Diddyydiva:



yet another unreasonable reason to waste money

barcanista:
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

madridguy:
Stop deceiving yourself, I'm not here to mislead anyone, IKD knows better. Ever since the school was moved away from Isolo, Isolo people they dance shoki.

madridguy:
Ever since Laspotech was moved to its permanent site @ Ikorodu the area has seized to witness Peace again. What a bad news. " PUNCH Metro learnt that instead of helping the victims, the people started using their camera phones to take snapshots of the woman and the baby, who still had the lollipop stuck to his mouth. " Who is to blame for this, if they rushed the victims to the hospital, the doctor will request for police report before treatment can be commence....If you rush to the police station for police report, the police will interrogate you, and detain you in some cases. We Nigerian are good people of great character, but the Nigeria government should make a law to help victims like these for the sake of life...I have once stood as a accident victim relative just for the doctor to treat the man, the doctor insist she will not attend to the man without seeing his relative who will be responsible for his bill. May your souls rest in peace and also May God in his infinite mercy comfort Iya Opeyemi and grant her " Iman " to bear the lost.

newsomtin:
Am still a virgin

Greatest lie of the century

aceguy1:
[size=20pt] 2 sleeves + 1 waist + 1 neck +( 2 in the middle × 2 in the back) = 8 [/size]

jmoore:
She doesn't beg for recharge card.

nanizle:

SeverusSnape:


If they like, let them launch a hi-tech satellite into space, It doesn't make any difference, Buhari shall cry again.

The station shall be meant mainly for propaganda dissemination.