Gov. Nwifuru’s Idle Cabinet

By Comfort Obi

Of course, it’s  stale news now that Ebonyi State Governor, Francis Nwifuru, has finally climbed down from his high horse and recalled his 87 Aides, including Permanent Secretaries, all of whom he suspended in one fell swoop.

I waited this long before thanking the Governor for his magnanimity just to see if any of the forgiven Aides will be courageous enough to throw the job back to  the Governor. That would have been the story. But none did.

So, this is to, on their behalf, in case they forgot to do so,  thank the Governor and welcome them back to their idle offices.

You know the story dear readers. But for the purpose of this write-up, excuse just a brief.

The Governor woke up one morning, and, in one fell swoop, suspended all of 87 top Government officials for one month. They included 25 Commissioners, 14 Senior Special Assistants, 24 Special Assistants, and 22 Permanent Secretaries.

10 days later, however, he realized how bizarre his action was and recalled them. Their recall followed the same autocratic manner as the day they were suspended.  He ordered them to resume work immediately.

I have since been  following up on the story to see any new angle; to see if any of the   suspended Aides had enough self-esteem to resign from office. I don’t know why I suddenly forgot that this is Nigeria,  but I half- expected a couple of the political appointees, you know, Commissioners, not the Permanent Secretaries, to leave Nwifuru’s job for him. Sadly, none of them did. They simply swallowed his insult, and went back to their jobs and, perhaps, went to him to say: “Thank you, Your Excellency for your magnanimity”.

Since then, nobody has heard any “pim”, from any of them.They must need the job so badly to endure that humiliation. Country hard.

So, the next thing is: what was their offence? What angered the Governor so much that he would send 87 Aides on suspension.

There are two versions. The popular version and the Government version. We begin with the popular one  which first made the rounds.

It alleged that the 87 of them were suspended because they were absent from the Birthday ceremony/Thanksgiving Service in honour of the Governor’s six-year old  daughter; the last child of Ebonyi’s First Family; the State’s last child! The Governor was present. So, how dared these people, the Governor’s subjects, his subordinates, just Aides, stay away from such an important state function. For that, they were slammed with  suspension from office.

The second version, this now the official Government story follows.

According to a statement by the Governor’s Media Aide, the 87 were sanctioned for not attending “a major Government function.” And what was the major event one is tempted to ask. Answer: A basic sports competition put together by the State’s Universal Basic Education Board, UBEB.

He said: “The Governor was away and had to instruct his Deputy to represent him at the grand finale of the Basic School Sports Competition organized by the Universal Basic Education Board, UBEB. However, most of the Commissioners and appointees failed to attend. So, when the Governor learnt  about it, he had to act as this was not the first time such a thing will be happening.”

I may be wrong. But I don’t believe the Government’s story. Here are why.

It is not just Nwifuru, a number of State Governors think they are tin gods. Emperors. Their Aides mean nothing to them. Before them, the Aides are like rags used to wipe floors. It is difficult for the Aides to talk to them. Some hardly have access to them. There is no exchange of ideas. Some of the Aides either bend double to talk to them, or squat, or kneel. Their Principals think it is a sign of  respect. But not true. It is a sign of fear. And to fear one is not the same as giving one respect.

Once some of them become Governors, their personal affairs become State affairs. Things they were not celebrating before, they celebrate. They would celebrate the memorial  services of their fathers, mothers, grandparents who passed loooooong before they became Governors. Even their birthdays become State events.

One former State Governor in the South-east had the bizarre habit of shutting down his State for between three to four days to celebrate his birthday. On the final day, each  Local Government  Council delivered a cake to him. And all will be displayed publicly. It was obscene.

Another, who is at tye Federal level now, shut down his State for over one week for his mother’s funeral ceremonies. One other who lost his Senatorial bid on his exit as Governor,  shut down Government activities on

the day he arrived the State after the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, upheld his election victory as Governor at the polls. On the day he arrived Owerri Airport, en route his State, everywhere was taken over by hundreds and hundreds of people, including all Government officials, masquerades, youths, market women, different associations, the lot. About 100 buses invaded the airport and took up every space. Even the protocol lounge was packed with people like sardines. When he eventually arrived, the crowd invaded the tarmac. The very long convoy was to proceed, first, to the Governor’s village, then to the State Capital.

But let me, for one moment believe the Governor’s version which is: that the 87 Aides did not accompany the Deputy Governor to a Sports event organised by SUBEB. What was so important about it that would make a Governor shut down Government activities? What was so important that even Permanent Secretaries would accompany the Governor’s Political appointees to a football match?

Whatever happened to the Commissioners for Education and Sports? Were the two not enough to accompany the Deputy Governor who the Governor had sent to represent him? To ask all his Cabinet and non Cabinet members, as well as the the Permanent Secretaries to abandon everything for a Sports event, that’s absurd.

And it confirms the follows: They are idle. They are not busy with State affairs. They are being paid salaries and allowances for nothing. The Governor has too many Aides than required – afterall, for the number of days a whopping number of them was on suspension, the Government did not collapse. It also confirms that the Governor shuts down Government  activities as he pleases, arbitrarily. And generally does what he likes because there are no checks and balances, otherwise, shutting down the Government for frivolous reasons, or suspending 87 top Government officials for not attending a football match could count as an impeachment  offence.

If the State had an active House of Assembly, which is  accountable to the people, not to the Governor, perhaps, Nwifuru could have thought twice before suspending 87 Aides in one fell swoop. But that is our lot. Lack of checks and balances.

Because of that lack, there is no interrogation of anything, and anything goes on. Some of our Leaders talk anyhow.

It is why a Governor Monday Okpebholo would look everybody in the face, and say “I have been told that I have achieved more in office within eight months than my predecessor achieved in eight years.” It is why he would bar a Nigerian citizen to not visit Edo without clearance from him. It was, also, why Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, the immediate past National Chairman of the APC, when he was Kano State Governor, literally barred his predecessor, Dr Rabiu Kwankwaso, a Senator then, a former Minister for Defence, from visiting Kano. When the Board of the Police Service Commission took up the then State Commissioner of Police after the Kwankwasiya Group reported the CP, he insisted the Governor would raise hell, and there could be a near-war, big crisis. Members were astounded.

It is, also, why a former Governor, aspiring to be President, will tell us that insecurity would disappear within one month of his Government if he gets elected. Thank God he said “if”, not when. So we wait. In more serious countries, that loose talk is enough to dismiss him as unserious and disqualify him from running. He would have been taken up on that. It is why a serving Minister, and a former Minister both, former  State Governors,  would, on national television, in the midst of extreme hardship and poverty in the country, be telling us whose Rolls Royce was more “decently acquired” than the other. In other climes, the question would be: how did you guys manage to acquire Rolls Royces, given that for over 30 years, all you guys have been known for is government job? It is why the Ondo State Government would brazenly insinuate that the late Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, who the whole world knew succumbed to cancer, may have been killed by his beloved wife, Betty; it is why heartlessly, they want to humiliate and desecrate his dead body, and break his family’s heart again, that they plan to exhume him for a coroner’s inquest. It is why a Sheik Ahmad Gumi would allege, without proof, that the Isreali Mossad has been invited to come and murder high profile Muslims in Nigeria. Nobody has invited him to explain how, where and when.

You name it. In our dear country, anything goes. Anybody says anything and gets away with it. No questions. That was what gave Governor Nwifuru the liberty to suspend 87 top Government officials from work over extremely frivolous reason – whether it was his daughter’s birthday or a Sports tournament. And it is, also, because we take every nonsense that not one of those Aides, especially, the Commissioners, had the courage to walk away from the job. If he could run his government without 87 Aides, why waste Government’s money to keep them?

See, physical looks can be deceptive. I have never met this Governor before, but looking at him – either in pictures published in newspapers, or video photographs on television, I could have sworn he is  incapable of such impulsive and temperamental actions. But for his height, he looks so ordinary. It does seem, however, that in that lanky body hides some arrogance, some power drunkenness, some I don’t care attitude.

Until he became Ebonyi State Governor, thanks to his powerful and enigmatic predecessor, the now Minister for Works, Dave Umahi, an Engineer, the one who became a billionaire long before he was 30 years old, I never heard of Nwifuru. I was a bit taken aback when I found out, many months after he  became the Governor, that he was the Speaker of the Ebonyi House of Assembly. As a Speaker he never made any “pim” with Umahi as Governor. He was not in the class of the very powerful Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa who “deals” with his Governors. Obasa has been Speaker under three Governors, including the incumbent gentle- looking and calm Babajide Sanwo-Olu,         and, none could shake Mr Speaker. Sanwo-Olu’s predecessors knew better than that. And so does he.

But back to Nwifuru. I enjoyed his story when he told us his father had 30 wives and 108 children. I was not one of those who criticised when him when he crowned his father a Traditional Ruler.  I was like, a man who managed 30 wives and 108 children, is perfect to manage a Community. That should be this Governor’s story. The next story should be his achievements at the end of his tenure in office as Governor. He should not allow this flinging of power to be his footnote.

So, Mr Governor, an unsolicited advice: Don’t allow your story (as a Governor) be one of a joke, and a dismissive wave of the hand. Its beginning is the suspension of 87 Aides for not attending your daughter’s 6th birthday or a local sports event. That’s absurd. Honest.

Obi is the Editor-in-Chief/CEO of The Source (Magazine), https://thesourceng.com.  Email: [email protected], [email protected]