Buhari and his Chief of Staff

Whilst the euphoria arising from the appointment of a personal member of staff of the President may typically not warrant the leading comment of this newspaper, the fantastic narratives, albeit mythical and sometimes preposterous, concerning the role of the president’s Chief of Staff (CoS) in recent times, call for some reflection. This call for reflection is further heightened by the appointment of Nigeria’s former Permanent Representative at the United Nations, Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari.
 
Prof. Gambari’s appointment has scraped open old scars and has generated clannish diatribes, just as it has triggered heated discussions on Nigeria’s power equation. However, none of these seemed to have raised the fundamental question regarding the president, his appointees, especially the Chief of Staff, and the power they wield as a result of the president’s curious insularity. Does the president need a Chief of Staff? Perhaps. Indeed, it is his personal choice to make.
 
The Office of the Chief of Staff, which was first introduced in Nigeria with the return of civil rule in 1999 under President Olusegun Obasanjo, appears to have been modelled after the position of the Chief of Staff to the President of the United States. In Nigeria, this office has no constitutional backing. According to the Nigerian State House website, the staff of the office of the President perform the following functions: “administrative duties, protocol, security and media”, with the Chief of Staff to the President being responsible for “managing the President’s schedule and correspondence and any other duties that may be assigned by the President”. Obviously, the CoS manages the president’s time and space.