This article is in response to a topic created on Saturday, June 27, 2015 titled What Is The Need Of Minister When We Have Permanent Secretaries. The purpose of the thread was to justify the delay of ministerial appointment by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari
On
the said Thread many respondents were of the opinion that there is no
need for ministers when we have career permanent secretaries manning
various ministries. But is this really so?
Let us critically look into the subject.
1. Job Role
The
Permanent secretary in a ministry is the Chief Executive of that
ministry. He's the Accounting Officer and most senior civil servant
within the ministry. He does not formulate strategic policies of the
government but he only execute operational plans of the government in
power.
The Minister on the other hand is a non career civil servant
that is employed by the government in power to formulate strategic
policies for a specified sector. In addition to this, he supervises ALL
the non-Ministerial Departments that falls within the sector.
2. Scope
The scope of the permanent secretary in a ministry is only restricted within his ministry.
The
Minister on the other hand is not only confined to the supervision of
his "ministry", he also supervises Department and Agencies that comes
with his office as minister on behalf of the President. For instance,
the Minister of Transport supervises both the Ministry of Transport,
NIMASSA, Nigeria Railway Corporation(NRC), Nigeria Ports Authority,
Nigeria Shippers Council, Maritime Academy of Nigeria etc. The DGs or
CEOs of the non-Ministerial Parastatals formulates and implements
operational policies (as approved by the various boards) which must be
in line with that of the Minister's strategic policy of the government.
The perm-sec has no such power.
3. Representation:
Constitutionally,
each state must have a minister who is nominated and appointed by the
President subject to the approval of the Senate. Each minister sits on
the Federal Executive Council and they represent their respective states
in the Council. The President and the Vice represent the entire
federation.
The Perm-sec on the other hand do not have such constitutional defined representation.
4. Is The "Minister" Ceremonial?
Absolutely
not! The minister is a politician that understands and believes in the
overall goal of the President. He is hired by the President to formulate
policies (subject to approval of the president and Federal Executive
Council), and then he ensures that these policies and programs of the
FG/President are implemented by his Permanent Secretary, DGs and MDs of
Agencies under his supervision. He also ensures that policies and
programs that are executed by these MDAs under his supervision are in
tandem. For instance, the Petroleum Minister is to ensure that the
contracts approved by the Ministerial Tender board (Headed by the
Perm-sec) are in tandem with the government laid down rules. He must
counter sign it to show government's approval. Also, the Petroleum
Minister by law is to ensure that policies of the Executive Management
of NNPC are to be in line with wish of the government in power. In
addition to this, he receives petitions against any Executive staff and
Board Chairman/Members of non-ministerial agency within his supervision
on behalf of the President. He also advises the President on the best
way to address such petition.
Can The Permanent Secretary Function As Minister?
Absolutely
Negative! The Permanent Secretary within a ministry cannot supervise
the CEO/DG that is under the ministry's supervision. He has no business
with policy formulation on behalf of the government. He's not aligned to
any political party and he's not hired by the President but by the
Civil service. The President can fire any erring minister over non
performance or based on any slightest issue or non issue, but he can't
fire the perm-sec over "poor performance". The worst he can do is to
redeploy the perm-sec in line with the civil service rules. The Perm-sec
can only leave the civil service on voluntary/mandatory retirement,
death or based on any offence that stipulate the wield stick as
punishment.
Nigeria Situation Without Ministers
The
situation that we are in under Buhari means that there is nobody to
formulate policies for and on behalf of the FG in line with the "Change"
of the Buhari's administration. It also means that nobody to supervise
ministries, agencies and departments which give room for theft and
mismanagement of public funds by civil servants. It means that the
public won't be able to experience any policy change anytime soon. It
means that the President will dish out "orders" as the spirit directs
without analysing core factors. It also means that permanent secretaries
and DG/CEOs of Agencies will act in accordance with existing rule aka Auto-Pilot.
Finally,
Nigeria is not the first and only country to practice political cabinet
Minister in addition to perm-secs of ministries. The Nigeria equivalent
of career civil servants perm-sec in the UK is Permanent Under
Secretary(PUS), Italy call theirs Secretary-General, Canada (Deputy
Minister), Australia (Secretary), USA (Deputy Secretary) etc. All these
countries still have cabinet ministers that are incharge with policies
and supervision.
I hope we all understand that there is NO WAY President Buhari can effectively bring change without ministers.
God Bless Us All
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