Theatrics finally took the centre stage in Osun State recently, in the panoply of power as displayed by the state governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola. Giddily, Osun onlookers, many who had been lain languid by a combined attack of economic recession and unstable salary, simply smiled, rather drearily, as the governor inaugurated new commissioners and special advisers, barely a year to complete his term.
Save for some uneducated locals, who were easily swayed and could be wondrously placated by the governor’s rhapsodizing talks and mesmerizing conducts, it is doubtful if the ranks of the educated among those who gathered to witness the circus were persuaded that the governor was right on point.
A particular governor in the NorthCentral, as would be recalled, about two years ago, appointed his three wives into the state’s cabinet, and those who criticised him for the ludicrous action soon found that their voices were as good as the bark of a toothless bulldog
Some minds certainly would have reflected on the fact that the governor, alone, had been ruling for the past three years. They would have reckoned that he effectively excluded the inputs of commissioners, who would have been appointed on quota basis, and as such, would have by implication, become the eyes of their respective constituencies in the Aregbesola administration.
Without commissioners for three out of a four-year mandate, the governor’s powers would have ballooned so much that he would easily leverage on the submissive indoctrination obtained by the civil servants to bully his way through all state affairs.
A public servant who has risen to the pinnacle of his career, becoming a Permanent Secretary and being due for retirement in a few years to come, would naturally be mindful of how he would want to live his superannuated years. Would he tinker with the idea of being sacked with his benefits put in abeyance? Or get dismissed with no benefit, so that his family and friends would see him as a shame and failure?
Thus, failing to do the bidding of the executive governor in the award of contracts and other transactions can attract punishment with terrible consequences, from which such a benighted civil servant may never recover.
An ugly scenario of this stuff is apparently one of the things the country’s constitution was drafted to prevent. The constitution states clearly in section 139 (1) that, “There shall be such offices of Commissioners of the Government of a State ;( and) the nomination of any person to such office (should be) confirmed by the House of Assembly of the State.” Thus, legitimately, the commissioner is ‘a true born of the constitution.’
In what has now become an ironic twist, political appointees, whose offices are not known to the constitution, are the lords of the manor, across the states. They get appointed first, possibly in the first two weeks of the governor’s assumption of office. Appointees such as Chief of Staff, Special Assistant, Senior Special Assistant and the like, often spend the fouryear term of the president or the governor with him, whereas, the commissioners and special advisers, who are the legitimate ‘sons of the constitution’, are engaged in manners showing sheer depravity.
While this habit is no doubt a Nigerian thing, it has been taken for the ideal under the All Progressives Congress administration, with the party possibly suggesting that one of the changes it seeks to implant in the public psyche is, ‘learn how to stand the constitution on the head.’
Were it not so, President Muhammadu Buhari should not have waited for over six months to send a list of his ministers to the National Assembly, upon assumption of power. And like a ravaging gale, the method of delaying the appointment of cabinet members soon swept across the states controlled by the APC.
In Lagos, Governor Akinwumi Ambode was alone for six months, ruling without constitutionally recognised members. Same game is currently playing out in Ondo State, where Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, who had been inaugurated since February chuckled around as a soloist; whereas, on daily basis, his table is inundated with curriculum vitae of politicians jostling to become either commissioner or special adviser.
Some governors in this category of solo administration had reportedly justified their action by the need to conserve fund. But using the Osun scenario as a case-study, such an excuse is best excoriated with the glaring indices of how such states, without commissioners, have virtually become insolvent.
At a time, Osun was owing workers’ salaries for upwards of seven, eight months, warranting Christian and Muslim clerics to make appeals during their worship sessions, that well-to-do individuals should give alms in forms of cash and food items to impoverished public workers.
If not for the Federal Government’s bailout fund to the states, a sort of social insurrection was virtually inevitable in Osun at the period, as the state was scandalously indebted to its workforce.
Posers had been thrown as to why a governor, who gained the mandate of the majority of voters, would assume office and then suddenly climb the Olympian height, becoming unreachable for guidance and counselling. The answer is not far-fetched. The constitutional provision that a President, the Vice President, the Governor and the Deputy Governor are immune from either criminal or civil prosecution has simply goaded many in those offices to always want to play god.
In Nigeria’s democracy, the man who holds the ace as President or as governor is no more than a modern Czar, whose action and inaction are left to providence to judge, despite that the constitution provides for a balance of power through checks and balances.
In most situations, the legislative arms are rubberstamps, as they survive at the behest of the President or governor as the case may be. In this clime, since the executive arm holds the knife and the yam as per the control of the treasury, it’s virtually impossible to flex muscles with it.
A particular governor in the North-Central, as would be recalled, about two years ago, appointed his three wives into the state’s cabinet, and those who criticised him for the ludicrous action soon found that their voices were as good as the bark of a toothless bulldog.
Elsewhere, the governors created queer offices without recourse to the state Assemblies, and for as long as the power flows from the unquestionable fountain of the Governor’s Office, woe betides any adamant dissentient that looks the king in the face.
Above all, there is avarice in the land, spurred by the quest to hurriedly amass wealth, and public office has become a veritable avenue for just that. Let the governor slap me in the face, but make up by filling up my bank accounts. That is simply the code in Nigeria.
Fasua is Head, Editorial Board of The Point
