Mass sack of CEOs and VCs

Twenty six Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of federal parastatals, agencies and commissions were summarily removed from office last week.  Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir David Lawal, who announced the sack, directed the removed officers to hand over their offices to the most senior officers in their agencies pending the appointment of […]

Twenty six Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of federal parastatals, agencies and commissions were summarily removed from office last week.  Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir David Lawal, who announced the sack, directed the removed officers to hand over their offices to the most senior officers in their agencies pending the appointment of substantive chief executives.
In the confusion that trailed the announcement, five of the twenty-six failed to vacate their offices up to 48 hours later. Others handed over in a controversial manner, which led to serious crises requiring police intervention. In truth, most of these heads of parastatals and agencies were political appointees who should expect to be relieved of their posts when a new government took over power. This is especially true when many of them abused their positions and actively involved themselves in campaigning for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which eventually lost the election. Many of the sacked CEOs were also accused of using their agencies’ resources to fund PDP’s election activities. All Nigerians were witnesses to the ignoble partisan role played by the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), for example, in the 2015elections.
Having said that, we must add that it is time that most of these offices are depoliticised and are restored to their old civil service terms and tenures so that such mass removal of agency heads is not necessary because the government changes hands.  It would also have been neater to appoint substantive replacements together with the sackings. Bearing in mind the time it took to appoint ministers, we fear that there could be a long delay in making these appointments which will not augur well for the agencies concerned or for governance as a whole.
Apart from the 26 CEOs, 12 University Vice Chancellors (VCs) were earlier sacked by the Federal Government and were immediately replaced. The Federal Government also reconstituted the Governing Councils of some universities. According to the Secretary-General of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors, those that were removed were not sacked but that their tenures had virtually expired. There were however three of them whose tenures had not elapsed. The VCs concerned were administering the 12 Federal Universities established by ex-president Goodluck Jonathan’s administration as well as the National Open University. Removing three vice chancellors before their tenures expired and without a Visitation Panel establishing wrong doings on their part violates the law establishing federal universities as well as the spirit of university autonomy. Appointment of Vice-Chancellors is the business of University Councils and Senates. The President is the Visitor to every Federal University but he can only exercise his powers to remove a VC if recommended by a visitation panel. We are not aware that this procedure was followed in this instance.
It is however said that the new universities established by the Jonathan regime have not yet had their enabling laws passed by the National Assembly, even though they had governing councils. The Federal Ministry of Education should expedite action on this matter, which does not even require much effort because the law establishing federal universities is the same for all of them except for their names.
Going forward, the culture of due process should be firmly established in government appointments and disengagements. In some of the more sensitive agencies the CEOs were professionals in their fields while in others they were simply political appointees without definite specialisation.  The confusion in the way the exercise was carried out gave workers the opportunity to express their grievances against some of the outgoing CEOs. It is of vital importance that the positions are filled as quickly as possible to drive the change agenda.  In future, the Buhari administration should aim to make replacement of key public service officials more efficient, less controversial and should adhere to the law and due process.