Former federal lawmaker representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani says that the position of ‘Minister of State’ was invented to settle people with ministerial appointments.
Recall, as reported by Information Nigeria that the outgoing Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, said the office of Minister of State is an aberration and unconstitutional.
Keyamo has disclosed this in speech at the valedictory session of the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by former President Muhammadu Buhari to mark the end of his administration.
The Minister who revealed that some other Ministers of State, have been grumbling but mum on the issue, said it was difficult to assess the individual performances of the Ministers of State since their discretion was shackled under the senior Ministers.
He decried that original ideas developed by a minister of state are usually subjected to clearance by another colleague in Cabinet before they can sail through for consideration by Council.
READ ALSO: Keyamo Faults Minister Of State Portfolio As Constitutional Aberration
Keyamo said, “The concept or designation of “Minister of State” is a constitutional aberration and is practically not working for many so appointed. Successive governments have come and gone and many who were appointed as Ministers of State have not spoken out at a forum such as this because of the risk of sounding ungrateful to the presidents who appointed them. However, like I said earlier, this is not ingratitude.
“As a private citizen, I am on record to have gone to court a number of times to challenge unconstitutional acts of governments for the sake of advancing our constitutional democracy, so it will be out of character for me to have gone through government and be carried away by the pomp of public office and forget my role as a member of the Inner Bar and my self-imposed role over the years as a crusader for democracy and constitutionalism.”
However, Sani in a a post via Twitter on Friday, claimed the country has only twenty ministries and as such, advocated cutting the cost of governance by reducing the number of ministers.
He tweeted, “When the country has only 20 ministries and the President has to settle 43 people with Ministerial appointments, the ‘Minister of State’ was invented. Cutting the cost of Governance should begin with cutting the number of ministers.”
via: Information Nigeria
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