When President Umaru Yar’Adua announced a restricted access to him by majority of the ministers and state governors, the Presidency must have weighed the consequences and the interpretations of such decision beyond whatever explanation his aides are going to come up with. In its explanation, the Presidency claimed that the restriction was to enable President Yar’Adua and Vice President Goodluck Jonathan concentrate on their jobs and put a stop to unnecessary trips to the Villa for routine administrative matters that do not require their presence.
When President Umaru Yar’Adua announced a restricted access to him by majority of the ministers and state governors, the Presidency must have weighed the consequences and the interpretations of such decision beyond whatever explanation his aides are going to come up with. In its explanation, the Presidency claimed that the restriction was to enable President Yar’Adua and Vice President Goodluck Jonathan concentrate on their jobs and put a stop to unnecessary trips to the Villa for routine administrative matters that do not require their presence. The President’s spokesperson said, only seven ministers- those directly linked to the seven-point agenda would have unhindered access to the President for official matters. These are the Ministers who are labelled as handling critical Ministries. Others ministers would be allowed access if their matter is a national emergency. Genuine as the decision may sound, these are questions for President Yar’Adua: Which Ministries are critical and which ones are not? What makes one Ministry more critical than the other? It will be would be very interesting for Nigerians to be told the seven critical ministries’ operators that have been allowed unhindered access to the President. Is there any form of ethnic bias in selection or rather composition of these inner cabinet members? And as if the restriction slammed on almost all the Ministers in the cabinet were not enough, the President has also restricted direct access by state governors. According to the Presidency, “all the others would have to be dealing with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) who has been mandated by the President to handle all official matters coming from ministers, state governors amongst others.” As reported, “The President deplores a situation in which Ministers rather than stay in their respective offices working, would spend the whole day in the Villa waiting to see him for what often turns out be matters they could easily have handled on their own. “Most often, many bring files containing memos they could easily have sent through normal channels knowing they would get early response. “There is no reason why they should come and line up in the Villa waiting to see the President “When you add that to state governors who have unhindered access, when do the President and Vice President have time to work?” Though it may be irrational to believe that President Yar’Adua health conditions must have necessitated this unprecedented restriction to ministers that oversee critical aspects of governance in the country, it may not be very far from the truth. And if that is, it calls for serious concern. From obvious indication, the President has devolved over 95 percent of executive power to the SGF who will act as a buffer to run the day-day business of governance at the Presidency until the President completes his ongoing pudah exercise Question for Yar’Adua: Between Vice President Jonathan and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Yayale Ahmed, who should hold forth for the President as he is on sabbatical? The Nigerian Presidency is not an area head business or ethnic arrangement. The Constitution is very clear on matters of handover or rather assignment of official functions in situations where the President becomes incapacitated or decides to go on sabbatical as Yar’Adua has done on health grounds. The Vice President as stipulated in the Constitution should perform some, if not all, the official functions of the President if he falls sick, travels abroad or even incapacitated as current obtained. More than four months now since Yar’Adua announced he was going to reshuffle his cabinet; Nigerians are still waiting for the President to carry out the exercise. He was not forced to make the announcement. But because he does not trust anybody to particularly his deputy, he has decided to do things his own way as if he is an emir of one obscure emirate. Why won’t the serving ministers beseech the Presidency to know their fate as the President’s indecision has generated so much fear and speculation thereby turning the proposed exercise into another platform for bribery and corruption by some of the ministers who fear they might be dropped and for some aspirants whose names may have been peddled for appointment? The deliberate refusal of President Yar’Adua to work with his deputy is the sole cause of the present black-out in governance that Nigerians have been forced to contend with as a result of the President’s health challenges. Any right thinking Nigerian would have reasoned that since the President is increasing proving to be incapacitated in coping the pressures of office schedules, he would have gladly delegated most of the energy –sapping executive functions to his able -deputy who at least for now, is bubbling with energy and who has shown that he is intelligent enough and capable of handling state matters with minimal consultation with his boss. Those very close to the Presidency would agree that Vice President Jonathan is just sitting there doing nothing in real terms while the SGF is the one calling the shuts. This setting is not very healthy for our democracy. A large section of the country may not see anything wrong in this setting simply because the man – the Vice President, who is currently being affected, comes from a certain section of the country. But we must not fail to realize that whatever goes around comes around and nobody should complain when a deputy from his own section of the country will be completely shut out for fear of take-over in case of any eventuality.
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