Governors and retinue of aides

 In spite of the current economic realities in Nigeria, the wayward culture of appointing huge number of aides is still very much in the character of some governors. A publication in the Daily Trust edition of Thursday November 10, reports that Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe State recently approved the appointment of 229 aides as Special Assistants (SAs); making him one of the serving governors in Nigeria who admires the former governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, who had over 2,000 aides. 

The list of Governor Dankwambo’s aides is reportedly not exhaustive as hundreds of aides are also expected to be appointed soon as Personal Assistants (PAs). The fact that over 3,000 teachers in Gombe Sate have not been paid salaries for about five months over allegations of ‘ghost’ workers makes the appointment of undesirable bunch of political aides by Dankwambo very unreasonable. The governor’s action would be seen to be morally wrong if serving teachers are being owed salaries for several months. 

Many serving governors, including those elected in the 2015 polls on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC) are very much unlike President Muhammadu Buhari whose profile of integrity and personal discipline paved the pathway that led to smooth victory for most APC governors and legislators. If the federal government explained to Nigerians that appointment in to public offices, including ambassadorial positions, was delayed due to economic recession, it would be nothing less than financial rascality and irresponsibility for a governor to promote indolence, god-fatherism and thuggery through the needless appointment of a battalion of aides even when most state governments depend largely on the same federal government to survive.

The publication said the appointment by Dankwambo of the SAs who have been categorised in to SA I, SA II, SA III and SA IV, was announced without any portfolio assigned to them. Besides not having specific schedules, where are the offices to even keep such a mammoth host of aides who are appointed and paid for redundancy? These aides are appointed by governors, in many cases, to collect salaries for no work done. It is simply ‘job-for-the-boys’! Should we call it ‘work’ in the public service if a person is appointed with no defined schedules? Through the appointment of these aides, governors and other political office holders seem, in recent times, to have rigged the concept of job creation to the disadvantage of the majority of Nigerians.

It is because there is actually no schedule of duties for these aides that a former governor who served for two terms from 1999 to 2007 in one of the north-central states and attempted to assign portfolios to his retinue of aides named one of them as SA Rams (in charge of purchasing/supply of rams). If I were privileged to have had access to this governor when he governed the state a with free-for-all treasury as if it were his private enterprise, I would have suggested to him (being a governor with obsession for SAs and misappropriation of funds) to appoint SA Kolanuts, SA Car Gifts, SA Sallah Gifts, SA Umrah and Hajj Seats, SA Breakfast, SA Lunch, SA Dinner, SA Barbeque, SA Soft Drinks, and SA Pepper Soup (if he never had them). 

This reminds me of the piece by a senior colleague, the Monday columnist of the Daily Trust newspaper, Malam Mahmud Jega, who once wrote on a local government councilor in Kano State. This councilor, according to him, appointed a pack of aides to serve him as SA Political Matters, SA Youth Affairs, SA Women Affairs, and so on. What schedules are there to pre-occupy a local government councilor so much so that he would require to be assisted by a throng of aides? I was surprised that the councilor did not have a Chief-of-Staff among his aides. 

A recent survey conducted by Daily Trust reporters on the wage of political appointees in Taraba State revealed that the 10 Special Advisers to Governor Darius Ishaku earn about N400, 000 monthly, while the 100 Senior Special Assistants (SSAs) and 100 Special Assistants (SAs) engaged by him respectively collect N200, 000 and N100, 000 each as monthly salaries. 

In Nigeria, state governors spend millions of naira monthly as remunerations for their aides. The millions used monthly in ‘compensating’ the aides could instead be utilised for developmental projects that will benefit the generality of people. Such monies could also be utilised to empower the larger populace through Small and Medium Scale businesses and agricultural initiatives. 

The culture of appointment of political aides is viewed by most politicians as compensation for people who ‘worked’ for their victory during elections. Which work, if one may ask, did those people do that is greater than that of the voters who refused to be intimidated, refused to be bought over, defied the threat of harsh weather and stood under the scorching sun for long hours to vote for candidates of their choice? A public officer, after all, is elected to serve everyone, including those who did not vote for him. The practice could even be tolerated if the number of appointed aides were within realistic limits.

As no existing law limits the number of aides a governor can appoint, it would be apt for the National Assembly to broaden the mandate of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to include defining the number of aides a governor could appoint. May Allah (SWT) imbue governors and other elected public officers with the fear of God needed for good governance to triumph in Nigeria, amin.  

Condolence:

We condole with the Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Muhammadu Saad Abubakar III and the entire Muslim community of Nigeria over the demise of the 18th Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki. May Allah (SWT) grant him eternal mercy, amin.