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Chinwendu Nnadozie
Governor Mohammed Bago is facing a herculean task of whom to chose among the number of persons lobbying for positions as he compiles the list of new members of the State Executive Council (SEC) that would see him through the second half of his first term.
The Governor dissolved the previous SEC, but promised to re-engage some members found to have, ‘exceeded the Key Performance Indicator’, as Commissioners, Permanent Secretaries, Special Advisers/Special Assistants, heads of Agencies/Boards and Parastatals as the case maybe.
Governor Bago had appreciated the former SEC members including unverifiable numbers of Special Advisers/Special Assistants, and thanked them for doing their best in contributing their quota towards actualizing the New Niger Agenda.
He took note of the fact that, many of them did not only did well but had strength in other areas different from the ministries they were overseeing and therefore promised to engage some of them in other areas in the new team.
While the list of new Cabinet nominees/members is being anxiously awaited, Daily Independent findings indicate that less than 50 percent of the former Commissioners have handed over to Permanent Secretaries or to the most senior officers in their respective ministries as expected of them.
Many of the commissioners, it was learnt hardly show up in their respective duty posts because they were members of the cabinet only by name without fully participating in the governance of the state and so were not happy for not being given the opportunity to award contracts.
Meanwhile, many Nigerlites, in their assessment of the administration’s first half score card attributed the delay in handing over to the poor or non-performance of the former Commissioners, hence nothing to hand over because majority of them were never given free hand to operate or showcase their skills.
Others, including some Commissioners who had regretted serving under the Bago led administration blamed the near total gap between the government and the governed on the leadership style that is said to have reduced majority of the cabinet members to mere errands boys/girls.
“Governor Bago doesn’t listen to advice, he acts alone after confiding on few, Super commissioners, and that is why there’s a disconnect between the government and the governed”, one of the respondents said.
As part of strategies to be considered, some potential cabinet members including those who were part of the relieved SEC members resorted to lobbying through traditional rulers, others sponsor campaigns showcasing their achievements to market themselves before the Governor.
As the uncertainties over political appointments continues, Nigerlites are of the views that the coming SEC members may suffer same fate if the Governor did not change his Master-servant approach to governance which they believed rendered many of the former commissioners redundant.
