Chief of Staff (CoS) to the President, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, has offered a justification for the absence of portfolios in the ministerial list submitted by President Bola Tinubu to the Senate for confirmation on Thursday.
According to Gbajabiamila, the President possesses the freedom to make adjustments to the portfolios assigned to the Ministerial nominees.
In a conversation with reporters at the State House in Abuja, Gbajabiamila stated that although it would have been ideal to include specific portfolios alongside the names of the nominees, doing so could lead to complications if the President decides to alter the assignments after the screening process has taken place.
Hence, leaving the portfolios open-ended provides the flexibility for the President to make any necessary changes as he sees fit.
He said: “Yes, I mean for me that would have been one way to go about it. It would have been a welcome development. As good as that sounds it straightjacket’s the President to pigeonhole one person in an office or the other.
“What happens then if you change your mind? Do you then bring the person back for screening again, because the President is at liberty to change his mind.
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“For instance, if I decide I want somebody as Minister of Labour, and then after setting the name, later on, I decide that you know what, I didn’t know this about this person, this person would actually be better with another portfolio.
“And meanwhile, the senate has screened that person for that particular initial portfolio, what happens then? Do you now rescreen the person?
“So, a lot of these things have their merits and demerits, advantages and disadvantages.
“I like the idea of attaching portfolios, I actually do, because it makes it necessary for the Senate to know exactly what you’re asking and what you’re looking for.
“But for now, it’s been thought wise that we stick to the tradition of sending the names and then whilst the screening processes going on allowing the Mr. President and his team to look at the portfolios and the characters and see how they fit.
“The first step that he has done is that these are people that can work wherever you put them, except specialized fields like attorney general and what have you.
“But in the main in most of the portfolios, he believes most of them can fit in anywhere.
“And what’s important is also that Mr. President intends to separate portfolios or restructure the ministries in such a way you might be hearing of new ministries that were not standalone ministries before. So the process continues.”