Cheke Emmanuel 
CHEKE EMMANUEL reports on the waiting game in Nasarawa State over the reconstitution of the state executive council by Governor Abdullahi Sule
For any administration to succeed it must appoint technocrats and competent hands without which success would always elude it. This is why Nasarawa State governor, Abdullahi Sulle is diligently searching for competent hands to be appointed as members of his kitchen cabinet.
Sule appeared not to be satisfied with the crop of the immediate past commissioners who served in the past two years and has vowed to appoint what he termed as competent hands to drive his policies and programmes in the remaining two years of his first tenure in office.
It had taken the governor seven months to appoint the former commissioners but two years after, Sule discovered that most of them did not perform up to expectations hence he relieved them of their positions. At a valedictory session with the commissioners at the council chambers, government house, Lafia, the governor said he will look for competent persons and appoint them members of the State Executive Council. This invariably means that the governor was not quite satisfied with the performance of the immediate past commissioners hence the mention that he will look for competent hands this time around.
His words: “In line with the tradition and the culture and with what is happening throughout the country, we are here to have the last executive council meeting and we have to dissolve the exco. So, this is an opportunity for me to say thank you to you people for the good job you have done.” Sule took his time to look into the eyes of each of the commissioners, making comments on each of them as they sat right on their seats in disbelief of what would become of them when it became obvious to that their tenancy as members of the State Executive Council was over. He said: “You all have been doing wonderfully well but as part of the tradition, we have to go ahead and let go the exco.
I have no doubt in my mind that a lot of you will be coming back. This is certain because I have enjoyed working with every one of you. “As part of the culture, I have no doubt that a lot of you will come back and continue with the good work. There may be one or two of you we don’t have the choice other than to bring back because of the nature of work they are doing.
“The same thing goes with the special advisers trying to do their best. You are doing the best you could but we have to do same; we have to let you go. We actually wanted to do this in May but because of the nature of this administration we kept managing but the pressure became much and we have to go ahead and do that today. “I think we are one of the last states in the federation to dissolve the exco but sooner or later, we will appoint new members to come and c o n t inu e with the good work and if we say anyone should go does not mean that he has done something wrong.” A peep into the score card of the immediate past commissioners showed that out of the 13 that served in the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration in the past two years, only few had pass marks, while many others performed below average.
Checks revealed that prominent among former the commissioners that got accodes from for outstanding performance during their service are the current Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Abdukareem Kana, who was exempted from the dissolution based on what the governor described as peculiar nature of the work he is doing. Analysts, who reacted to the cabinet’s dissolution, noted that in as much as the governor has the right to appoint members of his cabinet, he should be reminded that not only technocrats and people with proven integrity and track record of achievements should be looked at.
They posited that the governor should equally look at people with electoral value and who will mobilise support for the actualization of his second tenure come 2023. These analysts further said that in reconstituting his cabinet, the governor needs to consult with stakeholders, community and religious leaders as well as interest groups to ensure fairness and justice in the distribution of appointments to equity in order to reflect the circular nature of the state. The governor was also advised not to succumb to pressure from his predecessors, who may wish to impose persons on him if he is to deliver on the onerous task before him.
Meanwhile, politicians have intensified lobby for commissionership positions even as some of the immediate past commissioners have engaged lobbyists in their bid to return to the cabinet. Checks revealed that some of them besiege the government house Lafia on a daily basis in desperate attempt to see the governor, while others have returned to their political godfathers, party leaders and traditional rulers with gifts to help them lobby for reappointment. Further checks revealed that some the desperate ones among the lobbyists have reached out to the caliphate, while others have gone spiritual in their desperate attempts to get appointment. At the moment, is tension and permutations as expectations are high amongst followers of the governor, who are anxiously waiting to see the next crop of persons to be appointed into the state executive council.
