IN the last three weeks, Nigeria and Nigerians have been held spell-bound by the spectacle at the National Assembly, as the Upper legislative chamber, the Senate, screens eminent citizens nominated as ministers by President Muhammadu Buhari. The media frenzy centred around the politics of the screening and the chances of the nominees to scale the hurdles have been captivating.

Yet, in all the fuss about the confirmation hearing, one issue appears to have escaped the attention of the media. And that is the issue of the tenure of the ministers being screened by the Senate. When can we say their tenure starts? Is it from the date their nomination was officially announced, or the date their names were sent to the Senate, or the date they were confirmed by the Senate, or the day they would be sworn in as ministers by the president and their portfolios announced?

These questions are germane especially for a society such as ours which is highly sentimental about the tenure of public office holders. I am almost certain that the clock started ticking for the ministers, in the minds of some analysts or commentators, the very moment it was announced that their names had been sent to the Senate. Others would probably say it started from the minute Bukola Saraki, Senate president, hit the gavel, to pronounce them ministers of the Federal republic. Yet, many will also insist that they are not ministers until they are sworn in by Buhari.

Truth be told, no one can consider himself a minister, until he is invested with the power to exercise the function of the office. Such power can only come after confirmations by the Senate and more importantly, after swearing in by the appointing authority, in this case the president. This swearing in is also expected to be backed by an official letter of appointment, without which a public officer will have no locus to exercise the power and authority of his office.

This pattern is not peculiar to ministers only. Indeed, all heads of federal agencies and departments whose appointment requires legislative approval go through similar process. They are not expected to assume  office until their appointments are confirmed by the Senate.

This is why I found media reports suggesting that the tenure of the incumbent chair of the EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde, ends in November 2015, really shocking. I say so because, as the National Assembly correspondent of a leading national newspaper, I was privileged to have witnessed the confirmation screening of Lamorde by the Senate on February 15, 2012. Even though he had been occupying the office of chairman of the EFCC, albeit in acting capacity before the confirmation, he became the substantive chairman of the EFCC on February 15, 2012, which invariably means that his four-year tenure terminates  on February 15, 2016. Except, President Buhari renews his appointment for another term of four years, Lamorde should by February 15, 2016, be returning to the Nigeria Police to continue with his career as a senior police office.

Until that happens, it does a section of the media no good to twist facts and confuse the people. I have never met the EFCC boss and have no incentive to speak for him but truth be told, the recent spate of media attacks on his person clearly indicate that there are people who are no comfortable with him as chairman of EFCC and have launched a media campaign to discredit and run him out of the place.

A certain George Uboh, a felon convicted for wire fraud in the United States, and who is also being prosecuted by the EFCC for allegedly defrauding the police equipment foundation, is living off the campaign to discredit the EFCC boss with the Nigerian Senate according him unusual attention. I shuddered when I hear two leading journalists with a major Independent Television, describing the convict as the “nemesis of the EFCC”! In law, not much importance is attached to the testimony of a convict. As it is,  Uboh is a tainted witness and those promoting him are equally tainted.

But it is important that persons with tenure appointments are accorded protection from mischief makers, with a clear statement regarding their tenure,

Of course, not many people bother when it comes to obscure agencies. In this country we have had not a few cases where public officers outstayed their tenure because public attention is not turned to such agencies. But when you head the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigerian National Petroluem Corporation, the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the EFCC, Nigeria Communications Commission or Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, people count every minute you spend and aspirants are let on the loose once they sense that a vacancy is imminent.

It should not be so. Nigerians should cultivate the culture of not stampeding public office holders out of office, especially those who have diligently served the nation.

Mr. Alabi Evonney, a journalist, wrote from Abuja.