A prime asset of any leader is a wily use of humour. It is that drop of ecstasy that quells the tension in a room. It is magical, and the progeny of its lack is a stern, colourless and joyless ambience. It is an added arrow to the quiver of communication skills of any speaker.

Ralph Emerson once said it is a luxury to be understood. But humour makes communication affordable. And only the extremely beggarly in joy cannot afford it.

Even the Holy Bible affirms the momentousness of humour in Proverbs 17 verse 22 where it says (ESV): “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

The political milieu is a tense dark atmosphere. And Nigerians who had to wait patiently for the announcement, inauguration and assignment of portfolios of Ministers can attest to how boiled the already heated polity was. Expectations from Nigerians for a magical Buhari wand effect to immediately cure decades of decadence; to cure decades of unstable power supply, to arrest and prosecute every single suspect of corruption from time immemorial till tomorrow, to revamp the East-West Road and the immediate construction of the 2nd Niger Bridge, basically: to correct – in five months – every anomaly that has been known to the face of mother Nigeria, brought more angst to the ambience.

The sacrifices that we must make to get CHANGE – and a sustainable one for that matter – is served in the currency of time and fed from the bowl of patience. But in times like this; when the currency of time is hoarded into quick history and patience exchanged for kvetching, a hue of comical relief becomes indispensable to douse tensions of magical expectations.

President Buhari is a man rarely gifted with this art of communication. Albeit the sad side of this sweet coin when tossed into the stagnant waters of the polity, is the sturdy, solid and unsentimental misinterpretation of his jokes that is oft offered by the shenanigans of mischief-makers.

Tunde O. Thompson is a veteran Nigerian journalist. He was imprisoned during the 1984 era of Buhari’s Military Rule under Decree No. 4 of 1984: “Protection of Public Officers from False Accusations.” He served his term of a year with his colleague, save his last weekend when he was ‘smuggled’ out in the night around 3am from the Maximum Security Prison, Kirikiri, Lagos, to pre-empt civil society groups’ plan to receive him at the gate of the prison.

When Mr. Thompson met then President-elect Buhari at the Defence House, on the 5th of May, 2015, a week after winning the 2015 elections, he was introduced in the light of his role during the campaign and significantly his being incarcerated during the Buhari 1984 era. The President-elect’s first response to the introduction was to ask him if he had finished serving his prison-time. The whole room burst into ice-breaking laughter. Mr. Thompson responded that he had just a day left to serve. President Buhari replied: “you would have to finish it now”. Laughter was let loose once more and the spirits of the attendees (who had endured long hours of waiting to have audience with the then president-elect) at the meeting tuned almost to a climax, as they cheered: “Thompson will have to spend the leftover day at Aso Rock.”

Humor is a necessary supplement in our communications diet. It is good spice to the soup of any conversation: an important art for qualitative communication. However, when President Buhari joshed about Ministers being ‘noisemakers’ those who were flaw-digging thought they had found a propagandistic jab to taunt him with. The shallow approach to his jocular was even adopted by a few media houses that made it the subject of debates. But I thank the ALMIGHTY that a significant majority enjoyed the comic relief necessary for that tide – the wait for Ministerial nominees.

The next phase was tossed to the Senate where the members have the constitutional prerogative to confirm the Ministerial [noisemaker] nominees sent in by the President. Catechisms followed the announcement of the list; from, Why this nominee? To, who is this nominee? Why not nominate that person? Wherefrom is the origin of this nominee? How come this nominee? And so on. Sadly, only a few touched on the pith of the matter: the nominees’ intellectual soundness, expertise, experience and capacity to deliver.

The Senate screening turned out to be an intellectual party: The likes of Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Amina Mohammed, Barr. James Ocholi, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), Remi Adeosun, Dr. Audu Ogbeh, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, Gen. Danbazzau, Dr. Ibe Kachukwu, Abubakar Malami – and the many others who were given the opportunity to showcase their wealth of intellect, and not asked almost immediately to bow-and-go – served lectures to the Senators for free. Posts from the social media were abundant, asking that the Senators be issued ‘Diploma Certificates’ for the lectures they had received free of charge.

The climax for most was the screening of Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi who had become a victim of fraudulent petitions and a lousy whitepaper report from the quarters of his haters. Injustice did not reign; the truth was out of the bushel, and Rt. Hon. Amaechi was confirmed as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Rt. Hon. Amaechi made a rousing statement only a few can boldly assert: “I hate corruption … I have never taken any bribe in my life.” Only a handful can confidently affirm as he did on such a wide and distinguished platform as the Senate podium with millions of viewers on live-stream television.

In all of these, one thing was clear from the screening of the selected nominees: President Buhari had given us a list of QUALITY NOISEMAKERS!

And even though we could not attest to seeing nimbuses on the heads of the nominees, we surely did see stars!

WHO WILL MAKE THE LOUDEST NOISE?

The foundation to work has been laid and the bar finally set; portfolios have been assigned to each ‘noisemaker’ to change the tune of each Ministry and bring in ‘noise’ worth hearing from their arena in good time.

Two hours after the Ministers were sworn in, returning from an interview, I noticed ebullient smiles on the faces of workers in one of the elevators of the Radio Nigeria building, I couldn’t help but ask why; it was too obvious something was up. My answer was dished to me in euphoria: “Our Minister is around.” Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information had already resumed work at his Radio House (Ministry of Information) office less than two hours after his inauguration as Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

I also stumbled on a Tweet with a photo from Egghead Odewale showing the new Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and the Minister for State for Solid Minerals, Abubakar Bawa Bwari in a meeting at the Ministry with its Permanent Secretary, Istifanus Futkur.

One thing is for sure: these Ministers would not be courtiers as HRH Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Emir of Kano described past crop of Ministers. President Buhari has made it known that his Ministers would be given a leeway to achieve set goals and targets for optimal results. Their successes and failures are in their hands. And the consequence of the latter would surely be a red card. The President is not known to be a micro-manager, but certainly, there would be guidelines and frameworks for targeted results.

Nigerians want to see true and palpable change. These Ministerial noisemakers have already told and shown us they possess what it takes to deliver. But especially amidst pre-screening criticisms, the Ministers must beyond outstanding oratory, presentations and past glory, prove to Nigerians – once more – their worth and shame the rancorous critics.

I foresee competitions among the Ministers; where each tries to outshine the other. And for me, that is welcome.

CHANGE, President Buhari’s mantra is in the offing. Nigerians are eager; our currency of time is spent, but we yet have some to spare.

The new Ministers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria must, above their qualitative noisemaking, show qualitative works.

My prayer is that history will smile at these men and women when the pages of this epoch would be written.

Johannes Tobi Wojuola, Editor in Chief ofLOL! Magazine writes from Abuja