BY FRANCIS KADIRI
The Minister of Works and Housing has called on Nigerians to study and understand the structure of government, stating that while public sector chief executives are highly rated, they are limited by law in what they can do, adding that the structure of government does not allow them to exercise absolute powers.
Fashola, made the point while delivering the keynote address titled “What the president can do for me,” at the Yoruba Tennis Club Annual Lecture on Friday.
He recalled an experience that shows public misunderstanding of what the President of Nigeria can do.
“Very often, I hear general statements that the President of Nigeria is very powerful, sometimes they say the office is too powerful, in some cases they even ascribe more powers to him than the United States President,” he said.
He recalled that at the onset of the protest against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) when five demands were made in respect of the police and SARS, President Muhammadu Buhari weighed in on the side of the protesters.
Fashola quoted President Buhari as saying that ‘On Monday 12th October, I acknowledged the genuine concerns and agitations of members of the public regarding the excessive use of force by some members of SARS…As a democratic government, we listened to, and carefully evaluated the five-point demands of the protesters. And, having accepted them, we immediately scrapped SARS, and put measures in place to address the other demands of our youth.’
Fashola said some of the protesters were not satisfied with commitment of the president, adding that “they wanted the president to sack some policemen, in some cases even the Inspector General of Police.”
“During this interaction I referred them to the provisions of the 1999 Constitution as amended, I pointed out to them that the President of Nigeria cannot sack a policeman because a policeman is not the employee of the President but rather the employee of the Police Service Commission.
“The President can only sack ministers, and other appointees that he personally appointed to assist him and not any civil servant deployed to work for him such as a cook, driver, or administrative staff who are ordinary employees of the Civil Service Commission.
“Not a few persons were surprised to hear this,” the minister said, adding that a lot of Nigerians express surprise when I explains the structure of Government to them.
“For example, when I explain to people that as governor or minister, I do not sign cheques, vouchers or documents that directly involve the transfer of money.
He said: On the contrary, at certain levels of payment under the financial regulation, my powers as Governor or Minister are limited to approving recommendations for payment made to me through the Permanent Secretary; after he and I have satisfied ourselves that the Government has received value for the payment or will do so.
“Although the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing has several directorates such as Construction and Rehabilitation, Planning and Development, Bridges and Design, Materials Geotechnics and Quality Control, Finance and Accounts, Legal and Procurement, many openly express surprise when I tell them that only Engineers, Architects, Valuers, Builders, Town Planners and those involved in the built industry are staff of the Ministry of Works and Housing.
“Those in Legal Department are lawyers seconded from the Ministry of Justice to whom they report, Finance and Accounts are staff of the Accountant General/Ministry of Finance, to whom they report, and procurement personnel are staff of the Bureau of Public Procurement to whom they report; while those in administration are staff of the Head of Service/Public Service Office to whom they report.
“And this is true of all ministries, in a system of checks and balances.
“Similarly of course, in the engineering sections of other ministries, the Ministry of Works also seconds engineers to support those ministries and they report to their parent ministry.
“What is true of the Federal civil service system in this regard is largely true of the state civil service systems.
“This in part is why the public service is a bureaucracy, which has been defined by Investopedia as ‘…a complex organization that has multi-layered systems and processes.’
“I am surprised that this surprises people and this is a part of the reason for choosing to discuss it at this public forum.
