By Francis Nansak
Last Friday being the first Friday in 2025 Will remain unforgettable not just to commissioners but the citizens of Nasarawa State, that day wears a unique feelings.
First was the arrival of the number Two citizen of the country, Senator Kashim Shettima to Lafia the state capital who performed functions that the entire governmemt mechinaries and apparatus were deployed in honour of the visit.
Unknown to the state and the governor’s kitchen members that a sledge harmer await them.As happy and active as the appointees of the Governor Engineer Abdullahi Sule were on the day to ensure a seamless state function at the instances of the vice president and his entourage,his departure from the state capital and unthinkable emergency executive meeting left chilling feet and high shoulders trimmed under size.
Diplomatically and as a technocrat the Nasarawa State Governor Engineer Abdullahi Sule did not unveil his reason for the unprecedented sack and relieving the Secretary to the State Government which may not be far fetch from under performances by the commissioners ,although there are a few who performed excellently that are likely to be reappointed in the next cabinet. Stating reasons the Governor, said it has become necessary to drop the commissioners in order to accommodate certain people in the bid to give everyone a sense of belonging.
He emphasized that it has become necessary to dissolve the present executive council in order to bring in people that would assist his administration drive the N384bn budget which is unprecedented and ambitious.
“We have a budget, a very ambitious budget. We have a budget that we just signed into law, about N384bn. If you remember, this state used to have budgets of not more than N90bn. This is the first time that we have had a budget almost four times. This is the budget of a whole tenure that we are having it at a go,” he said.
Governor Sule pointed out that as a result of the impending change, the executive council has become tensed and that his administration found it impossible to work with an already tensed executive council, hence the need to relieve the commissioners of their positions.
According to the Governor, he found it necessary to dissolve the entire executive council rather than a minor cabinet reshuffle because all the commissioners performed extraordinarily well.
He however assured that some of them would be considered for reappointment when the new executive council is reconstituted in a week or two.
Governor Sule, who thanked the outgoing commissioners and SSG for supporting his administration, said as difficult as the decision was, he was left with no option than to dissolve the executive council with a view to putting up a new team.
But within the state reaction have trailed the governor’s action against the commissioners .political Pundits have described the sudden removal of the commissioners unkind and that the manner at which the decision was taken and arrived at isn’t the best way to appreciate people who have devoted their time in service especially on a day that the state celebrated the success of the Hallmark of their principal
In some quarters , the sack of the commissioners was long over due as majority of them are just in office to make money with little or no service
” Governor Sule as a person is a hardworking governor but we knew that he will not go far with the crop of commissioners he assembled, there are no fewer than 5 of them that are working in line with his administrative policy, while a large number of them are only there because their traditional rulers stood for them .
