OLUNLOYO: I Don’t Trust Civil Servants, They Are A Cabal

Dr. Victor Omololu Olunloyo is a former governor of old Oyo State. In this interview, the octogenarian told KAMAL TAYO OROPO that the President is yet to breach the constitution by delaying appointment of cabinet.

Are you worried that one month after President Muhammadu Buhari came into office, there is still no Federal Executive Council in place?
IT really does not worry me. The way the constitution has been fashioned does not make it mandatory on the President to appoint a cabinet, especially, within a specified time frame. For example, if you look at the 1979 constitution, it only mandated the head of government to appoint only one minister, and that is, the Attorney General of the Federation. Apart from that, the President is at latitude to appoint or not appoint minister any time he wishes.

Between the 1979 presidential constitution and the 1999 constitution, there is something common with them, which is that the only minister expressly mentioned is the Attorney General; no any other was so mentioned. Whether it is the education, works, transport or any other minister, there is none mentioned. In the 1979 constitution, it is referred to as Attorney General and Minister of Justice. But these are two different posts, as the Attorney General is more like the lawyer to the government, while the Minister of Justice supervises administration of justice in the country. The two, however, have been fussed into one. But in contrast, in the 1999 constitution, the Attorney General is given one more post –– the Chief Law Officer of the federation.

So, in essence, the President is not under any serious constitutional constraint to appoint ministers in a hurry. In fact, he can choose not to for as long as it is convenient for him.

You will remember the case of former governor of the old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, who even, after members of the State House of Assembly sent list of commissioners to him, refused to appoint any one throughout his tenure.

But you’ll recall that Balarabe was eventually impeached; does it have any relationship with the issue of appointing commissioners?
No, not at all. At least, not to my knowledge. Balarabe ran into some problems because he committed an impeachable offence. He was not well advised at all and I was very sorry for him that the issue occurred. He ran into a constitutional trap; the impeachable offence was heavy and wasn’t a matter of appointing commissioner. Before a decision is made, normally, there is supposed to be a budget, drafted and debated. The budget is an executive budget, drawn by the executive, taken to the legislators, debated and returned to the governor, who will give his accent or send it back to the house. But Balarabe spent some money, which were not approved by the House of Assembly; that is an impeachable offence.
Translating the president’s visions to reality, to what extent can civil servants be trusted?

I don’t trust civil servants; they are like a cabal. They function through obstruction and delay. And you remember the era of the so-called super permanent secretaries. Some of them are very ambitious. For example, as you and I know, a former federal permanent secretary is the current chairman of the Buhari’s party, Chief John Odigie Oyegun. They are not averse to grabbing power. Oyegun’s predecessor, Chief Bisi Akande was a secretary to the government in Osun State at a time. They would transform from secretary to the government and permanent secretaries to politicians. Buhari should not be deceived. He should not get carried away running a civil servant government. The sooner he appoints his ministers, if he wants to, the better for everyone. Though, one must not fail to understand the peculiarity of the situation at hand.

How soon would consider appropriate for a federal executive council be put in place?
Any time is okay with me, as long as the day to day running of business of governance is not suffering. In any case, the words ‘executive council’ is recent phenomenon in the country’s politics. The constitution did not make mention of anything like that.