On Monday -13th December, 2021, some 14 commissioners earlier screened and confirmed by the Ondo State House of Assembly were inaugurated by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu SAN. There were sparse jubilation among members of the ruling party in the state raising hope for the actual takeoff of governance almost a year into the second term of Mr Governor.
However, unfolding events have manifestly shown that those 14 people inaugurated on Monday as Commissioners are not commissioners in the true sense of it. They’re at best ” Assistant Commissioners”
The appointment and process of appointing state commissioners are statutory. Unlike other appointments that are made by the governors, it enjoys some constitutional flavours.
Section 192 (1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended provides:
” There shall be such offices of Commissioners of the Government of a State as may be established by the
Governor of the State”
Section 193(1) goes further to empower the governor to assign to the commissioners state responsibility.. including the administration of any department of Government.
Antithetically, the news which filtered in from the Sunshine state yesterday that the Commissioners were on the queue filling aptitude test forms in the office of the ubiquitous Director General, Performance and Project Implementation Monitoring Unit who’s also the son of the governor, Babajide Akeredolu for the allocation of portfolios. This is sad !
Intricately, Mr Governor left no one in doubt when he declared on Monday, during the swearing-in ceremony that the PPIMU has been charged with a number of mandates which include; to design and implement a project management, implementation, monitoring and evaluation platform for the office of the governor to coordinate, monitor and evaluate the execution of the Ondo State 8-point agenda, state development plan and its approved programmes and projects.
From reliable source, the DG PPIMU will subject the new commissioners to write aptitude test like Kaduna state teachers, to determine their ability and capacity before assigning to them any ministry. They will be reporting to him and all project files will pass through his office before the governor’s approval.
Ostensibly, this what’s responsible for the delay in assigning portfolios to the new commissioners. In Ondo state today, nepotism has been elevated to its apogee and this has yielded a new and dangerous trend in the polity – “Assistant Commissioners”
Sowore, a lawyer writes in from Abuja, the Nation’s capital.
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