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Governors
without cabinets
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Although there may be no
section in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as
amended, which states categorically that a governor must appoint commissioners
or form his cabinet within 100 days of assumption of office, some Nigerians,
who spoke to The Nation at the weekend, are worried that most of the currently
elected governors have run their states without commissioners in the first 100
days of their administration.
Out
of the 29 states where new chief executives were sworn-in on May 29, 2015, only
about five, an insignificant percentage, have formed cabinets as at Friday. The
five states where the new governors have appointed all or significant number of
commissioners and special advisers include: Adamawa, Akwa-Ibom, Enugu, Kano and
Kaduna.
The Nation report continues:
There
are few others that appointed only a small number of commissioners. Governor
Ifeanyi Okowa for example had to submit list of his commissioners to the Delta
State House of Assembly in two batches. In June, he submitted a list of twelve
commissioner nominees to the lawmakers for screening. It took almost a month
before he forwarded another list of eight commissioner nominees. In Rivers
State, Governor Nyesom Wike has only appointed few commissioners thereby
heightening the pressure on him to name the remaining members of the cabinet.
As
at yesterday, the states where the new governors are yet to name their
commissioners include, Lagos, Oyo and Ogun in the South-West; Imo, Ebonyi and
Abia in the South-East; Cross-River, Delta and Rivers in the South-South;
Kwara, Plateau, Niger and Nassarawa in the North-Central; Sokoto, Zamfara,
Katsina, Kebbi and Jigawa in the North-West; and Borno, Bauchi, Taraba, Gombe
and Yobe in North-East.
Even
before the inauguration of the new governors in question, Governor Rauf
Aregbesola of Osun State in the South-West has been running the affairs of his
state without commissioners since last year when he was re-elected in office.
Since then, he has been making use of permanent secretaries and heads of
departments to run the government, explaining that the tactics is a reaction to
the challenging economic realities of the time.
Nigerians
who spoke to The Nation over the matter said it is necessary for a governor to
appoint members of his team as quickly as possible “since two heads are better
than one.” As some of them reasoned, a governor that has his team is likely to
provide better governance to his people than a sole administrator, who is prone
to act like a dictator.
But
spokesmen of most of the governors have defended that the law did not make it
mandatory for their bosses to constitute a cabinet within their first 100 days
in office. Their position seems to be drawn from the provisions of the
Constitution in Section 193 sub 1, which says amongst others that the governor
of a state “may, in his discretion, assign to the Deputy Governor of the state,
or any commissioner of the government any business of the state, including the
administration of any department of the government.”
Wide
consultations, cause of delay in Bauchi
In
Bauchi State, where Governor Mohammed Abubakar, a lawyer-turned politician, is
presiding over the affairs of the state, some people expressed concern that 100
days after the inauguration of the current state government, the governor is
yet to announce his commissioners.
Our
checks during the week show that there is no hint that a cabinet will be in
place in the next few days.
Faulting
the argument that the governor was not obliged under any law to appoint
commissioners within 100 days after assumption of office, critics of the
development in Bauchi said “for purposes of honesty, accountability and
transparency, leading to good governance, there are certain provisions in our
law that require Executive Council’s resolutions, especially, on issues of
bilateral agreement or issues that concern fiscal responsibilities.” This being
the case, it is pertinent, they reasoned, for a democratically elected governor
to appoint his cabinet as quickly as possible.
Leading
the critics of Abubakar over this matter are members of the opposition party in
the state, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). They have alleged that the delay
in the constitution of the cabinet in the state was because “the governor wants
to get back the funds he expended on his election campaign”. Since the
publication of N8.60 billion bailout for the state, the critics have not ceased
to express concern over the possibility of Abubakar’s just utilization of the
resources without a state executive council.
But
Governor Abubakar’s Director of Press, Alhaji Ibrahim Sani, said such
criticisms have no substance and that the governor is only being meticulous in
approaching issues in governance.
His
words, “the absence of commissioners is not strange to Bauchi State. The delay
is to put square pegs in square holes, besides, many states and the federal
government are yet to appoint commissioners or ministers. But Bauchi’s case is
based on wide consultations.”
“It
is also, meant to form a cabinet that will stand the test of time, have
commissioners or advisers that would assist the governor to fast tract
deliverance of the contents of the people’s mandate.
“In
order to make a well informed decision, there has been ministerial,
departmental and government agencies’ briefings to the governor. This is being
done so that Gov. Abubakar will understand the operations of government, its
challenges and formulate right policies and people-oriented programmes with the
correct people to ensure their adequate implementation”.
Abubakar’s
spokesman also stated that “the act of governance is not as easy as people see
it from afar. Abubakar was a senior civil servant in the state civil service
and knows what the government is and has to work policies in compliance with
the change mantra.
Therefore
for now, it is a game of ‘wait and see’ or, as they would say, it’s “sit down
look” kind of situation in Bauchi.
In
Rivers, Wike awaits tribunal judgment
The
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, is one of the governors yet to constitute a
full cabinet. His critics have attributed the delay to the fear of losing his
position at the tribunal.
The
governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the April
11 election in Rivers State, Dr. Dakuku Adol Peterside, who described the poll
as a sham, dragged Wike to the tribunal, sitting in Abuja
Wike,
of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is insisting that he won the election
and he is admonishing Rivers people to support his government.
Besides
appointing ex-Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Kenneth Kobani, as
Secretary to the Rivers State Government (SSG) and two-term Chairman of Emohua
Local Government Council of Rivers State, Emeka Woke, as the Chief of Staff,
Government House, Port Harcourt, the state governor has so far appointed four
commissioners: Dr. Fred Kpakol (Finance), Emma Okah (Housing), Onimim Briggs
(Agriculture) and Emmanuel Aguma, SAN (Justice and Attorney-General).
The
Rivers chapter of the APC then noted that “Wike’s 100 days celebration kicked
off with so much self adulation, distorted facts and misrepresentations in the
media.”
Rivers
APC, through its Publicity Secretary, Chris Finebone, in Port Harcourt,
declared that Wike was not ready to deliver good governance to the peace-loving
people of the state.
It
reiterated that President Muhammadu Buhari, as someone who is focused and with
a clear plan for governance, shortly after his May 29, 2015 inauguration,
announced that he would appoint ministers in September.
The
party stated that the same could not be said of Wike, a former Minister of
State for Education.
The
Party therefore called on Wike to constitute the state’s cabinet by appointing
commissioners and make other statutory appointments, irrespective of the fact
that his stay as governor was highly likely to be truncated by the tribunal,
since government is a continuum.
The
party declared that the excuse Wike offered that he would wait till the
tribunal in Abuja gives judgment before constituting his cabinet was only a
facade to pull his grand scam on the good people of Rivers state and deceive
even members of his PDP.
Mixed
reactions in Abia
In
a recent chat the Chief Press Secretary of the Abia State Government, Godwin
Adindu had with members of the Aba Federated Chapel of the Nigeria Union of
Journalists (NUJ), he promised that the state government would soon appoint
commissioners for various ministries.
However,
the inability of Governor Okezie Victor Ikpeazu’s administration to appoint the
commissioners after 100 days in office has been causing a lot of concerns among
Abians.
While
many respondents condemned it, others believe that appointing commissioners to
head ministries is a waste of the state economic resources.
They
advocated for the use of permanent secretaries or good hands in various
ministries in order to save cost and limit people with no or less experience
from heading the activities of various government parastatals in the state.
According
to Mr. Chukwuma Ngama, “I am not a politician, but I believe that even if the
governor fails to appoint commissioners and the state functions well under the
leadership of permanent secretaries, that will save us (the State) a lot of
wastages. The truth is that some of these commissioners may not really know
much about the ministries they are appointed to head. Imagine when they appoint
a bio-chemist to head say ministry of works. I am of the opinion that
government should scrap both ministerial and commissioners’ positions. Let them
use permanent secretaries. That will save us the dangers of putting square pegs
in round holes”.
Mr.
Nwogu, who do not agree with Ngama’s position, opined that the importance of
commissioners and ministers cannot be over emphasized as he noted that both
governors and the president need to have commissioners and ministers
respectively to oversee some of the ministries to avoid “gap in governance”.
“Those
who are against the appointment of ministers and commissioners by the President
and governors should ask God why he went about spreading the gospel during his
own time with His disciples. That shows that the importance of ministers and
commissioners for every government cannot be over-emphasized.
Governor’s
Chief Press Secretary, Godwin Adindu, in an interview said, “It is not only
Abia State that has not appointed commissioners. If you look around, many
states have not appointed commissioners and even the federal government has not
appointed ministers. So that should not be an issue for anybody. At the right
time, the governor will appoint his commissioners.
On
the insinuation that the government might be doing it to cut cost of
governance, Adindu said, “I don’t think that is the case. It is just that the
governor is taking his time; he is doing things according to his own time
table. So, at the right time, when he must have identified the right people to
work with him, the appointments would be made”.
On
the vacuum lack of commissioners is creating in governance, he added, “the
absence of commissioners is not causing any hindrance or having any negative
effect on governance. Abia governance is going on smoothly; our projects have
been going on smoothly. The governor has mapped out the things he wants to
achieve. The permanent secretaries are there working with the governor to
achieve those things. The governor is acting as the overall supervisor and
director of all his projects. He equally has a body of aides, special advisers
and inspection officers, the SSG, the Chief of Staff and other aides. They are
all busy working. He is following his own timetable; there is a template which
he is following. So, at the right time the appointments would be made,” Adindu
said.
Ayade’s
meetings with interest groups, cause of delay
In
Cross River State, where Governor Ben Ayade is yet to constitute his cabinet,
we gathered that the delay is primarily because of wide consultations. A source
close to the Government House, informed that the governor had just concluded
the consultation exercise with important stakeholders and as a result,
expectations are high in Calabar that Ayade will likely name his commissioners
anytime from this September.
Our
source said “because of the hard fought elections, the governor thought it wise
to consult widely in order to carry everyone along. He consulted with wards and
local government caucuses. The local government caucuses were asked to nominate
two candidates each for consideration.”
Lalong
may first reduce ministries to manageable size
Plateau
State governor, Simon Lalong, has been unable to constitute his executive
council members within his first 100 days in office.
Though
Lalong never promised he will appoint commissioners for the government before
the expiration of his first 100 days as governor, it has been the expectation
of citizens of the state who cannot wait to see a full APC government in place
in the state having used their PVC to effect a change from PDP to APC.
This
has given most citizens a lot of concern and most of them are already
expressing some measure of disappointment in the Lalong-led administration. The
PDP-led opposition has decried the absence of commissioners and has therefore
described Plateau as a state without a functional government.
But
it seems Lalong is not bordered by such criticisms over his inability to
constitute his cabinet within the first 100 days in office.
Among
the earliest appointments made by Lalong so far are Secretary to the State
Government, Hon. Rufus Bature, Chief of Staff, Government House, Mr. John
Dafan, Chief Press Secretary to Governor Lalong, Samuel Nanle,
Director-General, Research and Documentation, Prof John Wade.
Apart
from these appointments, Lalong has appointed new leadership for the 17 local
governments of the state and also reinstated the Vice Chancellor of the state
university, Prof Danjuma Dognaan Sheni, even as he reconstituted the governing
council of the state university under the Chairmanship of Professor Attahiru
Jega.
According
to Mr. Samuel Nanle, the Director of Press and Public Affairs to Lalong, there
are three major reasons for the delay in the composition of the state executive
council; first, the state governor set up a transition committee to ascertain
the true position of the state, it has taken the committee over two months to
complete the assignment and submit its report. That report was needed for the
smooth take off of the administration.
Secondly,
government thought of restructuring the entire state; we need time to study all
government ministries, agencies and parastatals, there could be need to merge
some of them, there is the need to scrap some of them to a manageable size. And
until that is done carefully, government cannot just appoint commissioners
without knowing its numbers of ministries.
Thirdly,
the issue of availability of funds, the government inherited empty treasury and
the first thing to do is to raise the revenue profile of government because
that will determine how many commissioners you can pay. They require official
vehicles, furnishing of office and other logistics. The poor state of
government’s purse as at the time we took over, made it difficult to think of
appointing commissioners. Government also had to give priority to the seven
month salary arrears it inherited so as to boost the morale of the state civil
servants who were on strike before May 29 when we took over. Government had to
source for funds from wherever to pay that liability before talking of
appointing commissioners, the commissioner cannot resume office when civil
servants are on strike.
The
fourth and most important reason is the need for wide consultations on who to
appoint as commissioner. Such appointment should be community-based, this
government resolved to allow the people to do the selection; this government
will not want to impose any commissioner on any local government. And so
government asked the people to do wider consultations among themselves and
select for government. That is the standard in a democracy like ours.
Cash
crunch, reason for delay in Kwara
In
Kwara State, where the governor is also yet to name commissioners, Governor
Abdulfatah Ahmed said publicly that with the financial crisis in the country
and with the current difficulty in the payment of salaries of civil servants,
it would be out of place for him to appoint commissioners and other office
holders who would become another financial burden to him.
He
explained that the current financial situation “called for proper planning on
how to prudently run the government.” As a result, since he assumed office,he
had made only five appointments.
Speaking
during his monthly media chat broadcast live on the state radio stations, the
governor said “Ordinarily as a second term governor under a smooth running
system, where you don’t have financial constraint, I would have appointed
commissioners the next day I was sworn-in. But you see, no matter how much
plans you have in running government, resources must be available.
It
is interesting to note that as a result of this position, the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State has threatened to drag Ahmed to court
over his delay in appointing commissioners and other political appointees.
Iyiola Oyedepo, Chairman of the party in the state, said the governor, being a
second timer, has no excuse not to have appointed commissioners, alleging that
the action of the governor can breed autocracy and fraudulent practices as the
work to be done by many is being done by one.
Okorocha
still consulting stakeholders in Imo
The
non appointment of Commissioners by the Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha,
one hundred days after he was sworn in for his second term in office, may not
be unconnected to the cash crunch that have hit most of the states.
According
to a reliable source close to the state government, who preferred anonymity,
“there is no portion of the constitution that mandates the governor to appoint
commissioners within a particular time and moreover with the current state of
the economy, the appointment of commissioners is not the immediate priority of
the state government”.
The
source continued that, “the state government is more interested in delivering
the dividends of democracy to the people than appointing a new set of
commissioners, when it is still grappling with the payment of workers’ salary”.
The
delay may also not be unconnected with the plan by the state government to
reduce the number of ministries by merging some together to reduce the cost of
governance.
However,
the governor, in a recent media chat with journalists in the state, promised to
announce the list of commissioners as soon as possible, but noted that the
number may not be the same as in the past.
The
Nation also gathered that the challenge of carrying all interest groups along,
especially members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who supported the
governor against their party’s candidate, may be responsible for the delay as
the governor may be making wider consultations.
Okowa’s
example
Although
Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, now has commissioners to work with, the
way he formed the cabinet explained, to a very large extent, why many state
governors are yet to name the commissioners and advisers they would be working
with. Reports from Imo, Plateau and many other states have shown that most of
the governors, faced with the current economic realities are consulting widely
and may have resolved to restructure and reduce the ministries and departments
with the view of reducing cost of governance.
That
is why, in spite of the fact that Delta is one of the oil-rich states in the
country, sources confirmed that cash crunch informed Okowa’s resolve to appoint
his commissioners in a way an analyst described as ‘piecemeal.’
While
some state governors, who are facing severe cash crunch, are still unable to
appoint their commissioners since assumption of office on May 29th, Okowa
assembled his cabinet in a novel manner.
He
resorted to appoint the commissioners in two batches. He also reduced the
number of commissioners from 32, as was the case during Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan’s
administration, to 20.
It
would be recalled that in June, Okowa submitted a list of twelve commissioner
nominees to the Delta State House of Assembly. He forwarded another list of
eight commissioner nominees two months later.
A
source confirmed that the main reason behind Okowa’s ‘piecemeal’ appointments
of commissioners “may not be unconnected with the economic situation,” adding
that had Okowa appointed all the commissioners in one fell swoop, he
would have had to provide accommodation, vehicles and pay their salaries and
other emoluments.
To
further compound the dire financial situation, is the fact that residences
allocated to commissioners was stripped bare by their past occupants.
Aside
from financial worries, pressure from political stakeholders also conspired to
slow down the process of appointing commissioners as many interest groups are
jostling for key positions.
In
a bid to appease stakeholders, it was learnt, that Okowa is taking his time in
fully constituting his team.
Another
source informed that the delay in appointing more commissioners may be plans by
the present administration to downsize the number of ministries from the
unwieldy 32 to 22 in a bid to reduce duplication of duties by ministries and
save cost.
This
seems to be the same picture in most of the states in the country, especially
the states where the governors are foot-dragging before appointing the
commissioners and other members of the state executive council. Our
investigation shows that most of the affected governors resorted to this style
of governance primarily to save some funds following the economic downturn that
has affected their states.
The
reasons given for the delay in appointing commissioners and other members of
cabinet notwithstanding, most Nigerians are worried that the current situation
may lead to a form of quasi-dictatorship. As a result, they are calling on the
governors who are yet to name their commissioners to wake up to the aspirations
of their people and constitute their cabinet as quickly as possible
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