BuhariWatch: A presidency without the president’s men

MOST watchers of and commentators on the colour of President Muhammadu Buhari’s presidency have been harping on the implications of delay in constituting the Federal Executive Council (FEC) which the constitution provides for.

Not many have remembered that the President has not named those Bob Woodward, a veteran journalist (The Washington Post) and author of The President’s Men wrote about in President Richard Nixon’s administration. Woodward, one of the two resourceful Metro/Crime reporters who reported the famous ‘Watergate Scandal’ in 1973/4 has written extensively on the U.S. presidency and has a classic on All the President’s Men, which political and (presidential) policies journalists must read.

Indeed, it is inscrutable how Buhari has been running his presidency and government for five weeks without naming the men and women who could assist him. Specifically, both civil and public servants, serving and retired, have been calling quietly and asking what the trouble could be for the delay in constituting the presidential bureaucracy beginning with the most critical: The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).

Most heads of state and presidents normally name the SGF and others on the first day in office after the swearing in. In the military dispensation, the SGF is one of the first officials to be named.

The 1999 Constitution lists the SGF as first among the presidential appointments. Since 1999 when the fourth Republic began, SGFs have been appointed and reappointed on May 29, shortly after swearing-in. In this very convoluted presidency, the Chief of Staff, not listed in the constitution has been added.

The then President Olusegun Obasanjo created the office, Chief of Staff to the President (COS-P) in 1999 and maintained it till he left in 2007. President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua after a few months in office scrapped the office (COS-P) and stuck to the SGF and Principal Secretary to the President (PS-P) model. Besides, there is a Permanent Secretary in the President’s office who is responsible to the Head of Service.

The Permanent Secretary here is not part of the president’s men inside the Presidential Villa. Mr. Stephen Oronsaye, however, combined the Office of the Permanent Secretary with the Principal Secretary’s when he was named among the Permanent Secretaries in 2002.

In the United States model, there is a Chief of Staff to the President but there is no Secretary to the Government of that Federation. The Secretary of State is the Foreign Affairs Secretary, an equivalent to Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister.

Whatever the nomenclature or structure within the presidential bureaucracy context, the president’s men are critical to the operational efficiency of the presidency. For instance, the absence of the SGF five weeks after this government was sworn in touched off some irregularity last week when the Director-General of the State Services Department was fired and replaced.

Before that, the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega had retired and a temporary replacement had been announced. Curiously, the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) announced the firing and hiring in the SSD’s DG and retirement of Jega and appointment of an Acting Chairman for INEC.

The DSS and INEC chief executive officers are not civil servants. They are public servants. The Office of the Head of Service did not announce their engagements. Both are presidential and political appointments. So, that announcement is irregular reminiscent of the military junta years when the Office of the Head of Service was merged with the SGF’s.

It would be recalled that the Ayida Panel’s Report and White Paper on same in 1995 demerged the Office and since then extant rules and practice have separated the offices.

The Head of Service deals exclusively with the Civil Service of the Federation while the Secretary to the Government deals with the Public Service of the Federation generally.

The Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) also a creation of the constitution deals with the recruitment, discipline and promotion of the civil servants that the HOS coordinates.

That is why the constitution provides for a kind of coordination between the OHCSF and the FCSC. So, the office of the SGF is the clearing-house for all the president’s men, including the advisers. The SGF announces all presidential appointments. That has been the norm and that is why if the Head of Service himself is to be fired and another to be hired, it will not be announced by the Office of the Head of Service.

It will be announced by the SGF’s office. Another reason why last week’s announcement has been irregular is this: The Office of the SGF still exists even without the SGF’s appointment.

There are indeed at least six permanent secretaries in the Office of the SGF, and three of them could have been used to announce presidential appointments and allied matters.

For the record, there are permanent secretaries of General Services Office (GSO), the office in charge of administration and finance and clearing of issuance of letters; Special Services Office (SSO) – in charge of security and intelligence; the cabinet secretariat – that acts as deputy secretary to the cabinet; (The SGF is also the Secretary to the Cabinet and Secretary to the Security and Defence Council); Office of the Ecological Fund; Office of the Political and Economic Affairs and then Special Duties, that coordinates the National Honours and other essential duties.

In other words, the permanent secretary in charge of GSO, or Cabinet Secretariat, or indeed the Special Services Office, could have announced the sacking and appointment of the DG, SSD and not a director in the office of the Head of Service as was done last week.

The Permanent Secretary in charge of SSO liaises with the Office of the National Security Adviser on national security and intelligence issues, which makes it also relevant for such announcements.

What is more, the old Senate had approved for Buhari, 15 Special Advisers that could have been named to assist in shaping decisions and processes in the presidency. Of all these, only the Special Adviser Media has been named. When will others including the Special Advisers, Political Affairs, Foreign Affairs, National Assembly Affairs, be named?

Already, avoidable errors and complications that are arising from these beats: Legislature, Foreign Affairs, Politics, among others. At press time, there were reports of some complications arising from management of human resources in the presidency.

It has been reported that the Chief Security Officer (CSO) had been caught in a web of politics and policies between his office and the ADC’s. This has arisen because there is no substantive Chief of Staff to coordinate the human resources in the office of the President.

That is why observers are still wondering when the President is going to announce the men and women that will work with him. While delaying his cabinet and others, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, a creation of the constitution for operational efficiency, should as a matter of urgency be named without delay, lest the spirit of errors will find some accommodation in the presidency.

If the President wants to merge the Office of the SGF with the Head of Service’s, he should announce it to the nation. Enough of ad-hocism and bureaucratic absurdities at the pupal stage of change management.