The recent prestigious award for Professional Excellence and Outstanding Public Service conferred on Dr Salisu Abubakar Maikasuwa OON recently by the Verbatim Newspapers Group along with 23 other eminent personalities for his courage, fortitude, resilience and firmness of conviction in ensuring the successful inauguration of the 8th National Assembly and the election of the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dr. Bukola Saraki and Barrister Yakubu Dogara in the face of unrelenting opposition by some influential politicians did not come as a surprise to many historians, public policy think tanks, social affairs commentariats, legislative experts and blue chip policy apparatchiks, not to talk of the top-notch civil society punditocracy who are all agreed that the new NASS started to evolve from 1999 and actually approached it’s apogee or zenith at the height of Dr. Salisu Maikasuwa’s legendary tenure as CNA from August 2010 – August 2016.
In essence, facts have emerged as to the tremendous sagacity, brevity, and erudity of Dr. Salisu Maikasuwa’s administrative blueprint for the total restructuring, re-organisation, re-invigoration and re-orientation of the NASS organogram for a more credible, transparent, efficient and responsive service delivery to the federal legislators and the Nigerian people as a whole. To this end, the previous unwieldy structure of departments has been streamlined into five directorates namely the Corporate, Legal, Finance and Accounts, Medical and Personnel Directorates for more proactive and decisive decision making and policy implementation.
A thoroughgoing Maikasuwa also revamped the pivotal committee system by weeding out malcontents and laggards from the structure and abolishing the previous arcane regime of cronyism, sectionalism, nepotism and godfatherism thus ensuring that only round pegs were ensconced in round holes. The enhanced committee system provided the technical backbone for the successful amendment of the 1999 constitution and the Electoral Act which led to the successful conduct of the 2011 and 2015 general elections.
The Ciroman Keffi’s abiding faith in legality and due process was evident in his determination at ensuring the successful passage of the National Assembly Service Commission Act, a crucial provision being that a serving CNA could not be removed before the end of his tenure without the affirmation of a simple majority of both chambers of the National Assembly. Establishment of a state of the art ICT centre/department with internet signals almost all over the NASS complex and a widely acclaimed Nigerian Institute of Legislative Studies is another hall mark of Maikasuwa’s bureaucratic foresight and vigour.
Other crucial infrastructural exploits of the Keffi-born technocratic colossus includes equipping committee rooms and offices with standard facilities, provision of state of the art dental equipment and laboratory, embarking on a housing scheme in conjunction with PASAN, provision of 8 coaster buses to ease transportation challenges of staff, encouraging and facilitating training and re-training programs of NASS staff within and outside the country and encouraging the department of pharmaceutical services to produce a special balm for physiotherapy among other creative innovations. Staff morale and productivity rose to optimum levels due to the fact that excellence, professionalism, competence and exemplary performance were highly encouraged and promptly rewarded as part of the policy desiderata of Maikasuwa’s administrative paradigm.
Appointments, postings, promotions followed the rigorous imprimatur of due process, transparency and accountability. As a necessary adjunct, staff salaries and allowances were paid as and when due while contracts, procurements, requalification and tenders followed the uncompromising diktat of the extant provisions of the Public Procurement Act. As far as the unwavering and principled Maikasuwa was concerned, only hard work, merit, competence, efficiency, consistent capacity development and superlative performance can guarantee rapid career advancement in NASS and not any affiliation or connection with any power broker or ‘powers that be’ in the nation’s power precincts.
Perhaps, Maikasuwa’s finest hour came during the tumultuous and tension soaked inauguration of the 8th National Assembly when in spite of all manner of pressure, intimidation, harassment and physical threats, famed constitutional avatar successfully oversaw the election of Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki and House Speaker, Barrister Yakubu Dogara as exclusively reported in the Congress Watch Magazine, August 2015 edition: ‘For the CNA (Maikasuwa) not even entreaties and overtures by some Senators, without a counter proclamation notice from (President) Buhari, would keep him away from his duty of inaugurating the federal legislators in the chambers of both Senate and House of Representatives by 10:am (June 9, 2015) Had he stayed away because of the entreaties and overtures, sans a counter proclamation notice by the President, he might have lost his position as CNA for allegedly colluding with some legislators to vitiate the moral basis and foundation of democracy and the change-professing administration. Maikasuwa did not fall into the trap of politicians.
He demonstrated his administrative savvy and by so doing saved the governing APC and its government. He has proved himself to be incorruptible and uncompromising, qualities that are lacking in a vast majority of politicians and public office holders’. Nothing more to add. As 2016 draws to a close, we undoubtedly, unequivocally and unassailably heralded Maikasuwa, Ciroman Keffi as the founding father of the new National Assembly QED.
– Hassan wrote in from Asokoro