Yar'Adua,
Jonathan and Fractured Presidency
By
Senior Fyneface
senior_fyneface@yahoo.com
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.
SENIOR FYNEFACE,
11 ELELEWON STREET, GRA II, PORT HARCOURT (senior_fyneface@yahoo.com)
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