28th July, 2023
Yesterday, July 27, 2023, President Bola Tinubu and state governors in Nigeria who were yet to constitute their cabinets submitted to their legislative Assemblies lists of nominees for their own cabinets to beat the statutory deadline of 60 days required for the exercise.
However, while all of the legislative Assemblies, including the Senate, which received those deadline-day lists yesterday had the names of the nominees read out on the floor of plenary, the Benue State House of Assembly alone refrained from making known the list it purported to have received from Governor Hyacinth Alia.
Speaker of the Benue State Assembly, Hyacinth Dajoh, had simply informed the House that he was in possession of a list of Commissionership nominees from the governor, but went on to say he was not going to make known the list to the public yet.
And this naturally has sparked a flurry of suspicions and speculations which are becoming all the more stark against the backdrop of the series of woes and controversies dogging the governor's steps in office so far.
PDP is saddened that Governor Alia has failed to achieve a meaningful take-off for his government since coming to office on May 29, 2023, and this the party understands is down in greater part to his lack of preparation, suitable orientation and cognate experience for the office he now occupies.
The party is equally aware that by his serial missteps, the governor has alienated the top leadership echelons of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, and hence is in a conundrum as to how to go about rigging together his cabinet.
Yet, it is the reasonable expectation that 60 days is enough time for a governor to overcome his teething challenges and be able to put in place a list of nominees to man the various positions in his administrative cabinet.
The failure of the Benue State Assembly to unveil to the public the list of nominees for appointment as Governor Alia's Commissioners is a clear indication that there most likely isn't any such list before it, and the shroud of secrecy thrown up by Speaker Dajoh yesterday was just a ruse to satisfy the requirement of law.
PDP observes that no governor in the history of Benue State has ever failed to fulfil this simple task of nominating Commissioners in due time, and Governor Alia's failure in this regard does not only consolidate his position as the state's worst Chief Executive at this stage, but it also shows he is lost an in urgent need of help.
Bemgba Iortyom
State Publicity Secretary,
PDP, Benue State.
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