It has become the pattern now. Public servants approach regime transitions with beating hearts not knowing whether they would have a job or not at the end of it. As expected, this is exactly what played out in Osun State when the dancing Senator Ademola Adeleke assumed the reins of government penultimate Sunday.
Anyone that has been watching the sturdy figure of Adeleke on social media waltzing the latest dance steps, as it had become his stock-in-trade, would wave him away as an unserious fellow. But the manner he literary hit the ground running on the day he took over, is bound to make many re-think his disposition to govern.
Even before the last words were out of his mouth while taking the oath of office, the story was out that he had made the key appointments of persons he needed to begin to run the government. He named persons to the offices of the secretary to the government, the chief of staff as well as the chief press secretary. The next day some tough decisions were rolled out of his office, including freezing the state’s accounts, reversing appointments made by his predecessor, and abolishing the “State of Osun”, a strange appellation that’s unknown to the Nigerian Constitution.
The six executive orders signed by the new governor included the sacking of 30 permanent secretaries appointed earlier by Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and some 12,000 workers said to have been illegally employed. The chairman of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC) and its members were fired. Traditional rulers whose appointments the new governor deemed controversial were not spared either. He dethroned three monarchs and directed them to immediately vacate their palaces. These monarchs, who were all appointed in November, include Akinrun of Ikirun, Oba Yinusa Akadiri; Aree of Ire, Oba Ademola Oluponle; and Owa of Igbajo, Oba Gboyega Famoodun.
I guess this is a time of understandable stress for these public officers and their dependents. Some might argue that they just happened to have been appointed by the wrong governor. There could be some truth in this.
Viewing matters in retrospect, one can say that it has been like that at every change of baton in both the states’ government houses and the presidential villa. President Olusegun Obasanjo set the tone for these kinds of happenings in 1999 at the beginning of this dispensation. Immediately after he was sworn in, he went about reversing what the government of General Abdulsalami Abubakar had enacted. In particular, he sacked the 13 permanent secretaries that were appointed and sworn in by General Abubakar at the tail end of his regime. All the appointees reverted to their former posts. A few eventually became permanent secretaries but a good number lingered in the service nursing their disappointments till they retired. Obasanjo also tore up contracts that were signed and sealed by his predecessor, recalled postings to our embassies, annulled appointments by the Federal Civil Service Commission and generally upset the whole government at the centre.
Probably it was this, that emboldened the state governors to do the same whenever they come to the office. They rode roughshod over procedures of appointments and dismissal of public officers, to put whatever they wanted in and whatever they wanted out. This had grave consequences for both the individuals concerned and the services in general.
It is a pity that the 30 permanent secretaries in Osun State were caught in the political crossfire between the outgoing and incoming governors. I would put more of the blame on the outgoing governor for creating this imbroglio of a situation and putting the careers of the top civil servants at the crossroads.
It is apparent to us all that there has been no love lost between outgoing Governor Oyetola and incoming Governor Adeleke. They belong to opposing parties and have fought a grim battle for a seat that only one of them could occupy. Unfortunately, for Governor Oyetola, he lost out. However, instead of him using the intervening period before handing over to tidy matters, Oyetola embarked on frenetic activities, conducting local government elections and making appointments here and there.
It was ridiculous conducting local government elections one month before the tenure of the governor ended and with only one political party participating. To the relief of all, the High Court put paid to all that when it cancelled the result in its entirety. It was the appointment of 30 permanent secretaries that was even more provocative. When the appointments were made public, the incoming governor warned against swearing them in as he would not recognise them. Governor Oyetola threw all caution to the winds to perform their swearing ceremony. Now, the permanent secretaries are back to where they were.
Left to me, I would have suggested a change in the constitution stopping the outgoing president and governors from embarking on making key appointments without consultation and consent of the incoming regime. But I know that’s a long shot.
Re: Dadasare her story can now be told
I thank Isa Mukhtar, from Shagari Low-Cost Yola for the following correction: Gombi is in Adamawa State between Song, home of Prof Jibril Aminu, and Hong hometown of Boss Mustafa along Mubi road.
