Keyamo as an Attack Dog

Notes for File

As an attack dog of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr. Festus Keyamo, has taken it upon himself to pick holes with any comment from members of the opposition, particularly the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), whether right or wrong.

This was exactly what he did last week to the Governor of Delta State and vice-presidential candidate of PDP, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa.

Okowa had faulted the comments credited to the vice-presidential candidate of the APC, Kashim Shettima, who at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) conference penultimate week in Lagos, declared that if elected in the 2023 elections, he would concentrate on fighting insecurity, while Bola Tinubu, the APC presidential candidate, would focus on fixing the economy.

Reacting to the comment, Okowa said it would be absurd for a vice president to take charge of the nation’s security as the role is specially the responsibility of the President as the Commander-in-Chief who presides over the Security Council.

But Kayemo, in his characteristic manner of double speaking, said the 1999 Constitution does not restrict the vice-president from handling security matters.

Countering the PDP vice-presidential candidate’s position in a Twitter post on Wednesday, Keyamo said since the president can assign any responsibility to his deputy, it will not be absurd for a vice-president to handle security matters.

“I respectfully disagree, your Excellency. Under the 1999 Constitution, the President may assign any responsibility within his purview to either his vice president or ministers. This may include some aspects of security issues too. That is why, for instance, you have a Minister of Defence,” Keyamo wrote.

What he did not tell Nigerians is whether the Minister of Defence has the powers to deploy troops without the directive from the president or not.

The only time vice president has the powers to take charge of the country’s security is when he is made the acting president through the transmission of a letter to the National Assembly to that effect. As a senior lawyer, Keyamo knows it but his penchant to fault virtually everything may have beclouded his sense of reasoning.