THE BIRTH OF SUPER AGENCIES?

One unforgettable feature of the Yakubu Gowon era after the civil war was the emergence of super permanent secretaries. These were administrative heads of federal ministries who seemed to wield more power than their Federal  ministers then called federal commissioners.
Hence one of the things the late Murtala Muhammed did after the coup against Gowon was the immediate retirement of these top civil servants and mass purge of the service.
Many are yet to forgive him for this because in the process he made the civil service less the committed work force that it used to be and because many lives were suddenly turned upside down.
Now, it looks like Nigeria is knocking on that door again. This time though what seems to be emerging are super government agencies.
The first to emerge almost through natural process was the Central Bank of Nigeria now saddled with single handedly managing the nations stretched balance of payments in the absence of clear and handed down fiscal policies in the same direction.
Another one that has clearly emerged, this time by presidential fiat, is the nations customs service whose head now reports directly to the president and could afford to publicly tell the nations finance minister to go to hell at a national assembly forum.
On Friday, a radio report said that NAFDAC, the agency charged with food and drug control, has banned importation of beans. It may not be correct because a visit to the website showed no such new directives. However, if it is correct, it can only add this organisation to the list of super agencies.
Along the same vein, Henates wonders now what the relationship between the newly appointed NNPC boss and minister of state for petroleum is like since they both now should be reporting to the President as substantive minister. Is the NNPC not likely to join the list of super agencies soon or perhaps, it was there all the time given the place of crude oil in Nigeria.
Another super agency is the EFCC and its preferred style of trying persons accused of corruption in the media before heading for the courts. The future will soon tell if the ICPC's preferred approach outside the public glare is better but rest assured the EFCC today is a super government agency.
The point being made though is that the emergence of any super anything outside laid down law and administrative rules will not augur well and could in fact lead to the kind of drastic measures taken by Murtala Muhammed to check growing impunity.
It must be accepted that supermen and super agencies emerge from gaps created by leadership weakness. What should in fact be ideal is for the leader to employ and deploy direct subordinates who are strong where he the leader, is weak.
For example, if the situation involving the customs today is because mr president has not got a minister who can effectively get the customs to do all it will be directed to do, then the solution lies in looking and appointing one who can. The same move too may lift some burden for balance of payments management from today's CBN.
If on the other hand, it is a case of trusted and close associate who gave direct access to the president as condition for accepting the customs job, the best thing is to please look for another person for the job.
In the case of the EFCC, it is obvious the naked dance in public goes well with the president just as Ribadu's own went well with the then president.
However, let us learn from history even though we no more teach history to our children.