Chief of Staff an appointee, should not attend Cabinet, other meetings — Tola Adeniyi

A former Permanent Secretary in the Presidency, Jagun Oodua Akogun Tola Adeniyi, has faulted the roles assigned to the Chief of Staff to the President in recent times.
The member of the Association of Retired Federal Permanent Secretaries said this in a statement two days after the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari, tested positive to the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), with information that he attended several meetings, including the Federal Executive Council meeting, after he returned from a trip to Germany.
In a statement, titled: “POINT OF ORDER,” sent to The Eagle Online, Adeniyi said: “The office of the Chief of Staff in Nigeria was a creation of the Civilian President/Governors and the officer serves as Personal Staff.
“The office doesn’t come within the purview of the Protocol.
“The Chief of Staff should NOT attend any Cabinet Meeting.
“It is absurd to have a Chief of Staff, an unelected individual, sitting in meetings where policy matters are discussed.
“The only unelected individuals are the Secretary to Government and the Head of Service duly recognised by the Constitution.
“Letters of appointment of Commissioners/Ministers and such very senior officers of state can be signed only by any of the mentioned duo on the approval/instruction of the Chief Executive.
“It is anomalous to have a Chief of Staff sitting in any Cabinet Meeting, and more outrageous, sitting in a meeting of Governors, Security officials or Meeting of Council of State.
“Nigerian state Governors who have reduced themselves to School Prefects and Errand Boys to the Presidency should recover their balls and act like men.
“A Chief of Staff is a personal staff and should forever remain so, and should never assume a status that is not statutorily his/hers.”