THE first tenure of Governor Willie
Obiano of Anambra State will officially end on March 16, 2018 and following his
re-election during last year’s governorship poll, he will be sworn in on March
17, 2018. A committee for the governor’s second inauguration headed by one of
his aides, Chief Ifeanyi Ibezim, has been working for the past one month to
ensure a smooth handover ceremony expected to take place at the famous Alex
Ekwueme Square in Awka.
*Commissioner for Information and
Communication Strategy, Ogbuefi Tony Nnacheta (left) and Permanent Secretary in
the ministry, Sir Benjamin Umerah addressing reporters on the handover note
controversy.
Since November last year when the
Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared Obiano winner of the
election in which he scored the highest number of votes in all the 21 local
government areas of the state, most of the political stakeholders who
apparently assisted in facilitating the victory in their various areas, have
been lobbying to be allowed to nominate certain political appointees in the
incoming government.
In fact, homes of some prominent
politicians, traditional rulers and influential clerics have become very busy
in the past one month with people expecting to get one political appointment or
the other in the next Obiano administration. Even serving political appointees
are also understood to be using those they feel can get the governor’s ear to
lobby on their behalf so as to either retain their current positions, or get
new appointments
This atmosphere of intense lobbying
was still on when newsmen stumbled on a memo by the SSG, Professor Solo
Chukwulobelu, directing all political appointees and heads of Ministries,
Departments and Agencies, MDAs, who are not civil servants, to prepare their
handover notes and submit them to their respective permanent secretaries or the
most senior civil servant in their offices by March 16, 2018, a day to
the swearing-in ceremony.
The letter signed by the SSG reads:
“His Excellency, Chief (Dr) Willie Obiano, Governor of Anambra State, has
directed that all political appointees and non-civil servant heads of MDAs in
the state submit their handover notes/reports on or before Friday,
March 16, 2018 to the Permanent Secretary of their respective MDAs, or to
the most senior civil servant there in the absence of a Permanent Secretary.
“All SSAs/SAs are to submit their
handover notes/reports to the Permanent Secretary, Office of the SSG. A
copy of the handover note/report must be submitted to the Secretary to the
State Government on or before Friday, 16th March 2018.
“Further to the above, political
appointees and non-civil servant heads of MDAs and SSAs/SAs under reference,
are to also handover any government project/utility vehicles in their custody
to the Permanent Secretary, Office of the Secretary to the State Government on
or before Friday, 16th March 2018. The contents of this letter are for
your attention and necessary actions, as I assure you of my high regards.”
Following the publication of the
SSG’s letter in the media, some officials of the state government swiftly
argued that the directive to the affected persons did not amount to a sack as
reported by the media. The Commissioner for Information and Communication
Strategy, Ogbuefi Tony Nnacheta, who faulted the publication, said it was a
disservice to the state for the media houses to say that the political appointees
were sacked.
Speaking in an interview in his
office, Nnacheta said: “Some media houses told Nigerians that the Anambra State
Executive Council has been sacked by Governor Obiano. We had thought the
reporters would revert to us to authenticate the information, but most did not.
“Governor Obiano was embarrassed by
that report. He was pained that he was accused of what he didn’t do on a matter
which is verifiable. It really embarrassed him among his fellow governors who
had often told him that he has a wonderful team.
“That letter from the SSG was
supposed to be an internal memo to government appointees to do the normal
thing. There is nothing in the memo that is draconian. March
16 is the end of the governor’s first tenure and any further action taken
by the appointees after that day is ultra vires. So the memo says hand
over your notes and in particular, project vehicles. It is a measure of level
of governance in Anambra State.
“You don’t sack a man and ask him to
hand over in two weeks. The state executive council has not been
dissolved, has not been sacked and has not been removed. The governor will take
his oath of office on 17th March and other details will emerge.
“Though it won’t be a lavish
ceremony, Anambra people are encouraged to come to Ekwueme Square and applaud
themselves for running the state peacefully for the past four years and their
expectation for the next four years.”
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