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Abiodun Oyebanji, the Governor of Ekiti State, has appointed not less than 285 special and technical advisers since he assumed office in 2022, despite growing concerns about the cost of governance in Nigeria.
On Tuesday, the state, through its press secretary, announced the appointment of 110 new special and technical advisers. This announcement came about five months after the appointment of 162 special and technical advisers in December 2023.
About three months prior, Oyebanji announced the appointments of 14 special advisers and 21 commissioners.
The state government has always maintained that these advisers, in their numbers, are important for optimal governance.
However, FIJ has found several duplicated offices and offices with overlapping responsibilities in the list of appointees.
For instance, FIJ found that the media and communications role has been divided into nine different offices – *new media, public communication, digital media, electronic media, digital media, digital communications, information management and communications*
Also, Oyebanji appointed 19 people across seven offices to advise him on community matters. Similarly, not less than 30 people were appointed as special and senior special advisers in the governor’s and deputy governor’s offices.
Apart from the needless duplication of offices, some other appointments are not exactly relevant to the governor and governance in the state.
For instance, two people have been appointed to advise the governor on photography: one in December and one on Tuesday.
In contrast, Oyebanji appointed one person at most to advise him on more relevant issues like public health, wealth creation, water development, and employment.
A LOT OF THE ADVISORY ROLES ARE IRRELEVANT
FIJ estimated that the governor can do without 90 out of the 285 advisers he has appointed so far.
FIJ arrived at this conservative estimate by allotting one senior special adviser and one special adviser each to the offices with more than one adviser.
Offices like the special interest group, the governor’s office, entertainment, the domestic affairs office, and the Igbo ethnicity fall into this category.
As a result, FIJ arrived at a conservative figure of 14 advisers instead of the 66 people appointed to handle these roles.
For offices with overlapping or similar responsibilities, FIJ assigned one special assistant to cater to these responsibilities.
For example, rather than separate offices for digital media, new media, and electronic media, one special assistant and a senior special assistant can cater to these roles because they are essentially the same.
Also, because they mean the same thing, one senior assistant and one SSA are enough to handle public communications and communications and digital communication.
This reduces the number of people assigned to managing media and communications from 19 to just five people.
Other overlapping roles like public affairs and relations, women empowerment and relations, community development and relations, and party affairs and grassroots engagement fall into this category.
In total, instead of the 52 individuals assigned to cater to these overlapping responsibilities, FIJ arrived at a conservative figure of 19 advisers.
Finally, the governor does not need the two special assistants in roles like *photography* since he has a special adviser for media and publicity. He also does not need the additional two on special outreaches since he has sufficient advisers for community engagement, mobilisation, and communication.
COST OF EXTRA 90 ADVISERS
According to the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation, and Fiscal Commission, each special and technical adviser earns at least N380,241.76 in Nigeria, excluding allowances for furniture, leaves and medicals.
With that as a basis, FIJ estimated that 90 advisers would cost the state government at least N34 million (N34,221,758.4) every month. By implication, the state government loses a total of N410.7 million every year to the basic salaries of these special advisers.
WHAT CAN THE MONEY DO?
An FIJ analysis of the Ekiti State budget reveals that the N410 million can fund capital projects in some key state-owned tertiary institutions.
For instance, just N400 million was allocated to capital projects in Ekiti State University, Ekiti State College of Health Sciences and Technology, and the Bamidele Olomilua University of Education, according to the 2024 budget.
These are three of the key state-owned tertiary institutions in the state.
By implication, the N410 million is more than enough to cover the construction of roads and office buildings, among others, in these three schools.
Similarly, N400 million was allocated to Ekiti State Polytechnic (EKSPOLY) in 2024. With N410 million, the polytechnic can conveniently fund its library project and road project, according to the approved 2024 budget.
For context, students at Ekiti State University have complained to FIJ about infrastructural issues. The students claimed that roads to and in some parts of the school are not in the best shape.
They also complained that power supply to the school and surrounding communities is below par.
FIJ found reports from 2016 and 2019 through 2023, suggesting that these problems have been affecting the institution over time without any permanent fix.
