….Rafsanjani tasks FG on due process in removal of public officials, political appointees
Auwal Rafsanjani, the Executive Director, Civil Shttps://cislac.org/ociety Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC)/Head Transparency International (TI) Nigeria has said due process should be followed in the removal public officials, and political appointees.
Rafsanjani gave the advice via a telephone interview on Tuesday.
This is coming on the heels of the trending report on the suspension and replacement of National Coordinator/CEO of National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), Hajia Halima Shehu.
Rafsanjani who stressed the need for the excesses of Ministers overseeing Agencies and Parastatals to be checkmated, urged President Bola Tinubu to follow due process in handling issues relating to the suspension or removal of public officers and political appointees confirmed by the Senate.
He also urged the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume to foster harmony among Ministers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as well as other public officials.
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He said,”They (Ministers) need to coordinate and provide leadership not to create confusion and not to make the place to be ineffective and inefficient.
“I think it is important that all the Ministers should actually have good understanding of the roles they play because many of the Ministers because of lack of proper orientation they have not been able to grasp the work, many of them especially new appointees, they need to have the understanding and rudiments of work they are suppose to do according to our laws and according to the terms and reference given to them.
“But if any Minister feels that he or she has a quarrel or misunderstanding with another public official who he suppose to be supervising, and then takes arbitrary decision, I think that is not acceptable and that is not good.
“So we encourage the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to continue to organize more of capacity enhancement and leadership responsibility so that there will be harmony within the various Ministers and other public officials because I think lack of training and capacity enhancement is one of the major problems we have that’s why some public officials are not performing; because many of them just assumed that they were appointed as Ministers to have the share of the national cake not to really do the service.
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“So, there must be concerted efforts to bring back regular capacity enhancement. That’s what happen in other places; even if you are a public official and you found yourself as political appointment, you’ll still need to go through capacity engagement because everyday new emerging issues are coming and they need to know how to tackle these in the best manner.
“So, in Nigeria the training and retraining, refresher course have declined and I think it is one of the challenges that we have that is making efficient and transparent and accountable leadership to be very low and poor,” he emphasized.
Speaking on if a Minister has powers to issue a letter of suspension to another appointee of the President who was screened and confirmed by the Senate, he said that government must follow due process on issues of suspension or removal of any appointee or public official.
“You can not just sack. Even small workers you cannot outrightly sack them like that.
“If the President appointed her and you have any cause to remove her, the Presidency should have also gone through the same process of appointing and removing but if you do this as an outright thing, it would suggest that we are not a country or due process and there must be reason.
“The Constitution is very clear on how to remove a public official. If the person is not corrupt and there was no evidence of corruption, if the person is not incapacitated and there was no evidence of the person being incapacitated, or if the person has not willingly resign I think those are the key issues that our constitution always look at, on how to remove or suspend public officials.
“But you cannot just wake up and suspend somebody just like that. I think the question of security tenure, the question of ensuring that in the first place you find public officials who are competent who are qualified, who are not corrupt is the major reason why we are emphasising that government at all levels must shop for quality and those who have no deficiency in terms of their capacity and intellectual experience in the work that they are assigned to do,” he said.
The Human Right Activist stressed that any public officer and political appointees can only be suspended or removed if such person is declared to be corrupt, incapacitated or resign, as provided by extant laws.
One of the top officials of Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation who spoke under condition of anonymity with Humanitarian Correspondents, attested to the integrity of the NSIPA National Coordinator during the last administration.
The official who expressed shock over the allegation said: “She (Shehu) has not even done any programme yet. She is just getting ready and making plans to hit the ground running this January. I don’t know what went wrong.
“What I do know about her is that, she has experience on the job from inception of NSIP, she was a Directorate in the office before her appointment as National Program Coordinator of Conditional Cash Transfer, successfully managed the NCTO transparently with success stories.
“She was also the National Director of Humanitarian/Social Directorate that coordinated, canvassed and mobilised the beneficiaries of NSIP for the presidential campaign.
“All the programmes of NSIP are laudable and very impactful, Federal Government should give it a proper direction, stabilization, frequency, consistency and sustainability in the interest of the indigent beneficiaries. All I care.”
