Ministerial Appointments, Rule Of Law And The Quest For Inclusion

By Kenneth Okonkwo

Democracy is a system of government that thrives on rule of law and inclusion of the different peoples of a country in recognition of its diversity. A lot of people have been making the mistake of thinking that democracy is the government of the majority of the people. No! Democracy is the government of the people (both rich and poor, majority and minority). The rule of majority simply means that in a democracy, the democratic institutions take decisions by majority of its members. The National Assembly of Nigeria is made up of members from all parts of the country and they reach decisions based on the votes of majority members.

We have seen when members from minority ethnic groups vote alongside majority ethnic groups in issues and there are periods when matters from some majority ethnic groups are voted down by members from minority ethnic groups working together in unity. Democracy strives to accommodate different shades of opinions, ethnic and religious groups working hand in hand.

Nigeria is even a unique situation, where the quest for inclusion was made a constitutional matter through the principle of Federal Character. This principle forbids the domination of other ethnic or religious groups by any advantaged or dominant majority group. It postulates that the composition of the government of any regime, including the conduct of affairs of that regime, shall be done in such a manner as to recognise our diversity so as to promote national unity, command national loyalty, give everyone a sense of belonging and ensure that no Geo-Political Zone or section of the country dominates others. (See Section 14(3)(4) of the 1999 Constitution). One area that the Constitution is specific as to how the Federal Character Principle should operate is in the area of the appointment of Ministers for the federation. The Constitution is clear that each State of the Federation and the FCT is entitled to a substantive minister. Section 147(1)(2)(3) of the 1999 Constitution states that “There shall be such offices of Ministers of the Government of the Federation as may be established by the President … Any appointment … by the President shall be in conformity with the provisions of section 14(3) of this Constitution:- provided that in giving effect to the provisions aforesaid the President shall appoint at least one Minister from each State, who shall be an indigene of such State. The latest alteration of the Constitution added that the nomination of any person to the office of a minister for confirmation by the Senate shall be done within sixty days after the date the President has taken the oath of office.

It’s now almost 90 days, 30 days clear from the constitutional allowed 60 days, within which to fulfill these constitutional requirements, yet this regime has failed, refused or neglected to obey the Constitution. It is clear that Kaduna State, as of today, doesn’t have any nomination for minister, the initial one, Mallam El-Rufai, having withdrawn. Almost 30 days after his failed nomination, none has been sent to the Senate for replacement. This is a breach of the Constitution as Kaduna deserves to take its position in the Federal Executive Council (FEC) as other States. Surprisingly, Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Zamfara etc have not been given any Ministerial appointment and this is a breach of the constitutional requirement that the President shall appoint at least one Minister from each State. It is important to note that the office of Minister of the Government of the Federation is different from the office of the Minister of State. Office of the Minister of the Federation is a creation of the Constitution, while office of the Minister of State is a creation of the President. There’s no where in the Constitution that you will find the phrase “Minister of State”. Being a creation of the President, it means an Assistant Minister or Junior Minister or Minister without portfolio. This is why a Minister of State is defined by the portfolio of the Minister of the Federation he is meant to assist, because he doesn’t have a ministry of his own.

The purported assigning of a Minister of State to a State as a fulfillment of the constitutional requirement of appointing at least one indigene of that State as a Minister of the Federation is an egregious breach of the Constitution. It is doing the exact opposite of what it was meant to achieve. It was meant to achieve ensuring that all states partake equally in running the affairs of the country irrespective of the state of origin of the President. Allocating the office of Junior Ministers to some states, while allocating the office of Senior Ministers to some other States is in breach of the Federal Character Principle and particularly Section 147(3) of the Constitution. There’s no Senior State or Junior State in Nigeria. As a matter of fact, some of the purported smaller states that are so maltreated and marginalised produce the resources that are the main stay of the Nigerian economy.

This is a very serious matter because if this trend is not checked now, it will come to a point where a nepotistic President of our country may choose all the substantive Ministers from his own State or Geo-Political Zone while compelling all the other Ministers from all the other 5 Geo-Political Zones to become subordinated to the Ministers of his own Zone through the instrumentality of Ministers of State. For the avoidance of doubt, President Buhari was accused of making lopsided appointments in favour of the entire North which comprised of three Geo-Political Zones but this current President has elevated the craft of nepotism to cloud 9 to accommodate only the indigenes of South-West Geo-Political Zone to the point that even his brothers and sisters from the same Geo-Political Zone are gradually distancing themselves from this level of ancient, archaic and premodial display of nepotism. It is unconscionable that Ogun State alone in the South-West was allocated three substantive Ministers of the Federation while about eight States in Nigeria do not have even one Minister of the Federation each.

The position of Minister of State has also been used to trick and deny the Niger Delta indigenes of the portfolio of substantive Minister of Petroleum anytime a non-indigene is President while pretending that the position is acceded to them as compensation for being the Region that produces the oil. This government even carried the trick too far by creating two powerless Ministries of State for gas and oil for the Niger Delta States while the office of the Minister of the Federation for petroleum remains with the President. For the avoidance of doubt, the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is more powerful than the Minister of State for Petroleum. When Ibe Kachukwu of the Niger Delta was made the GMD of NNPC, he was so powerful that he promised to repair our refineries in two years. His posture on the petroleum industry brought him in antagonism with the corrupt cabal around President Buhari and in order to render him redundant, he was made the Minister of State for Petroleum under the substantive Minister of Petroleum, who happened to be President Buhari himself. As a Minister of State, he was not allowed to meet with the substantive Minister for six months until he raised alarm to the public for this abysmal neglect and President Buhari claimed that he was not aware that his Minister of State wanted to see him for that long. It is on record that he achieved nothing as a Minister of State for petroleum until his tenure expired. A Minister of State can only bark but not bite because he/she is a toothless bulldog.

We must note that Hon Festus Keyamo, a present Minister in the cabinet of Tinubu, had pointed out the unconstitutionality of the position of the Minister of State to President Buhari, whom he served as a Minister of State and we are surprised that this regime could not heed to the advice of his substantive minister and is continuing along this line of illegality just as it has stubbornly performed most of its actions since inception in illegality. We must point out that the mere fact that a President created an office and gave it any name he chooses is not illegal by itself but what is illegal is that he substituted a constitutionally created position with his own personally created office. For instance, if the current leader appoints 37 substantive Ministers of the Federation from the 36 States of the Federation and the FCT, and assign substantive portfolios to them in accordance with Section 147(3) of the 1999 Constitution, he may then choose assistant Ministers from the entire country to deputise for them while still observing the Federal Character Principle even in the choice of the Ministers of State. As it is now, 90 days after being sworn in, Tinubu has not formed a complete cabinet known to law.

The National Assembly, especially the Senators from the States that have been ignominiously allocated a Minister of State, without a substantive Minister, and the Nigerian people must question this affront to the Constitution and insist that the right thing must be done. Any Senator who allows his people to be denigrated on without fighting for them do not deserve to be a representative of his people and should be recalled or denied a return ticket. This is how democracy works. We must sit up in this country and defend democracy or our democracy will disappear one day from us because the failure of the elite to write justice on black and white is an invitation to the ignorant people to write it on the ground with blood, God forbid!

GLOBAL SQUARE IS FOUR this week. We thank God Almighty for His divine inspiration to continue writing these articles every week and we thank all our readers for their encouraging response and intelligent criticism of our articles. Thanks and God bless you all.