Is Gbajabiamila expanding the role of COS? (I)

When President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Chief of Staff (COS), Femi Gbajabiamila, decided to take a walk, to visit some key government agencies, it set tongues wagging. The agencies he visited included the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), and the National Hajj Commission (NAHCON), among many others. The visit, as […]

When President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Chief of Staff (COS), Femi Gbajabiamila, decided to take a walk, to visit some key government agencies, it set tongues wagging. The agencies he visited included the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), and the National Hajj Commission (NAHCON), among many others. The visit, as reported in the Daily Trust of September 2, was ostensibly a “fact-finding exercise and familiarisation tour”, which would have allowed him to conduct on-site assessments of those agencies under the Presidency.

There was an immediate outcry that this kind of tour by the COS was unprecedented and portended conflict with the oversight functions of other functionaries of government such as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF). Some even alluded to the fact that the COS’ walkabout would seriously undermine a vital function of the National Assembly which is to periodically oversight the Executive.

Unkind critics even added that he, being a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, only wanted to replicate the oversight role he formerly relished, in his present office now in the State House.

This is expected as the public is more accustomed to a COS that operates within the more traditional role of the office in the precincts of the State House and is hardly seen beyond. The office of the COS is an integral part of the presidential system. Usually appointed from among the most able, closest and faithful acolytes of the president; the COS becomes the enforcer and loyal gatekeeper to the inner sanctum of the Presidency.

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The occupant of the office is regarded as the head of the executive branch of government having a supervisory role over not only the immediate staff of the president but also the ministers and heads of agencies.

While his role among the immediate staff of the president in the State House is conspicuous, the supervisory role over other appointees of the president is mostly veiled; behind the curtains. Invariably, he becomes the numero uno in the cabinet, taking precedence over all others, including even the ministers whose appointments had to go through some rigmarole at the Senate.

Surprisingly, the office of the COS was slow to evolve in the presidential system we operate. President Shehu Shagari of the 2nd Republic never appointed a COS during his tenure. He had only a Chief of Personal Staff in the person of Michael Prest superintending in the State House, Ribadu Road. President Shagari gave out the coordination of parastatals to Vice-President Alex Ekwueme while all other residual government affairs were left with Shehu Musa, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).

The SGF was the single most powerful non-elected official in the government and all MDAs routed their paperwork to the president through his office. A former permanent secretary in the federal government, Shehu Musa had served in many key ministries including the Ministry of Finance, and came to the job of SGF adequately equipped.

It was in the 3rd Republic that the office of COS truly emerged and was made functional by President Olusegun Obasanjo. One of the first things President Obasanjo did, on assumption of duty in 1999, was to appoint Abdullahi Mohammed as his Chief of Staff. He is a highly-regarded retired army general and very well-known to the new president.

In the 1970s, as a serving military officer, Mohammed had served as military governor of Plateau State, when Obasanjo was military Head of State and later functioned as head of the National Security Organisation (NSO), the precursor of the SSS, NIA and DIA. Additionally, General Abdulsalami Abubakar as Head of State had recalled Mohammed from retirement to serve as his National Security Adviser (NSA) during his brief tenure in 1998/99.

Throughout President Obasanjo’s two tenures, General Abdullahi Mohammed kept the leash over not only the State House staff but also on the ministers and other political appointees. Naturally self-effacing, Mohammed never courted the limelight. Even within the vicinity of the Presidential Villa, the general was hardly seen and barely heard, yet his influence was everywhere. He was a firm administrator and President Obasanjo had on many occasions attributed the success of his tenure to the COS’ ability to corral staff support behind his vision.

President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who replaced Obasanjo kept General Abdullahi Mohammed as COS, I guess, to stabilise his new administration. After about nine years on the job, the general decided to retire. It was only after General Mohammed’s exit that President Yar’Adua decided to abolish the office of COS and adopt President Shehu Shagari’s model of utilising the SGF as head of the executive branch. He appointed his Minister of Defence, Yayale Ahmed to the post.

A consummate bureaucrat, Yayale Ahmed had served as permanent secretary in the federal ministries of Interior and Education and was also, for seven years, Head of the Civil Service of the Federation. The SGF office fitted the profile of Yayale. He was already a senior member of the cabinet and had the added edge of being a former head of the civil service. As expected Yayale took in the role of SGF as duck would to water.

 

We continue the discussion next week.