THE 10th National Assembly is set to be inaugurated on Tuesday, June 13, thus paving way for the constitution of the national executive council. President Bola Tinubu, constitutionally has less than 60  days to send names of his ministers to the legislators for their approval.

THIS important duty is currently a subject of discussion in the national polity. A section of the society is canvassing for the scrapping of the office of minister for state. One of them is the immediate past minister of state for Labour, Mr. Festus Keyamo.(SAN) Keyamo dropped the hint at the valedictory meeting of the recently dissolved executive council.

According to him, “ the concept or designation of “Minister of State” is a constitutional aberration and is practically not working for many so appointed”.

HE noted that some other ministers of state had been grumbling and not  bold to speak out. Keyamo was not the only former minister who criticized the office of minister of state, Chief Omotayo Alasoadura  a former Minister of State for Niger Delta Affairs  also opposed it. To him, “We don’t want Minister of State again. It is like a condemnation, if you are in the office, they can’t bring file to you, if you are having a gathering like this, you can’t talk, you will seat down with your colleagues like a “Mumu”, you won’t talk, if you go to federal executive council meeting, you can’t present a memo, it is the Minister that has the power, we don’t want that again”.

WHAT  they exhibited was the frustration as a Ministers of State. This frustration is no doubt being experienced and had been experienced by every Minister of State in Nigeria. Between 1979 to 1983, and from 1999 to the present, every President to date has committed this great error. The idea of Minister of State or Junior Minister also surfaced in the first Republic.

We support the positions taken by the former Ministers of state and advise Mr. President to jettison the idea or designation of minister of state. Reason being that some of the past Ministers of State suffered in silence inspite of their schedule of responsibilities. They feel dehumanised and inferior.

SECTIONS  147& 148 of 1999 constitution( as amended) stipulate the responsibility of a minister while  the 7th schedule of the same constitution also provides for the oath of office to which each minister must subscribe to . Designation of some ministers as ministers of state is not only discriminatory but great disservice to the occupiers of such offices.

IT  is unfortunate that the ministers of state who represent their various states at the national executive council only fill the gap for they cannot present memos in council, except with the permission of their senior  minister.

THEY invariably perform at the discretion of the  substantive ministers but yet both of them represent different states in the cabinet. The implication of such is that it would be difficult to assess the individual performances of the ministers of state since their discretion is shackled under the discretion of the ministers.

Many ministers of state are largely redundant, they mostly go to office for symbolic purposes and just to while away most of the time. Files are passed to them to treat only at the discretion of the other minister and the permanent secretary.

THERE is scarcely any propriety in appointing ministers without an accompanying prescribed portfolios. Having two or three ministries under the influence of a single minister without attaching terms of reference to other ministers of state smacks of ingenuity and it is bizarre.

REDUNDANCY at that level is laughable. There is a dimension of pettiness. Also, marginalisation could be abstracted if some states in the same country will have ministers with multi-portfolios, while others don’t have.

WE therefore encourage president Tinubu to correct the anomaly in  his tenure. This, he can do by  making all his ministers 30  Ministries, what the President should do is to upgrade seven Ministries for special duties. We don’t want a situation where someone will be classified a super human being with three Ministries attached to him with cabinet rank, while others will be classified as mere Ministers of State.

BETTER  still, he may break some ministries into or more functional units. This encourages easy administration, cohesion and mobilisation of available resources for effective execution of mandate of Ministries impossible to achieve. Ministries  be run as single units, and Ministers  be aware of every detail of their operations.

WE also advise the president to stop the current procedure of appointing six Ministers to represent the six geographical zones in the country. It makes the cabinet to be too large and uncontrollable. Zones are not recognized in the Constitution.

EXPECTEDLY, the issue of appointments is spliting the caucus of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu.  One hopes that the split will not deepen further. It happens always when sharing the spoils of war. It is inevitable given the circumstances of his victory in the Presidential election.

SHARING  the spoils of war is in fact more difficult than winning the war. The President, we are sure knows what to do, for one does not teach an old dog new tricks. He should however note that his choice of appointments will no doubt shape his Presidency .