The recent sacking of four Ministers by President Goodluck Jonathan was not only contentious in style, but the exercise was done in the most bizarre and indecorous manner; at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, which portrays the President as callous, insensitive, vicious and lacking in judgment and character over something as elementary as personnel and human resource management. Clearly, the explanation by Labaran Maku, the Information Minister, that the “ministers had been asked to step out of the Federal Executive Council to further their own interest” was anything but convincing and expectedly triggered a whirlwind of rumors and innuendoes; thereby reinforcing the standing view that the ministers – Stella Oduah (Aviation), Godsday Orubebe (Niger Delta Affairs), Caleb Olubolade (Police Affairs) and Lawan Yarima Ngama (Minister of State for Finance) – were ignominiously dismissed. In civilized countries, courtesy demands that the affected ministers be informed ahead of time; this way, the emotional stress and psychological agony the sacked ministers may be subjected to can be averted. Democracy, simple decency and decorum demand no less.
It is regrettable that Mr. President has made it a point of duty to humiliate and ridicule his Ministers before sacking them. In September last year, he sacked nine ministers after a FEC meeting. The scenario was similar Tuesday. Available accounts said apart from Oduah who was conspicuously absent, Orubebe, Olubolade and Ngama were among the early arrivals; and were exchanging banters with their former colleagues, apparently unaware of the fate that was about to befall them. The President did not display any emotion about the impending action; until the bombshell, which saw Olubolade storming out of the meeting in anger before it ended. This is unacceptable, and an end must be put to this embarrassment.
No one is questioning the right of the President to reshuffle his cabinet any time he deems fit, but he at least owes Nigerians the courtesy of an explanation for his actions. It is true that a Minister operates at the behest of the President. The four Ministers may have earned the sack, yet accountability and a sense of duty demands that reasons be given for the action to the ultimate employers of the President and Ministers, namely, the Nigerian people. A cabinet position is meant for the serious-minded and a person qualifies to be so appointed if found fit and proper in all ramifications – intellect, managerial and other competencies – maturity, loyalty, patriotism – to serve the nation at such high level. Besides, he must align with the vision of his appointer. These are qualities the President must ensure his appointees possessed. So, to recourse to summary dismissal without notice, indicate the President either judged poorly, was wrongly advised or was so confounded by the undesirability of the appointee! In which case, they should have been quietly asked to resign. Failure to do this very simple right thing at the right time showed no consideration for the Ministers and no respect for their positions.
Understandably, sensibilities were hurt deeply enough by the shoddy manner of the ministers’ sack. Coming on the heels of Mike Oghiadomhe’s sudden exit as Chief of Staff to the President, the sadistic projection of executive power is bad for the image of the President and embarrassing to the country. It was so bad that unlike the case of Oghiadomhe, the departure of the four Ministers was not backed by “resignation letters.” Maku said they were simply asked to go “after they indicated their interests to pursue their political agenda. In announcing his acceptance of their decision to participate in the polity, the President thanked them very sincerely for the great job they have done, in helping the government realize the goals that have been achieved under the transformation agenda.” Really?
This is hardly credible. In the first place, if the Ministers had done a “great job” why then were they sacked? And if the sacking was based on performance, then more ministers should have been sacked. The most scandalous and reprehensible exercise of presidential authority and discretion was the case of the former Minister of Youth Development, Inuwa Abdulkadir; who, was in Calabar on official duty when he learnt through a press statement from the Secretary to the Government of the Federation of his sack. Unless his offence was so egregious as to deserve public humiliation, and in which case such offence should have been made public, the question needs to be asked: is it too much to ask of Mr. President to set a template to assess his ministers, and therefore not require a dramatic event before a minister is fired? Whatever happened to the performance assessment of ministers announced to Nigerians on the occasion of the first anniversary of Jonathan’s election? It would be, in the spirit of accountability, to show the electorate the report cards, as Nigerians are disappointed with the performance of the administration. Scapegoating a few ministers will not salvage the situation. After all, the purported performance evaluation benchmarks for ministers are not known to Nigerians, so as to do their own independent evaluation.
To add insult to injury, Mr. President failed to fill the vacancies immediately. Rather, other Ministers were drafted to take charge of the affected ministries until substantive ministers are appointed for them. Accordingly, the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Samuel Ortom, has been asked to take charge of Aviation, his counterpart in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Olajumoke Akinjide, takes charge of Police Affairs, Darius Ishaku, the Minister of State for Niger Delta Affairs, assumes full control of the ministry while the Coordinating Minister of the Economy (CME) and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was directed to combine the two portfolios. In failing to fill personnel vacancies in his government, Jonathan has succeeded in introducing a new comical phrase into governmental lexicon: “supervising minister” to describe a situation in which one Minister runs more than one portfolio. This is a recipe for chaos and inertia.
Could it be that there are no qualified and competent Nigerians to fill these positions? Certainly not! The President should immediately cast around and pick from Nigeria’s best and brightest to fill the vacant offices. Too many critical government departments including have sometimes gone for too long without service heads. For a country fighting a low-intensity insurgency like Boko Haram, it is unconscionable that a strategic portfolio like the Defence Ministry should be without a substantive Minister for over 15 months. Among other associated ills, the waiting game over critical appointive offices creates room for over-politicization and corruption of the replacement process. Indeed, leaving vacancies unfilled is a poor advertisement for the government.
Jonathan must act with urgency on these matters, to stem further erosion of the government’s credibility. Public office is a call to national duty and only the ready, willing, and able deserves it. To dispense as a favor to the merely well-connected is to do a disservice to the country. The choice of course, is that of the President. Needless to say that how well his Ministers perform will determine the President’s own report card as well as his place in history.
