Analyst: Appointment of Magaji Tambuwal as acting n’assembly clerk is unlawful

Haruna Mohammed, a public affairs commentator, has criticised the appointment of Magaji Tambuwal as the acting clerk of the national assembly.

TheCable had reported how the office of the head of service had said it was in order for Olatunde Ojo, outgoing clerk, to continue working during his retirement leave.

But the national assembly commission asked Ojo to begin his leave immediately, after which the commission appointed Tambuwal as the acting clerk of the national assembly.

Tambuwal, secretary of the directorate of finance and accounts in the national assembly, is said not to be the most senior official in the management.

Chinedu Akubueze, clerk of the senate, is said to be the next in line because Bala Yabani, deputy clerk of the national assembly, has retired.

But in a letter dated November 18 and seen by TheCable, Ahmed Amshi, chairman of the national assembly commission, said Tambuwal’s appointment was premised on section 6(b) of the commission service act.

The aforementioned section gives the commission the power to “appoint persons to hold or act in the offices”.

In a statement faulting Tambuwal’s appointment, Mohammed said the organogram of the national assembly bureaucracy and line of duties as captured in sections 6(1), 7(2) and 12(1) of the National Assembly Service Act, 2014, shows Tambuwal is not qualified for appointment as clerk.

“The organogram of the National Assembly as shown in the Act shows that Magaji Tambuwal is number six in line and would not have been above the clerks of senate, house of representatives and their deputies who are recognised by the Act before secretaries,” he said.

“The national assembly service commission has once again assumed public media topicality based on its appointment of Sani Magaji Tambuwal.

“The present scenario is a resonation of the same worrisome trend in which Ojo Olatunde Amos was appointed by the same commission from his position as secretary, directorate of procurement and supplies, to mount the saddle in July 2020 as acting clerk to the national assembly.

“In the exercise of its statutory mandate to appoint an acting or substantive clerk to the national assembly, the national assembly service commission cannot delegate that fundamental duty to anyone person or authority.

“The commission failed in its constitutional and statutory duty by its failure to appoint a replacement for the outgoing clerk in acting or substantive status.

“In short, the instruction to the outgoing clerk to hand over the reins of the national assembly to the most-senior-secretary is a manifest departure from the provisions of section 7(2) of the Act that prohibits delegation.   

“Another important facet of the ongoing controversy in the national assembly, is the president of the senate’s instruction to the chairman of the national assembly commission to recall the former clerk to the national assembly.

“This ironic puzzle cannot stand in the eyes of the law. It is a decree to a statutory independent commission which is ultra vires.

“Moreso, on the former clerk’s formal exit from office, he became functus officio. The interesting query will arise from the legal source of his new role alongside the already contentious status of the appointment of a secretary over and above officers in the statutory organogram.

“It is most unfortunate that the commission charged with the responsibility to enthrone decorum, stability predictability and professionalism in the running of the bureaucracy of the national assembly has since 2020 proved to be incapable of its mandate.”

Mohammed said if the national assembly fails to resolve the controversy, it can be sued.

“This appointment must not stand as it will destroy the line of succession in the National Assembly,” he added.