Former Secretary to Government of the Federation Senator Anyim Pius Anyim has called for the Institutionalization of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Secretary to State Government (SSG) offices by law.
According to him, the role of SGF/SSGs had become irrelevant as respective governments come with their own agenda and would not want to have anything to do with the previous government’s policies and programmes which the policy inconsistency remains the major reason foreign investors run away from Nigeria.
The Former Senate President disclosed this at the weekend in an address titled “Institutionalizing Effective Mechanisms and Synergy in the Coordination and Implementation of Government’s Policies and Programme with emphasis on the Functions and Roles of the Secretaries to the State Governments in the Coordination and Implementation of Government Policies and Programmes” at the occasion of the first meeting of the Forum of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Secretaries to State Governments (SSGs).
Anyim said “So, consolidation of the principle that government is a continuum will be an effective mechanism for institutionalizing coordination. It is important that the roles of the SGF/SSG need be protected by law for effectiveness.
” It should be clear that no other office other than SGF/SSG should cover and keep records of policy meetings of the President or Governor. The office of the SGF/SSGs been the memory bank of the Government should be extensively equipped and constantly upgraded.
“There is the tendency that the other policy coordinators may not pass their policy memos through the office of the SGF/SSG, in this case all Presidential or Governor’s approval granted to them must be copied to the office of the SGF for records.
“There must be one source of service-wide circulars, in this case every approval granted by the President to other coordinators that is of
service-wide application should be conveyed by the SGF/SSG and the beneficiary department can follow up the enforcement in their departments.
“Every other approval by the Presidential or Governor must be copied to the SGF/SSG who will then action it according to the rules.
“Apart from SGF been a member of the economic management team, the Permanent Secretary Economic Affairs of the office of the SGF should be part of the secretariat of the economic management team”.
He also suggested that for effective role”The advice of the Attorney General of the Federation should be sought on how to establish a common repository for the entire government of Nigeria i.e the three arms. At present there is no effective mechanism to coordinate or synergize the activities of the three arms of government”.
