FCT minister and political appointees

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello recently came under hard knocks over his perceived unwillingness to appoint political heads for the various agencies and departments under the FCT Administration. The Minister was specifically accused of running a one-man-show in the FCT, with the authors saying the state of affairs had taken […]

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello recently came under hard knocks over his perceived unwillingness to appoint political heads for the various agencies and departments under the FCT Administration. The Minister was specifically accused of running a one-man-show in the FCT, with the authors saying the state of affairs had taken a plunge, following the absence of these political heads.
But the Minister recently cleared the air on this issue when he met with journalists during the special congress of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), held in Abuja.
Malam Bello inferred that political appointees were partly responsible for the sorry state of affairs in the country as the transient nature of their offices ensured that whatever experiences garnered during their service went with them as soon as their tenure of office elapsed. The Minister said this phenomenon robbed civil servants of the ability to handle critical government institutions and transfer this experience to their subordinates.
In the reasoning of the Minister, civil servants are supposed to be the arrowheads of government institutions since they are the ones that would be there long enough to organize the activities of government which is the way it is done the world over.
In all honesty, one would say this paradigm shift being introduced by Muhammed Bello is one that actually deserves commendation and not criticism because this is what Nigerians have been yearning for both in the FCTA and other government institutions. The reality is the world over; governments have always been run by the civil servants. For instance, Britian had a referendum a few months back where a new Prime Minister came in through the front door and the old Prime Minister went out through the backdoor. But the British government was working.
As it is in the FCTA, all the secretariats are now headed by civil servants who are working days in days out. If these offices have no officials, of course the city would have been grounded to a halt by now. The lady handling the education Secretariat, for instance is one of the most experienced public servants in the FCT. Under her purview, the FCTA has been able to identify 500 substandard schools that are not meant to be there as was widely reported. Under her purview also, 72 teachers were trained recently to handle the Nigeria/Korea Model School in Abuja. Under her purview, 30 teachers will be going to Korea this summer for additional training. All these will translate into better school services and at the end of the day also, better scores during WAEC and NECO. So, for somebody to write and say that the Minister has not appointed an education Secretary, quite frankly, what Secretary again do we need?
 If the truth must be told, we are in the era of change and I think it is very paramount for us in this country to develop and strengthen our institutions. The entire Secretariats are six, but each of the Secretariats have professionals from level 7 up to level 17. This is government and that’s how government is run. So, let us not go back to this idea of everything tied to individuals.
The running of the FCT, quite frankly is not done by the Minister. The Minister just gives guidance based on the policy of the party, the policy of the President and the objective of the government. But institutions are the ones that run and if you personalize government based on individuals, then you see individuals come in with their retinue of aides, political appointees and the civil servants just fold their arms and watch and at the end of the day, the Minister’s tenure ends, he packs his aides and the political appointees and moves on and there is no institution in memory. That’s why at the end of the day, each government comes trying to solve the same problems.

Danladi Akilu, Gudu District, Abuja