Why the refusal of Nigeria’s President Jonathan to assign portfolios to ministerial list is unconstitutional
By Attorney Ephraim Emeka Ugwuonye
Special to USAfrica multimedia networks Houston/Abuja, USAfricaonline.com, and Nigeria360 e-group
USAfricaonline.com, June 21, 2011: It is alarming that Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan is refusing to assign portfolios to the ministerial list he submitted to the Nigerian Senate. For the avoidance of any doubts, the President is bound by the Constitution of Nigeria to indicate the portfolio assigned to each of the candidates he has appointed as ministers prior to confirmation by the Senate. It is not only a matter of the constitution; it is also a sign of good faith and transparency with the Nigerian people.
Also, it is also a matter of international best practice. There is hardly any other country in the world where names are sent to the Senator for confirmation without indicating the department of government that each of the nominee ministers is to be involved in.
Without mincing words, if we judge him by this, the President is not approaching governance with a clean hand or honest heart. He has taken 2 weeks to come up with his list. What has he been doing all that time if he was going to send unidentified list to the Senate?
Is it that he does not know what type of function or responsibility each Minister is to discharge? If he knows, why doesn’t he want the Senate to know that? If he believes in a transparent government, what is the secrecy about the portfolios each minister is to be responsible for.
From the Senators’ point of view, they have a constitutional obligation to inform themselves or to obtain the requisite information for effective and meaning confirmation hearings. They would be lacking the most essential information on each ministerial candidate if they do not know what portfolio such candidate is to be responsible for. How on earth could they evaluate a ministerial candidate for competency if not in relation to a particular portfolio. Indeed, what the President is trying to do is to totally circumvent the entire need for confirmation.
By denying the Senators the most critical information they need for confirmation hearings, he attempts deliberately to evade the constitution necessity for confirmation. That could be an impeachable offense.
The Senators are not bound to the President’s dictate on the matter. If the President cannot provide the information, it would be impossible for them to evaluate the federal character factor in the ministerial appointments because what matters is not just being a member of the cabinet. It is important to ensure that the allocation of portfolios truly reflects federal character in so far as that factor remains applicable.
For instance, the Senators need to know how the federal character factor is reflected in the allocation of key portfolios such as Ministries of Finance, Defense, International Affairs, Internal Affairs, Justice, Federal Capital Territory and Works. Who gets these portfolios is important question to ask. Also, who gets the substantive ministerial position and who gets the Minister of State status are all important information for the Senators to have during confirmation hearings.
If the President remains adamant, the Senators should simply try to get the information from each ministerial candidate that appears before them. If a candidate does not know what portfolio he or she has been nominated for, that means that such candidate is not fit to be a minister. That means that he or she believes he or she is competent in all fields of human endeavor, and that is a good ground to decline to confirm such a candidate. If he or she has no knowledge of what portfolio he or she is to be charged with, that means that he or she is so desperate to be a minister that he or she would do everything to be a minister. That is a basis to decline to confirm. If the Senators take this approach, they would simply end up declining to confirm any of the candidates. Nobody will tell the President how to do what is right when next he sends another list to the Senate.
This matter is so far one of the most significant test of the type of leader that President Jonathan wants to be. If he is truly going to be a democrat and different from those before him, this is time for him to show it. If he wants to be more transparent than others before him, this is the time for him to show it. If he wants Nigerian peoples to trust him and believe him to be open and transparent, this is the time to show it. If he wants the world to respect him and to accept that there is a new dawn in Nigerian leadership, this is the time for him to show it. Also, if he does this and gets away with it, similar pattern of behavior would be exhibits by the Governors in their dealings with the state assemblies. President Jonathan must reconsider his position and do the right thing for the sake of the future of the country. No other leader of Nigeria has been more challenged on grounds of competence and experience than this President. It is high time he began to show those who doubted him that he is better than they feared.
Also, the President needs a lot of goodwill and the trust of the Nigerian peoples for him to tackle the serious challenges the country faces at the moment, one of which is the recent escalation of domestic terrorism. For him to gain the mileage he needs to lead in these difficult circumstances, he needs to show Nigerians that he is a trustworthy leader.
The Senate leadership has its reputation at stake. If the Senators return to their old ways of ‘bow and leave” in the present senatorial confirmation hearings, it would deepen the suspicion Nigerian have for their legislators and we shall hear more of the unfortunate word, “legislooters” in the months ahead.
I believe it is in the interest of the Senators to rise to the occasion and ensure that the constitution is fulfilled not only as to the letters, but also as to the spirit.
•Ugwuonye is the President of the Washington DC area based legal affairs ECULAW Group. His exclusive, incisive interview with USAfrica’s Publisher Chido Nwangwu on June 19 and June 21, 2011 will be published shortly covering his recent detention by Nigeria’s security services and EFCC, the issues if his financial transactions with the Nigerian embassy in Washington DC., conflicts with the Nigerian ambassador Adefuye, reuniting with his children and mother, and other issues of law and business and rights in Nigeria.
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Why Chinua Achebe, the Eagle on the Iroko, is Africa’s writer of the century. By ChidoNwangwu,Publisher of USAfrica, and first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the internet USAfricaonline.com https://usafricaonline.com/chido.achebebest.html
USAfrica, and first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the internet USAfricaonline.com; The Black Business Journal, CLASSmagazine, PhotoWorks.TV, AchebeBooks.com, Nigeria360, USAfricaTV and several blogs, assessed by The New York TImes as the largest and arguably most influential multimedia networks for Africans and Americans. News@USAfricaonline.com. wireless: 1-832-45-CHIDO (24436). Office: 713-270-5500.
What is the senate position on this. So far nothing from this article highlights this point, only the writer giving guidelines and potential consequences. I do not think the senate will be so daft to go ahead with confirmation without portfolio. Then again, in the past we had Ambassador pleni-potentiary, whatever that means
Commonsense suggests that someone going for a job interview must answer questions on the specific knowledge, expertise, experience, and passion he/she brings to the job. Ministerial nominees are being employed by the Nigerian citizenry through the authority they handed elected officials in the recently concluded elections. Therefore the electorate deserves to know the quality, competence, passion, or lack thereof, the nominees will bring to their jobs. The vetting body, i.e. the Senate cannot ask substantive questions about how much the nominee knows of the problems of the ministry he/she is going to head if it does not know in advance who and who will occupy which portfolio. So the square peg in the round hole syndrome and the resultant inefficiency which has pervaded appointments in Nigeria prevails. Granted, some state governors have submitted names of their cabinets to their legislatures without attaching portfolios. The President should do the right thing and show an example to governors. After all, in one of his campaign speeches, President Jonathan said that his administration would draw examples from societies that got things right. Societies that got it right attach portfolios to nominees for confirmation. Things were done arbitrarily in the first 50 years of independence and Nigeria has little to show for those years. The next 50 years must not start with the same arbitrariness. Let commonsense prevail.
Chikwendu Christian Ukaegbu