Tension is brewing at the Federal Ministry of Finance, Abuja, over plans by the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed to hand over the reins to one of the permanent secretaries, Dr. Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, considered a political appointee, instead of Dr. Mohammed Kyari Dikwa, a career civil servant and bureaucrat.
Isa-Dutse, believed to be close to the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, was appointed outside the civil service from the African Export Import Bank in November 2015, while Dikwa a career civil servant and former Acting Accountant General of the Federation was appointed in November 2018, and assigned to the ministry as Permanent Secretary, Special Duties.
A staff of the ministry, who asked not to be named told The Guardian that of the ministry’s 12 schedules, Dikwa oversees eight, while Isa-Dutse oversees the remaining four and wonders why it is someone overseeing fewer schedules that should be handed over to.