Senate Confirmation And Public Officers’ Tenure

IN the last three weeks, Nigeria and Nigerians have been held spell-bound by the spectacle at the National Assembly, as the upper legislative chamber, the senate, screens eminent citizens nominated as ministers by President Muhammadu Buhari. The media frenzy placed around the politics of the screening and the chances of the nominees to scale the hurdles have been captivating.

Yet, in all the fuss about the confirmation hearing, one issue appears to have escaped the attention of the media. And that is the issue of the tenure of the ministers being screened by the senate. When can we say their tenure starts? Is it from the date their nomination was officially announced, or the date their names were sent to the senate, or the date they were confirmed by the senate, or the day they would be sworn in as ministers by the president and their portfolios announced?

These questions are germane, especially for a society such as ours, which is highly sentimental about the tenure of public office holders.  Truth be told, no one can consider himself a minister, until he is vested with the power to exercise the function of the office. Such power can only come after confirmations by the senate and more importantly, after swearing in by the appointing authority, in this case the president. This swearing in is also expected to be backed by an official letter of appointment, without which a public officer will have no locus to exercise the power and authority of his office.

This pattern is not peculiar to ministers only. Indeed, all heads of federal agencies and departments whose appointment requires legislative approval go through similar process. They are not expected to assume office until their appointments are confirmed by the senate.

This is why I found media reports suggesting that the tenure of the incumbent chair of the EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde, ends in November 2015, really shocking. I say so because, as the National Assembly correspondent of a leading national newspaper, I was privileged to have witnessed the confirmation screening of Lamorde by the Senate on February 15, 2012. Even though he had been occupying the office of chairman of the EFCC, albeit in acting capacity before the confirmation, he became the substantive chairman of the EFCC on February 15, 2012, which invariably means that his four-year tenure terminates on February 15, 2016. Except, President Buhari renews his appointment for another term of four years, Lamorde should by February 15, 2016, be returning to the Nigeria Police to continue with his career as a senior police officer.

Until that happens it does a section of the media no good to twist facts and confuse the people. The media attention on his person indicates that there are people who are not comfortable with him as chairman of EFCC.

A felon convicted for wire fraud in the United States, and who is also being prosecuted by the EFCC for allegedly defrauding the police equipment foundation, is living off the campaign to discredit the EFCC boss with the Nigerian Senate according him unusual attention. I shuddered when I hear leading journalists with a Television describing the convict as the “nemesis of the EFCC”! In law, not much importance is attached to the testimony of a convict. As it is, the person in issue is tainted witness and those promoting him are equally tainted.

But it is important that persons with tenure appointments are accorded protection from mischief-makers, with a clear statement regarding their tenure,

Of course, not many people bother when it comes to obscure agencies. In this country, we have had not a few cases where public officer outstayed their tenure because public attention is not turned to such agencies. But when you head the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the EFCC, Nigeria Communications Commission or Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, people count every minute you spend and aspirants are let on the loose once they sense that a vacancy is imminent.

It should not be so. Nigerians should cultivate the culture of not stampeding public office holders out of office, especially those who have diligently served the nation.

• Evonney is a journalist and public analyst based in Abuja.