The recent suspension of over 70 percent of the cabinet of the Ebonyi State Government by Governor Ogbonna Nwifuru has exposed the government as nebulous entity that lack cohesion and direction.
In a statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Dr. Monday Uzor and dated July 28, 2025, 24 Commissioners, 14 Senior Special Assistants (SSA), 24 Special Assistants (SA) and 22 Permanent Secretaries were suspended for one month without pay. According to the government statement, the senior government officials were suspended “for [their] failure to attend an important government function.”
Of course, the governor as the one who hired the officials in the first place has the right to suspend or even summarily sack them.
However, the entire episode brings to question what really is going on in the government of Rt. Honourable Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru?
What “important government function” was obviously boycotted by the entire cabinet?
And what kind of communication and information mechanism that have been emplaced by the government within its system?
From all indications, it is very obvious that all is not well in the government of Governor Ogbonna Nwifuru as the recent event shows clearly that the government’s priority has nothing to do with real governance, but more about photo-shows and ceremonies.
The suspensions also indicate clearly that the Ebonyi State Government of today has no clear-cut channel of communication within its own ranks. What more, the people of the state are also at loss as to what exactly constitutes the policy direction of the government.
It is disheartening that despite the huge cries and gnashing of teeth over the ineptitude of many of the members of the cabinet of Governor Ogbonna Nwifuru, the governor has never suspended or sacked any of its officials not delivering on the government’s mandate. So far, all the suspensions within the government has been linked to nonattendance of “function.” In one fell swoop, 85 senior government officials were suspended for not attending “important government function.”
No single ministry or sector in the state is healthy, yet no one has ever been suspended!
“WORKING SUSPENSION”
Infusing yet another twist to the suspension saga, the Special Assistant to the governor on New Media, Leo Ekene Oketa in a statement shared on his social media handle on Tuesday clarified that, “for clarity sake, it is a one month working suspension, meaning they will be going to work without salary for the said month, so there are no gaps in government.”
The new twist, obviously borne out of the confusion and uncertainty created by the mass suspension, further escalates the intrigue that currently pervades the Ebonyi State Government House.
Is it possible that the department of protocol in the Government House manifested the said “important Government Function” and nearly the entire cabinet blatantly ignored the directive of the governor?
It is important that the government provide answers to these questions as they knock at real issues, including insubordination, indiscipline and breakdown of communication within the government.
Again, on the grounds for suspension, could the government be open and tell the public the exact “important function” these senior government officials blatantly and flagrantly ignored and boycotted.
Government officials in Ebonyi State have been accused of wasting public resources on social events like burials, child dedication, marriage ceremonies, chieftancy investiture ceremonies etc, this particular action of the government seems an outright justification for this belief.
Ordinarily, why would this number of government officials vacate their duty posts to attend a state function at the same time?
It is funny that the government press statement suspending the officials specified that “The Governor also directed that the affected officers should not sign any official document within the period of their suspension while Commissioners should hand over to their respective permanent Secretaries,” whereas, in most of the ministries, both the commissioners and their permanent secretaries were suspended!
Again, Mr. Oketa’s clarification falls flat on its belly, when he said that the affected commissioners “will be going to work,” when in fact, the Governor has directed that the same commissioners and other “affected officers should not sign any official document within the period of their suspension while Commissioners should hand over to their respective permanent Secretaries,” so what does Oketa mean by “going to work?
Clearly, there is hardly any governance going on in Ebonyi State today. Indeed, for governance, effective, sustainable governance to take place, there has to be a plan, a clear policy direction, a rule of engagement and a parameter for measuring progress.
Whereas, in Ebonyi State of today, what we have is a convoluted cacophonous motely crowd that move about in circles. Yes, a certain opaque “Chatter of Needs” has been touted as a policy document, but in reality, there in nothing!
For instance, the “chatter of needs” has no path for education, healthcare, environment, agriculture, tourism, industrialisation, solid mineral development, public service reforms, water and sanitation external relations etc.
I make bold to challenge any of the commissioners or SSAs, SAs, Permanent Secretaries etc to speak to the policy direction of their ministry; I mean, what has been done, what is planned, expected results in both short and long term.
No government official in the state, not one, has been able to interpret his role in a way that the public can key-in. Ebonyi State Government today is a tabula rasa tottering like an infant looking for direction, and it should not be so!
By all standards, Governor Nwifuru is experienced in public office enough to know how to call the shots, he has been friends to his appointees and his appointees see him as a “kind guy” whom they know his weakness and so, no order is ever obeyed.
Governor Nwifuru should already sit up in the interest of the state because governance of a state is different from running a town union. We cannot afford to party away while the rest of the country take-off on the journey of development.
