Much ado about appointments into political offices

 

The dominant news in Nigeria now is about appointments into political offices after the inauguration of the president and the 28 governors on May 29, 2023. It’s been over 40 days since they were inaugurated and the March 2023 alteration of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has given a maximum of 60 days for the president and governors to constitute their cabinets. Prior to this alteration, we have had a scenario where the former president Muhammadu Buhari took about six months to appoint his ministers in 2015 and several state governors such as those of Osun and Edo states took longer than that to appoint their commissioners.  It’s therefore commendable to have put a timeline within which cabinets are to be formed.

Sections 147, 148, 149 and 150 of the Nigerian Constitution talk about appointment and functions of the ministers. It is interesting to note that only the office of Attorney General is expressly mentioned in the Constitution. Section 150 (1) says, “There shall be an Attorney General of the Federation who shall be the chief law officer and a minister of the government of the federation.” Thus, it can be inferred that the Ministry of Justice is the only sacrosanct ministry. Others are established for administrative convenience.

There is something important to flag in the appointment of ministers. Section 147 (3) says, “Any appointment under subsection (2) of this section by the president shall be in conformity with the provisions of section 14 (3) of this Constitution. Provided that in giving effect to the provisions aforesaid the President shall appoint at least one minister from each state, who shall be an indigene of such state.”  It is instructive to note that this is the main reason we have a minimum of 37 ministers (36 states and FCT). I am of the considered view that this number is unwieldy and not in consonance with running a lean government.

There has been a clarion call for reduction in the cost of governance hence there is a need to alter the constitution to half the current number. Nineteen ministers is okay. The United States of America has 15 secretaries which is equivalent to our ministers despite having 50 states with approximately 333 million population. State representation of ministers is uncalled for.   Quite unfortunately, The Guardian of Monday, July 10 is speculating that there will be 42 ministers while the position of minister of state has been scrapped. Should this be true, are we going to have 42 ministries created even though there are speculations that some ministries such as Works and Housing, Finance, Budget and National Planning, Youths and Sports as well as Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development may be decoupled or unbundled. Even then, will it be reasonable to have 42 ministries!

The earlier referenced Section 147 (3) says the appointment of minister must be in conformity with section 14 (3) of the Constitution. What does that section say? It says: “The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government in any of its agencies.”

President Bola Tinubu owes it a duty to ensure that there is an indigene of Federal Capital Territory in his proposed cabinet. Not only that, he should be in compliance with the 2022 National Gender Policy by ensuring that 35 per cent of his cabinet is made of women. The international covenant and protocols Nigeria has signed on to have made it mandatory for the president to also appoint a sizable number of youths and persons with disabilities in his cabinet.  When these diversities are reflected in his ministerial list, then he would have fulfilled the cardinal principle of socio-political inclusion of vulnerable groups while also complying with the federal character principle.

Oftentimes, we clamour for appointment of technocrats who are apolitical into cabinet positions. This may run contrary to provision of Section 147 (5) which says, “No person shall be appointed as a Minister of the Government of the Federation unless he is qualified for election as a member of the House of Representatives.” Section 65 (2)(b) says a person shall be qualified to run for House of Representatives if he is a member of a political party and is sponsored by that party. Thus, by my own layman interpretation of section 147 (5) a non-politician cannot be a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

For the position of commissioners, section 192 of the Constitution says, “There shall be such offices of Commissioners of the Government of a State as may be established by the Governor of the State.” That means the Constitution gives the governor the power to create as many ministries as deem fit. The only caveat is that the governor must make the appointment in conformity with the provision of section 14 (4) of the Constitution. What does that section say?

Section 14 (4) of the Nigerian Constitution says, “The composition of the Government of a State, a Local Government council, or any of the agencies of such Government or council, and the conduct of the affairs of the Government or council or such agencies shall be carried out in such manner as to recognise the diversity of the people within its area of authority and the need to promote a sense of belonging and loyalty among all the peoples of the Federation.”

As with the provision of section 147 (5); section 192 (4) says, “No person shall be appointed as a Commissioner of the Government of a State unless he is qualified for election as a member of the House of Assembly of the State. This invariably means that a person to be appointed as Commissioner must be a member of a political party.’’

The earlier referenced The Guardian newspaper of last Monday said the president will appoint 20 Special Advisers. Recall that the 9th Senate already approved that for President Tinubu in the twilight of their tenure. This also has constitutional backing. Sections 151 and 152 expatiate on this. It said inter alia that, “The president may appoint any person as a Special Adviser to assist him in the performance of his functions.”  Section 196 (1) says “The governor of a state may appoint any person as a Special Adviser to assist him in the performance of his functions.” Subsection 2 says, “The number of such advisers and their remuneration and allowances shall be as prescribed by law or by resolution of the House of Assembly of the state.”

As I write this, there is a frantic and vicious lobbying going on at both the federal and state level to get appointments either as ministers, commissioners, special advisers, senior special assistants, special assistants and personal assistants. It is all well and good. However, competence and integrity must trump every other consideration. Unfortunately, considering the thousands of people scheming to be appointed to political offices, only a few will succeed. The lucky few must not abuse their office. They must have zero tolerance for corruption and work for national development. Self-aggrandisement should be the least of their considerations to coming on board to serve their country.