The Presidency is reacting to the criticisms trailing President BUHARI’s directive to ministers to fix meeting appointments or send enquiries to him through his Chief of Staff, ABBA KYARI.
President BUHARI had also directed that all memos for matters relating to the Federal Executive Council should be channelled through the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, BOSS MUSTAPHA.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, GARBA SHEHU in a statement said it is worth stressing that the role and responsibilities of the Chief of Staff and the method of communication and arranging scheduling between Cabinet members and the President are, in Nigeria, based on the US model, where the same system operates, and has done for decades, in precisely the same way.
SHEHU stated that a primary function of a Chief of Staff is to supervise key State House staff, control access to the office and the person of the President, manage communications and information flow and this includes that which binds the relationship with the two other arms of government.
It noted that by stressing the need for the ministers to go through the chief of staff, the President was mindful of the fact that most of the ministers were new and did not know what was expected of them on how to relate with the President.
Critics accused the President of vesting enormous powers in KYARI’s hands, noting that he had become Nigeria’s de facto President without contesting an election.
