was important. None was homegrown. Technology was a major challenge. The availability of the garment, the PPEs that you need to use for the purpose of reducing the level of infection among health personnel was a challenge. Then came access to vaccines, and with access to vaccines came vaccine hesitancy. So you can see that we are in it for the long run. It is a sprint and a marathon. It was also such a fundamental need for us to try to balance lives and livelihood. It was a balance of the health of our people and the economy and the wealth of our people. That’s what confounded the entire world and as I said, it’s certainly not over. And I will not want to encourage anybody to think it is over, because there are many things that should be put in place to ensure that we keep protecting our people in the conscious realisation that it is not going away soon.

Curiously, you haven’t contracted the virus, when many people around you have. How did you do it?

Even my household was infected. All my four children, right under my nose. But God spared me and my wife. God was gracious to us, honestly. But one other thing that I kept doing was adherence to the safety protocols. Even at home, you’ll find me sitting down and wearing my mask. My children would say, ‘Daddy you are home and you are wearing mask’ and I would say, ‘Yes, I am home, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t wear a mask. When they got infected, I moved them into the Isolation Centre so that at least, whatever I was telling the Nigerian people was what I practised in my home. They were there for over seven days. Even when they did the test and confirmed that they were negative, I insisted that they stayed another two days to do another confirmation test.

Initially, there were concerns about your choice as the chairman of PTF as many would rather an expert in the field had led the charge. But over time, you seemed to have completely taken charge. At what point was this turnaround?

The truth about it is that yes, initially when I came on stage, there was this feeling that what does he know about infectious diseases or even in the medical field? Why not an expert in the field, not just a general practitioner? But I think in the wisdom of the president, he felt that we needed to put up a robust national response that is multi-sectorial. And that is the advantage we had. We had the medical team, the experts were part of the presidential task force. But we also realised that there were other things that had nothing to do with the medical system.

There were issues of diplomatic engagements; there were issues that were going to border on how we handled our education system; there were issues of aviation movements – in and out; there were issues of internal security. We graduated from health, the major health concern of our time, which is the pandemic that was declared by the World Health Organisation, gravitated towards the adverse impact on the economy, which has completely compounded and confounded the world.

The economy of the world will take a long time to recover. For us here in Nigeria, and elsewhere, we gravitated to the level of security concerns. COVID-19 tactically gave birth to #EndSARS. So we are dealing with these three major planks, viz. health, security and economy. It became obvious that a leadership that will lean towards just the medical concern will not be able to provide the robust national and international response – the one we’ve been able to provide. And I will always say it was in the wisdom of the President, when he set up the presidential task of COVID-19, he also set up a committee that will look at the adverse economic impact of COVID-19 and that was what gave birth to the economic sustainability plan.

The committee was chaired by His Excellency, the Vice President (Professor Yemi Osinbajo) to look at what we needed to do to restart our economy, to provide palliatives for the people, to provide some source of succour for the people, because people were losing their jobs, especially, the daily wage earners. They couldn’t cope. The combination of all these things helped tremendously in giving me the ability to coordinate. In the list of ministers, I had Aviation, I had foreign affairs to deal with foreign engagements, I had the interior to deal with internal security matters, I had education, I had the environment along with the experts.

Because we had this crack team of young men, who are knowledgeable in the field of infectious disease, the world found them attractive today. To begin with, Dr. Chikwe is with WHO today as a result of our response. He is the Assistant Director-General in charge of a new institute that was established to prepare the world for future pandemic. This came about as a result of the nature of his robust engagement on the platform of the Presidential Task Force. Dr Sani Aliyu is on the African Advisory Council, which is chaired by the South African president and several other international platforms that have been provided.

This is part of the crack team we had along with their colleagues in the Ministry of Health. So, I believe strongly that, yes, there would have been a preference for a knowledgeable person that is a specialist but what in the wisdom of the president was needed was somebody that would have the political leverage of access. Because of COVID-19, I could see the president at any given time in the day. I could get in contact with him very quickly to receive direction as to the application and protocols and other guidelines that were issued. You remember when we started talking to the nation on a daily basis? We were reporting to him constantly as to what was happening, though a combination of that, we needed a leadership that would have access and would be able to create a multi-sectoral platform that would be able to give a national response.

Are you saying with the benefit of hindsight, it was a very good decision?

It really was. It was because if you had somebody that was an economist, he would just stay with his economic rescue and leave out the health and the security challenges, but I had this bird’s eyeview, and I knew what was happening. And because of the access, I had to report to the president, and decision-making, which is key, was quicker. We didn’t have to wait. All I needed to do was what was the committee’s decision on the way to go. I just headed to his house or office. To the glory of God and the confidence that the president had in the Presidential Task Force, not one recommendation was rejected, because he believed that we were operating based on science, national and global experience.

To what extent has the chairmanship of the PTF affected your main job of coordinating activities of the government?

Well, I wouldn’t say that it has affected it negatively, because even as my business is tocoordinate the government, in the peak of COVID-19, the government slowed down, we even shut down. The entire office became the primary responsibility of the government. I mean, COVID has exposed the weaknesses, even in our system. I keep telling people that, even in the most developed democracies, like the United States with many years of constitutional democracy, the weaknesses of the system were exposed, because I saw for the first time, the President of a nation contending with a Mayor of a city as to who was to place a certain regulation.

I said all these 300 years, you have not sorted that out and also the area of economy, as I said, you can see the impact. And it also exposed the weaknesses of our system in terms of inclusiveness. The developed environment, they already had a system, where they could determine who needed help, or what the basis of the help was. We have a system where we’re just trying to build a register of the poorest of the poor; we’re trying to put in place the identity of our people. That was a major challenge. So, who do you give it to? Where do you find them? What is the system? What have you put in place?

So, I have come to the valid conclusion that, yes, COVID-19 was a major challenge, but it has also given us an opportunity to redress some of these inadequacies, and in a way, we’re doing the best we can, especially in the area of medical infrastructure. When we started, there were only two laboratories that could d
Source: This Day