The controversial appointments by the Rivers governor raise several questions about accountability in the state
Barely six months to the expiration of his second term in office, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has raised the number of special assistants for his political unit to 200,000. It is noteworthy that the number of these fresh appointees far exceeds the totality of teachers in all public and private schools in Rivers State and that of civil servants. “It is me who is appointing,” the governor said at the occasion to justify his bizarre decision. “It is me who wears the shoe that knows where it pinches. It is not you outside because you are not part of government. I know what it takes, and I know these people will help me.”
While we fail to understand the rationale for these appointments, the exercise has elicited criticism, particularly from opposition politicians in the state. The All Progressives Congress (APC) chairman in Rivers State, Emeka Beke described the appointments as a show of “executive rascality”, adding that the governor was buying the votes of these appointees at taxpayers’ expense ahead of the forthcoming 2023 general election. This allegation comes against the background that each of these appointments reportedly comes with a monthly stipend of N30,000. By today’s inflationary trend, that may not mean much to many Nigerians, but it is close to a boon for millions of unemployed people in the state who have lived in deprivation for years.
Meanwhile, the wage bill of the exercise in addition to the 359 constituency and local government area liaison officers is estimated to cost the state’s taxpayers some N42 billion between now and end of May 2023 when Wike’s tenure lapses.
There are very critical public interest issues raised by the governor’s action and pertinent questions beg for answers. Is the cost for these seasonal political jobbers captured in the 2022 budget? Why is this exercise not done with recourse to Section 196 sub 4 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which covers the procedures for such appointments? Why will a state fritter scarce resources when many of the current workers are still owed pensions and gratuities? In which offices are these special assistants supposed to be reporting at the moment? What happens to these appointees after the election in February next year? What exactly are their job schedules? And where is the Rivers State House of Assembly in all this?
To be sure, the governor may not have legally transgressed on his constitutional latitudes. And many of the governors have appointed thousands of idle aides that do nothing beyond collecting salaries. But given the timing of Wike’s appointment and designation of these appointees, does the electoral law provide for direct recruitment of these numbers of election monitor by parties or interested individuals? From an electoral perspective, these political appointees are already in service with a known partisan bent. What happens, if for instance, the 36 state governors follow Wike’s lead and each hire 200,000 special election assistants? There will be more than seven million election warriors, about 40 times the size of the country’s military. That is an open invitation to chaos.
Like some other state chief executives across the country, the excesses of Wike are increasingly becoming a major challenge to our democracy. In Rivers State, he has been constricting the political space with special reference to the forthcoming elections. Not long ago, he signed what many politicians called “Decree 21”, an action which mandates political parties to get near-impossible government approval for political activities, after paying a non-refundable fee of five million naira per activities. He is helped in all these acts by a legislature which is under his beck and call.
There must be a limit to impunity.
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In which offices are these special assistants supposed to be reporting at the moment? What happens to these appointees after the election in February next year?
