Nigeria Content Online

A
NEXT investigation has shown that the media assistant to President
Goodluck Jonathan, Ima Niboro, lied when he tried to contest this
newspaper’s exclusive story that President Jonathan hired 133 advisers
and assistants whose wages cost the nation about N780million per annum.
Mr. Niboro claimed in his telephone rejoinder that Mr. Jonathan only
appointed a few aides upon assuming office and that the “majority of
all the names on the list are old names; most of them have been there
since Obasanjo’s time.”

A review of the dates of appointment of
the aides, however, shows that none of the 133 presidential aides, in
the official list as published by NEXT, was appointed during the tenure
of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Mr. Jonathan appointed 57 of the
aides upon becoming president while the remaining 76 were appointed
while he was the vice president.

Our findings show that Mr. Jonathan,
who assumed office on May 6, 2010, appointed the first set of eight
presidential aides on May 24, 2010. Two weeks later, four aides were
appointed on June 9, 2010. A month later, the first lady got 11
presidential aides, including one of her ladies-in waiting, Justin
Adaba.

Mr. Niboro was also wrong when he said
that he “ignored those enquiries because they did not come through the
state house correspondent.”

The lead reporter of the original
story, Elor Nkereuwem, sent her questions to Mr. Niboro through text
messages when he did not answer his phone. The state house
correspondent for NEXT, Elizabeth Archibong, also sent Mr. Niboro a
reminder. Several attempts were also made by other reporters and
editors to seek Mr. Niboro’s clarification. The presidential spokesman
still did not respond.

Civil society condemns large number of aides

The Human and Environmental Development
Agenda has condemned the high number of presidential aides. Olanrewaju
Suraj, the chairman of the group, stated this in a telephone interview.
Mr. Suraj condemned the position of the secretary to the government of
the federation whose spokesperson stated that “the president has all
the right to choose his assistants and advisers and there is no
constitutional limit to the number he decides upon.”

“If the constitution does not limit the
presidential aides, is that now enough reason to waste taxpayers’ money
for such high number of aides who are largely irrelevant to the growth
of the nation?” Mr. Suraj asked.

We approve presidential aides

But the chairman of the House of
Representatives Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Eseme Eyiboh,
yesterday defended the president’s large number of aides.

“I do know that the president usually sends that request (the number of aides required) to the National Assembly,” he said.

Section 151(2) of the 1999 constitution empowers the National
Assembly to limit the number of presidential aides. “The number of such
advisers and their remuneration and allowances shall be as prescribed
by law or by resolution of the National Assembly,” the law states.