Niger: Panic as governor set to reshuffle cabinet over poor performance, redeploys 13 Permanent Secretaries
Niger Governor Abubakar Sani Bello
From John Adams, Minna
Fear and anxiety have gripped members of the Niger State Executive Council as the Governor, Abubakar Sani Bello has concluded plans to reshuffle his cabinet almost three years after they were appointed.
Also to be affected in the reshuffling exercise which will see some Commissioners being dropped includes Special Advisers and coordinators.
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This is the first time in the life of the administration that the governor will be embarking on a major cabinet reshuffle after he dropped six Commissioners from the cabinet shortly before the 2019 general elections.
Although with less than two years to the end of the administration, it was gathered from a reliable source close to the Government House that the decision by the governor to reshuffle the cabinet was informed by the non Performance of the commissioners which has rendered the administration ineffective.
However to prepare grounds for the reshuffling, the governor, recently ordered the Head of Service to redeploy some Permanent Secretaries, awaiting new Commissioners.
The Head of Service Hajiya Salamatu T Abubakar in a letter dated 1st February 2022 with reference number HoS/NS/044/T and addressed to all Ministries, clerk of the house of assembly and the Secretary to the state government, asked the affected Permanent Secretaries to report at their new ministry on or before 8th of February, 2022.
Part of the redeployment letter reads:
“I write to convey the approval of Mr Governor on the posting of the attached list of Permanent Secretaries. The officers are expected to report on or before Tuesday 8th February, 2022, and you will kindly avail this office with handing/taking over note.”
The governor has gradually begun the reshufflement of the Commissioners when he recently ordered the swapping of Commissioners for Local Government Chieftaincy Affairs, Mallam Abdulmalik Sarkin Dage with that of Youths and Sport, Mr. Emmanuel Umar.
Although the governor said the swapping was temporary, the affected commissioners have now spent over four months in their new ministries, even when the development, it was gathered has not gone down well with those affected.
Despite intense lobbying by the commissioners, the governor it was learnt is hell-bent on reshuffling the cabinet and even ready to drop most of them who have performed below expectations in the last three years.
According to our source, “ministry like planning which has been overseeing by that of Finance, will now get a substantive Commissioner”.
Our Correspondent gathered that some of the Commissioners and Special Advisers have started visiting and lobbying traditional rulers, political godfathers and relatives of the governor to enable them remain in the cabinet.
Our source who pleaded anonymity, said the governor is highly disappointed with the performance of most of the Commissioners even though he has been nursing the plans to reshuffle the cabinet when they (Commissioners) were just two years in office.
According to the source: “But for the intervention of some political actors in the state who advised the governor to shelve the plan so as to face more important issues affecting the state.
“But now, Mr Governor is completely disenchanted with the Commissioners over their poor performances.
“To even worsen the matter, the Governor is not happy with the Commissioners and Special Advisers with the way they have distance themselves from their immediate communities, citing Insecurity as their reason for not going back to their people.
“This behaviour by the Commissioners and Special Advisers have further detached the Government from the people. The people are no longer feeling the presence of the Government”, he added.
Findings have it that some of these Political appointees have relocated from their personal homes to hotels because of insecurity in the state and they pay as much as two hundred Naira (N200,000) per month as hotel bills.
“Those who could not relocate to hotels have now resorted to going to their homes in Abuja and come to Minna to either attend State Executive Council meetings or any other important events”.
The Commissioners are said to be taking the advantage of the frequent travel by governor to go into hiding and distance themselves from the people.
“Since the Governor hardly stay in Minna, they (Commissioners) now have the ample of opportunities to stay back thereby hiding themselves from their people. They are making the government to be too far from the people, especially with the security challenges facing the people.
To worsen the situation, our source pointed out that “the Local Government Chairmen are not helping matters as ever since they won the case against the Governor in court over their tenure extension , they have all gone underground and now rule their LGAs from Minna, the state capital.
“Do you know these Chairmen can not be reached on phone, they only operate with their Treasurers and Secretaries, because they now lie on the security challenges as the reason they can not go to their LGAs?
“They now treat all files and documents from Minna, if there are anything to do they carefully ensure they ask their staff to bring such to their Minna locations.
