NewStats: 3,261,684 , 8,174,773 topics. Date: Friday, 30 May 2025 at 06:36 AM 6y135

WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, 2023

‘A HEART FULL OF UNQUANTIFIABLE GRATITUDE TO PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI, GCFR, AND RECOMMENDATION TO ADDRESS THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONUNDRUM OF “MINISTER OF STATE”

BEING VALEDICTORY SPEECH BY FESTUS KEYAMO, SAN AS MINISTER OF STATE FOR LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT AT THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS, PRESIDENTIAL VILLA, ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, 2023.

1. Mr. President, you first appointed me as Minister of State in the Ministry Niger Delta Affairs in August, 2019 and you later redeployed me as Minister of State in the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

2. Today, I cannot find the words to express the depth of my gratitude to you for finding me worthy, out of over two hundred million Nigerians, to be nominated and subsequently appointed to serve as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. My curriculum vitae has been greatly enhanced – forever.

3. From my very humble beginnings in a small dusty town in Delta State where I was born and raised by my struggling parents, all the way to the Council Chambers at the Presidential Villa where I had the honour and privilege to participate weekly in decision-making for my country in the last four years, it has been like a fairy tale. I give God all the glory.

4. What I am about to say, therefore, is not and should not be construed as an indication of ingratitude. Far from it. What I am about to say is just my own little contribution to our constitutional development as a relatively young democracy and to aid future governments to optimize the performance of those they appoint as Ministers.

5. Mr. President, the concept or designation of “Minister of State” is a constitutional aberration and is practically not working for many so appointed. Successive governments have come and gone and many who were appointed as Ministers of State have not spoken out at a forum such as this because of the risk of sounding ungrateful to the Presidents who appointed them. However, like I said earlier, this is not ingratitude.

6. As a private citizen, I am on record to have gone to court a number of times to challenge unconstitutional acts of governments for the sake of advancing our constitutional democracy, so it will be out of character for me to have gone through government and be carried away by the pomp of public office and forget my role as a member of the Inner Bar and my self-imposed role over the years as a crusader for democracy and constitutionalism.

7. Mr. President, I crave your indulgence to explain this constitutional conundrum of “Minister of State”. Sections 147 and 148 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), deal with the appointments and responsibilities of Ministers of the Federation. The said sections state as follows:

Section 147

“(1) There shall be such offices of Ministers of the Government of the Federation as may be established by the President.

(2) Any appointment to the office of Minister of the Government of the Federation shall, if the nomination of any person to such office is confirmed by the Senate, be made by the President.

(3) Any appointment under subsection (2) of this section by the President shall be in conformity with the provisions of section 14(3) of this Constitution:- provided that in giving effect to the provisions aforesaid the President shall appoint at least one Minister from each State, who shall be an indigene of such State.”

Section 148

“(1) The President may, in his discretion, assign to the Vice-President or any Minister of the Government of the Federation responsibility for any business of the Government of the Federation, including the istration of any department of government.”

8. Furthermore, the 7th Schedule to the 1999 Constitution provides for the Oath of Office to which each Minister must subscribe. There are no different Oaths for “Minister” and “Ministers of State”. They all take the same Oath of Office.

9. In addition to the above, the Ministers-designate appear before the Senate and are grilled and cleared AS MINISTERS, not as Ministers in some instances and Ministers of State in some other instances. It is at the point of assignment of portfolios that successive Presidents then reclassified some as “Ministers of State”.

10. Some may want to justify this by saying the President is given the discretion by the Constitution to assign whatever responsibility(ies) he likes to Ministers. Yes, I concede Mr. President can do that, but not by a designation different from that prescribed by the Constitution. Simply put, it is akin to the President asg responsibilities to the office of the Vice-President and re-designating that office as “Deputy President” under our present Constitution. That is clearly impossible. Why then should that of the Ministers be different?

11. What is more, Ministers are appointed pursuant to Section 147(3) of the 1999 Constitution to represent each State of the Federation. Therefore, Ministers sit in Cabinet as the eye of Mr. President in each State of the Federation. It is therefore against the intendment of the drafters of our Constitution for a representative of a State to be reclassified as against another representative of another State.

12. The Schedules of Duties of Ministers and Ministers of State that intend to cure some of these anomalies hardly help the issues. Firstly, the Schedules of Duties are observed more in breach by the Permanent Secretaries and Directors who really cannot be expected to serve two masters. And in any case, many of the roles of both Ministers are so ambiguous that the bureaucrats would always interpret them to satisfy the ones they see as the “Senior Ministers” or “main Ministers” for fear of being persecuted by them.

13. Secondly, parts of the Schedules of Duties seem to suggest that the Ministers can delegate functions to the Ministers of State. This is a constitutional impossibility. It is only Mr. President that can delegate Presidential powers as one cannot delegate what he does not have (delegatus non potest delegare). In any case, how can someone who took the same Oath of Office with another delegate functions to that other?

14. Thirdly, the Schedules of Duties leave so many gaping holes that bring conflicts between the Ministers and Ministers of State. In addition, the provision that “Ministers of State” cannot present Memos in Council, except with the permission of the Minister, is another anomaly. It means the discretion of the Minister of State is subsumed in the discretion of the Minister, yet both of them represent different States in Cabinet.

15. It also follows that it would be difficult to assess the individual performances of the Ministers of State since their discretion is shackled under the discretion of the Ministers. Original ideas developed by a Minister of State are subject to clearance by another colleague in Cabinet before they can sail through for consideration by Council. The drafters of our Constitution obviously did not intend this.

16. As a result, many Ministers of State are largely redundant, with many going to the office for symbolic purpose and just to while away the time. Files are ed to them to treat only at the discretion of the other Minister and the Permanent Secretary. Yet, the Ministers of State will receive either praise or condemnation for the successes or failures of such Ministries.

17. I understand that when this practice first surfaced in the First Republic, it was used as a contraption to give a semblance of “Government of National Unity”, when in actual fact no “real power” was ceded to the opposition co-opted into government who were mostly designated as the Ministers of State, so as to keep them in check under the leadership of the ruling Party’s Ministers. But, over time the custom has come to stay and now it has been established as a norm, even regarding Ministers from the same ruling Party. In fact, one political absurdity that has emerged from this is that some Ministers of State won more votes from their States for the party in power than the “main Minister”.

THE WAY FORWARD

18. Many Ministerial Retreats have been held to try and resolve the issues between Ministers and Ministers of State. President Obasanjo held four of such Retreats, with the last one holding at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos, from 23rd to 25th February, 2001. Yet, the problems persisted.

19. Mr. President, unknown to many successive Presidents and the general public, these conflicts gravely affect the optimal performance of Governments. What is the way forward?

20. Obviously, the argument that two Ministers are cramped into some Ministries in order not to unnecessarily proliferate Ministries and therefore save Government’s money is no longer tenable. This is because Government does not need any extra infrastructure or more money to maintain all Senior 36 Ministers or even a bit more appointed as is now the custom. This is because the present Ministers and Ministers of State have their separate offices, cars, security personnel and personal aides. So, what is the point?

21. There are enough Permanent Secretaries within the system to be assigned to each Minister, or in the least, one Permanent Secretary can serve two Ministers. Since the Schedules of Duties of both Ministers already reflect the broad Mandates of the Ministries, the Ministers can be named in line with those Schedules of Duties, instead of continuing with this unconstitutional arrangement. For instance, there is no reason why we cannot have a Minister of Labour and another Minister of Employment.

22. In my case, whilst the Schedule of my colleague had to do more with Labour and Productivity, mine had to do more with Employment. The Directorates in my Ministry that were under my office would then be fully under the Minister of Employment, without any double loyalty to the Minister of Labour and Productivity.

23. We can also have a Minister of Trade and another Minister of Investment. We can have a Minister of Education (Tertiary) and another Minister of Education (Primary and Secondary); we can have a Minister of Mines and another Minister of Steel; we can have a Minister of Works and another Minister of Housing and so on and so forth.

24. In all of these, no extra infrastructure is needed to sustain this suggested arrangement. The present infrastructure and present personnel in the Ministries can very well sustain it. It will be at no extra cost to government. This is preferable than successive governments continuing with this present unconstitutional arrangement.

25. Finally, I want to place it on record again that Mr. Present gave me maximum as his Minister to function optimally. So, this treatise is not a personal complaint. This is just a respectful recommendation for record purposes and for the sake of posterity. It is also intended to correct an anomaly that has existed for ages.

Thank you, Mr. President.


FESTUS KEYAMO, SAN, FCIArb(UK)

Honourable Minister of State,

Labour and Employment.

And a mod posted this on the front page

Cc seun, lalasticlala, mynd44

I dont understand what sort of marketing majority of you do here on Nairaland, what does it take to put the cost of the item alongside.

HigherEd:
private universities usually don't it students above the age of 21 e.g CU, ABUAD

Be very sure of whatever it is you would be posting on a public forum

Lawlahdey:
Awww...Too cute When will I be swept off my feet too ehn,when is my own banky coming?

Babes, I'm here na!!

montezz:
Dobale and go.

nah, just go. Your problem too big.

montezz:

Gbenusoun
Ode
I should rather ask for your age. Cos everyone knows that song by that time.
O je lo wabi wo si. Awon member oshisko academy. Lose your temper KO lo ko s'odo.
No need replying you again

No vex, your problem is bigger than me. Just carry ya wahala and go.

montezz:

Lo bi Google
Mtchewww

you come online to spew rubbish and you expect everyone to just swallow it, only God knows if you are even up to 20 year old, many of you just come here and shook ya mouths on issues the pre dated your arrival to this world. You better gerrarahere before I loose temper and give you a knock on the head. She's even hissing@me, arinfin.

montezz:
Were gidi maa L'adeleke 2x
Oloriburuku L'Adeleke
Were gidi ma L'Adeleke.


OSBC anthem during his tenure.

Dunno if I should type RIP sef.

Aregbe how far?

when was that? And how old were you then?

TRADEMARK:




God punish you, he was the best politician in osun state, very down to earth and the biggest philanthropist

that idiat knows not what he's saying, Adeleke didn't even spend upto 2years(I'm not even sure if its upto a year) before the military took over. Them go just dey open mouth anyhow feeling like someone who knows how to talk. That guy is just intentionally being stupid.

See this one, So I should troway my slippers after 6months abi? Like you'll buy another one for me. Mtcheeeeew!!
N:B God bless Mallam Adamu my shoemaker, with him your slippers can last as much as 15yrs

I only have a monkey chase experience and it actually bit Me on the leg

Go do medical check up bro, ensure yo do the blood glucose test.

Kemen go soon wear that shirt tear, haba!!

And even the judge couldn't question why a suspect is being brought to the court in prisons uniform even vampire wey kill hundreds of people no wear uniform while in detention.

ezana1:
Really, I didn't notice

it might not have exceeded just a page if it wasn't on the front page. It was posted there, that's why you have this lot of comment

ezana1:
I wish this reached the front page, please mods save a family

it was on the front page two days ago

Mumu, God rest the soul of the departed.

So the ladies are avoiding this thread abi? Cc: lalasticlala, mynd44

Mad guy Na this format you wan use again abi?

Napep drivers can be crazy many times, the driver probably tried to manoeuvre, he may not be this lucky next time, thank God for sparing their lives.

bassey for hear whan should he try that shit with coco

homesteady:




I just watched the interview he did with Cool fm, he said he just dropped the new single few days back!

So I guess he recorded the song and shot the video before he came to the house, so that he would release it when he leaves the house!

Bros abeg post link to the video, I'm interested more in miyonse though

toseen7:
there is no specific time 4 dat. Or u mean the nomination session? Dat wan go start @4pm i think.

okay, thanks. But as per nomination I was thinking they mentioned 6:30pm

Papikush:


It's a random thing. There is no specific time for a collective diary section. I think...

Thank you bro

Please guys when does the diary session starts? Abeg someone should bail me out on this question

Please anybody that knows a strong dibia that can help strike Kemen with live thunder in the southafrica Bigbrother house should please get back to me by quoting this comment

Tboss's reaction to miyonse's exit is making me have doubts if true love really exists. I mean she was all over the boy as if her world revolved around him. Somebody should please tell me this show is scripted.

akthedream:
MIYONSE IS NOT FREE. IT'S LIKE WATER IN A RUBBER. HE JUST COMES TO THE KITCHEN, PICK ONE OR TWO THINGS AND GO BACK... GIFTY

Please did Gifty actually say this?

Shey bally don go home ni?

eksbabe:
Please who can hear what Gifty is telling Debbie? Abeg what did Soma do to her ooo, this one she feels like punching him in the face?

She mentioned something like "uriel from the back" I guess all she was saying is that he was pleasuring uriel or so. Uriel mentioned similar thing to soma that she elbowed him while they were sleeping as he was grabbing her from behind. All this happened while on the bed overnight as this three parties slept on same bed. Whether soma did it consciously or subconsciously is what is not clear.