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November 13, 2023
The President has exclusive powers to appoint permanent secretaries, the sources said.
Some sources have described the recent conduct of examination for directors to be appointed for the position of permanent secretaries by the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HOS), Mrs Folasade Yemi-Esan, as illegal.
Citing some constitutional provisions, they argued that the carrying out of such an exercise by Yemi-Esan constitutes the usurpation of President Bola Tinubu’s constitutional power.
The President has exclusive powers to appoint permanent secretaries, the sources said.
SaharaReporters on October 27 reported that the HOCSF, Yemi-Esan, through the Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN), began the issuance of receipts to 92 applicants vying for the post of permanent secretaries of various ministries in Nigeria.
SaharaReporters had also exposed how all the applicants were compelled to pay N250,000 (per head) for a one-week training programme from October 23 to 28, 2023.
Sources privy to the situation had revealed to SaharaReporters that the money, estimated to be N23,000,000, was not remitted to the Treasure Single Account (TSA) amid plans to also manipulate the posting of the permanent secretaries and give "juicy ministries" to the HOCSF's inner circle.
A report by PRNigeria also noted that Yemi-Esan had come under fire as some senior federal civil servants expressed displeasure over her portrayal of directors as incompetent after the recent release of examination results for the position of permanent secretaries.
The senior civil servants criticised a comment attributed to Yemi-Esan that only 20 directors out of 85 who were initially invited to take the promotion examination to the rank of Permanent Secretary scaled through the exercise.
Yemi-Esan reportedly said there was a need to emphasise meritocracy and integrity in the selection process for permanent secretaries.
“It should not be about the number of successful candidates but the quality of the candidates,” she was quoted as saying.
But a top senior civil servant told PRNigeria that the posture of Yemi-Esan did not do justice to the directors' invaluable experience garnered over the decades.
Meanwhile, a government source told SaharaReporters on Monday that it is consequently in the national interest for President Tinubu, who is statutorily vested with the ability to nominate Permanent Secretaries, to take the required steps to do so on merit, without any tainted involvement from the Federation's Head of Civil Service.
The government sources made reference to Section 171(1)(2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) which provides that only the President has the exclusive power to appoint persons to hold or act as Secretary to the Government of the Federation; Head of Civil Service of the Federation; Ambassador, High Commissioner or other Principal Representative of Nigeria Abroad; Permanent Secretary in any ministry or head of Extra-Ministerial Department of government of the federation howsoever designated, and any office on the personal staff of the President.
Section 171 (1) of the Constitution confers on the President the exclusive powers to appoint persons to the offices enumerated under Section 171 (2) a-e including the office of Permanent Secretary.
Section 171 (1) does not contemplate or admit of any role for any authority or person in the appointment of Permanent Secretaries, neither does it provide for a qualifying examination.
One of the sources said, “The mandatory qualifying examination prescribed, imposed and superintended by the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, which office, is also subject to the powers of the President, as that of the Office of the Permanent Secretary, under Section 171(1) constitute a surreptitious usurpation of the powers of the President.
“The process of the examination confers on the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and person other than the President, with the influence and opportunity to handpick and have persons appointed to the position of permanent Secretary.”
“Subjecting the appointment of permanent secretaries to the process of examination amounts to ceding the constitutional powers of the president and the control of the bureaucracy to a few individuals with the attendant misplacement of loyalty to persons other than the President and the Government.”
One of the sources noted that the examination has been “characterized by allegations of corruption, manipulation and general lack of transparency against the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation”.
The source said the President should be allowed to “appoint persons he deems fit from the pool of qualified directors in the service to the post of permanent secretaries”.