NL folks, Please What's the Difference Between a Minister, Minister of State and Permanent secretary? Who has more discretionary power (Superior) between a Minister and Minister of State?

Its just Two Same Office and Total Waste Of Manpower.

The 36 states In Nigeria Must Have Ministers, So We got No Option


Its Just Politics & Tribalism.

Nigeria A Third World Country Indeed

One is a minister while the other is for the state On a serious note, the minister is senior while the other is 'junior' minister so to speak. Its done everywhere and usually called 'under-secretary of state US' for example but for naija, we abused it. We use it to settle all manners of politicians.

Bull's eye!!!

The last statement is the koko!

Nuttin else!

Minister of state is the assistant to the minister.
One of those ways they waste our money.

Edited
I made this comment, bloody 2 years ago
Na wa o

The minister for state is the second in command in his/her ministry. I personally belive it is a waste of money because the perm sec can perform those duties......here is the iraki, Minister- minister for state-permanent secretary-directors.

Another unnecessary duplication of offices - they're more like Governors and deputies. Most times, there's no synergy between the two but they have to 'manage' themselves. In the usual 'federal character' nonsense, if the Minister is from one geo-political zone, the Minister of State is from another.

This article sums it up for me:

When Dr Muhammad Ali Pate, Nigeria’s Minister of State (Health) resigned his appointment last month to assume the position of Professor in an American university, President Goodluck Jonathan, was reported to have seen it as evidence that “his star-studded cabinet was attracting global attention”.

For some reasons, not many believed that Pate’s departure from the cabinet was an all-is-good affair. To some, it was like Andrew checking out. First, that the resignation was with immediate effect looked suspect. Second, it appeared he did not have enough time to give proper notice and undertake a fairly detailed handing over process. Meanwhile, the same university reportedly offered him the job as far back as 2009. Pate is believed to have resigned because of irreconcilable differences between him and the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, on the delegation of duties and power in the ministry. To corroborate this, Pate did not in his exit statement, give Chukwu any mention but glowingly acknowledged the contribution of his driver, security aides and other personal staff to his work.

There is even the allegation that Chukwu and Pate were hardly seen together. According to unrefuted media reports, both ministers did not sit together as one delegation to share thoughts during the last World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland. Yet, President Jonathan’s admonition is that, each minister “must know everything about his ministry”.

As members of the federal executive council who are entitled to participate in the weekly meetings of the council, one is tempted to see some level of equality among our ministers.

After all, they were all cleared by the senate as fit and proper persons to hold the post of minister. Interestingly however, as soon as portfolios are shared, those designated as ministers of state suddenly become spare tyres like deputy governors in the states. Even the legislature that had found them worthy begins to despise them.

A good example being the case of Dr. Yerima Lawal Ngama, Minister of State (Finance) who was once disallowed to present to the legislature, certain information needed to deal with a finance matter. The legislature had insisted that the information could only be presented by Minister, Okonjo Iweala.

Why can’t any of the 2 ministers in a ministry provide any information about the ministry? Why was Ngama nominated and cleared as a Minister? Again, why does he attend the federal executive council meetings and more relevant to this article, why should he know anything about his Ministry?

What the posture of our law makers suggested concerning the ministry of finance issue was that the minister of state was not a real minister and that he was not actually needed in the ministry. Even if we dismiss the action of the legislators as egoistic, we may not be able to adduce enough evidence to convince workers in our ministries that a minister and the minister of state in a particular ministry have any ambience of compatibility.

President Jonathan was humorously accurate during the signing of the Performance Agreement with his ministers in 2012 when he said: “If Minister A does not know what Minister B is doing and Minister B does not know what Minister A is doing, but the Permanent Secretary knows everything that all of you are doing, the Permanent Secretary becomes a boss of the two ministers and the Permanent Secretary can use your heads to hit yourselves and just laugh at you”.

As at today, the reality is that a minister of state does not know what happens in his ministry as ministers hardly involve their ministers of state in the activities of the ministry. Even if ministers are disposed towards teamwork, their aides invent several stories to hit their heads against each other.

While some work to ensure that the minister of state shakes off any inferiority complex, others brief the main minister daily on the need for him to at all times establish that he is in charge. In the ministry of my sector – information – a staff once told me that the rebranding project was known to only the minister and her personal staff. Does that explain why the project was not sustained by the current minister of information who was previously the minister of state in the ministry?

When insecurity heightened in the nation in 2012, Dr Haliru Belo was dropped as the minister of defence but Olusola Obada, the minister of state was saved. What did the 2 ministers do or not do together? Could it be that only one of them was supposed to be vicariously liable for the problem at hand?

If so, that is the only minister we need. There is however the argument that because we have 42 ministers – a figure that is more than the number of ministries, more than one minister will have to be in some ministries. Why do we need 42 ministers? If it is so that every state can have a minister, we should not lose sight that as at today we still have only 36 states and Abuja. Those who argue that some ministries are too large for one minister should remember that our large nation has only one President.

In addition, if a ministry is very large, appointing for it, one minister and a minister of state cannot ensure decentralization for efficiency. What such a situation calls for, is a specification of each minister’s exclusive jurisdiction.

Two points are made. First, 2 ministers in the same ministry in Nigeria are hardly compatible notwithstanding some postures at public functions to hide their infighting. Second, we only have idle ministers of state. But is our minister of state (Education) not quite visible these days? He is, but not in his ministry which not having been able to settle its disputes with lecturers has left our universities in limbo for longer than makes sense.

True, Wike and Rufai showed how synergy was amiss in their Ministry.

O God of Creation;
Direct our noble cause;
Guide our leaders right

Both are ministers with different offices though carrying out almost the same function. It‘s just a kind of duplication of manpower within the same ministry with the sole aim of giving all ststes the same priviledge and opportunity. There are 36 states but we have less number of ministries, so in other to give the opportunity stated above to all states, two ministers needed to be appointed for one ministry. Bt in the real sense, minister is superior to minister of state.

duplication of office,and wastage of scarce resources.

just like the office of the Personal Assistance to the Personal Assistance to the boss.

Honestly i dont know

just an unnecessary duplication of office.........

hw much do they even pay ministers as salary?

Blame Federal character and d Constitution....other than that, a complete waste of resources

Symphony007: The minister for state is the second in command in his/her ministry. I personally belive it is a waste of money because the perm sec can perform those duties......here is the iraki, Minister- minister for state-permanent secretary-directors.

Your english language teacher must be very proud!

We don't need all the bogus cabinet in the name of federal character. My view is if the president is from Sokoto then Sokoto should not have minister in that cabinet, if vice president is from Ebonyi, then no minister from Ebonyi, the remaining 34 states will share special advisers and ministers among them.

Every ministry has a permanent secretary, who functions as the de facto deputy minister, so its difficult to see where the minister of state fits, dutywise.

To be blunt, a Minister is a "figurehead Don" (more like a President in a Parliamentary-Democracy System of Government), a Minister of State is just a mere "Appendage of Power" (more like a boy-boy) while a Permanent Secretary is the "Real Don" (more like the Prime Minister in a Parliamentary-Democracy System of Government)! @ Op, I hope you are clear now?

tomakint: To be blunt, a Minister is a "figurehead Don" (more like a President in a Parliamentary-Democracy System of Government), a Minister of State is just a mere "Appendage of Power" (more like a boy-boy) while a Permanent Secretary is the "Real Don" (more like the Prime Minister in a Parliamentary-Democracy System of Government)! @ Op, I hope you are clear now?

roger.

lalasticlala please move this post to front page. It's informative. Thanks.

No difference as far as I am concerned

All are government functionaries with sirens and convoys

They are all thieves...just that one is a bigger thief than the other

Indeed the standard of Education has fallen in Nigeria. Op, you can Google the result.
Am sure you never offer government in your secondary school and perhaps never had a
course on Public Administration in your tertiary institution (If you attended).

a minister of state functions as junior to the minister in running the affairs of the ministry and in the implementation of policies of government handled by the ministry.

The Constitution has said it all

ok

This post is a typical example of never to give up in life. Please someone check the date it was created....


EPIC!

A

Since 2013 thread?

God of fashola baba 3 in 1 miracle worker, duplicate this kind miracle for my life oh

Junior minister only in charge of his own stster

Gorrbachev:
NL folks, Please What's the Difference Between a Minister, Minister of State and Permanent secretary? Who has more discretionary power (Superior) between a Minister and Minister of State?

I depends on the country, but in Nigeria (which is the focus of your question) A minister is a senior minister, a minister of state is a junior minister or deputy minister and a permanent secretary is the highest career civil servant in that ministry.