Laleye Dipo writes on the anxiety of the political class and some bureaucrats over the delay in constituting a new state executive council by Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger state
At the tail end of his first term, Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger State dissolved the state executive council in line with the law. In doing so, he directed the permanent secretaries or most senior civil servants in the ministries to take over the running of their organisations. Despite being in his second term, meaning that his administration must have gained ‘stability’ and ‘acceptability’ from the populace, the governor has not been able to reconstitute the state executive council, since he was sworn-in for a second term on May 29, a development that has paralysed socio-economic activities and even the development of the state.
The Secretary to the Government, Alhaji Ahmed Ibrahim Matane who has just been appointed has become a special appointee, a commissioner plenipotentiary, so to say, by performing his duties with that of commissioners though he has been doing it exceedingly well.
Not many are surprised at Bello’s delay in putting the cabinet together because four years ago, it took the governor about six months to name members of the state executive council. He has actually been following in the footsteps of President Muhammadu Buhari in virtually all areas since he was elected governor. Bello has often referred to Buhari as his mentor and political godfather.
The development has already created a twin problem for the state. One; rendering the day-to-day administration of the state almost comatose because only permanent secretaries and senior government officials are around to take decisions. Even then these senior officials have a limit to what they can do. What happens now is that only emergency cases are being attended to like the focus on the worsening network of roads occasioned by the heavy rains this year.
Secondly, the non-appointment of commissioners has allowed the rumour mill to thrive because names of perceived commissioners are being bandied around every quarter of the state.
It was even said that the first list submitted ‘secretly’ to the house of assembly was made up of 80% Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members which was also claimed to have been rejected by the legislature made up of 99% All Progressives Congress (APC) members.
When the first kite did not fly, a second list was also said to include the names of the likes of former Secretary to the State Government and at different times Commissioner for Information and Agriculture, Professor Mohammad Yahaya Kuta, former state chairman of the PDP and defector to the APC, Alhaji Abdulrahaman Enagi, as well as immediate Deputy Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Aminu Yussuf. These people and others are said to have been screened secretly at a location behind the government house.
Nobody has been able to confirm or deny the latest rumour even those whose names are being bandied around refused to speak, further fuelling the rumour.
It is also said that the delay in announcing the names of members of the next state executive council has created a veritable ground for intense lobbying of both the governor and those that he respects, among them, his father Colonel Sani Bello (rtd,), General Abdulsalami Abubakar who happens to be his in-law, and General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. These elder statesmen are daily being visited by politicians from different political parties who are prevailing on them to assist in convincing the governor to include their names on the list of the next cabinet.
Some of the former commissioners who claimed during their first term that they were not carried along and did not enjoy anything from the administration are also not left out of the intense lobby being put on these elder statesmen and the governor.
Some of them are daily visiting the presidential lodge residence of the governor or the government house where the governor and his deputy have their offices to ‘just greet him’.
The situation resulted in visitors being barred from the lodge and instruction left at the security posts both in the lodge and the office that only those invited by the governor or his deputy should be allowed access to these premises.
The pressure being mounted on the governor has resulted in his using every available opportunity and method including operating from outside the state to avoid these lobbyist. Even this approach has not helped because the more desperate ones still trace the governor to Abuja or Kaduna in continuation of their lobby.
As the lobbying continues, sources from the grapevine say the governor has directed the APC leadership in the 25 local governments to submit the names of three ‘qualified’ party stalwarts to the state secretariat out of which he will pick, at least one, per local government.
Party sources told THISDAY that most of the former commissioners engaged in the lobbying of the governor have their names conspicuously missing from the list forwarded by their local governments. Reasons given were that the erstwhile commissioners alienated themselves from their immediate constituencies after they were appointed in addition to their not being the choice of the local governments when they were appointed the first time.
At the moment it is said that only the former Commissioner for Finance, the former commissioner for investment, the commissioner for justice as well as the Commissioner for Local Government may be sure of retaining their positions. This is because these people have engaged in one form of assignment or the other for the governor and the state. Recently, the former Commissioner for Justice coordinated the five day workshop for magistrates and district court judges held in Minna while the former Secretary to the Niger state Government, Professor Mohammad Kuta Yahaya also fully participated in the peace meeting held at the Maizube farms, a programme that had the support of the state government.
So far, the governor has named only the principal officers of the government among them the Chief of Staff, Alhaji Ibrahim Balarabe, the Secretary to the Government Alhaji Ibrahim Ahmed Matane, the Head of the state Civil service Hajia Salamotu Abubakar, the Principal Private Secretary to the Governor, Alhaji Adamu Aliyu.
Three Directors General have also been appointed.
By not appointing commissioners, Governor Bello is said to be weeding out some of the party men seeking to contest the chairmanship election in their local government areas.
According to sources, “one or two people have been asked to abandon their chairmanship aspiration and go for screening as commissioner”
The Umar Nasko Gubernatorial Campaign Organisation Media Director, Alhaji Yahaya Mohammed described as ‘unacceptable any reason being given by the governor not to constitute a cabinet almost five months after his inauguration.”
Yahaya Mohammed said the action of the governor, “is an indication that he is not ready for governance. He has have never been ready for governance in the first instance.”
The Media Director said the governor is “refusing to name his team because he is aware he will lose at the tribunal.”
However, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mary Noel Berje, in her reaction said the governor is “working on the list, at the appropriate time he will send it to the house of assembly for approval
“I can assure that the cabinet will be composed of people that will drive the state to the Next Level.”
Berje said the governor, “has nothing to fear about the judgement of the tribunal because, “we have proven our case beyond reasonable doubt, we are sure we will triumph.”
While the governor delays in naming the ‘Next Level’ team, economic activities have remained dormant because there is no award of contract of any sort so far since the beginning of the second term of the governor. Some political observers also asked what has happened to the salary and allowance of the commissioners in the last five months since they are not in office.
QUOTE;
The situation resulted in visitors being barred from the lodge and instruction left at the security posts both in the lodge and the office that only those invited by the governor or his deputy should be allowed access to these premises. The pressure being mounted on the governor has resulted in his using every available opportunity and method including operating from outside the state to avoid these lobbyist. Even this approach has not helped because the more desperate ones still trace the governor to Abuja or Kaduna in continuation of their lobby.
