I understand that the tenure of Mr Tunde Fowler as Chairman FIRS has come to an end. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Fowler as part of an assignment I did for a major international donor shortly after I left government. His staff hailed me “DG of Everything!” Thread... 
My perception of him was that of a knowledgeable and friendly man who had a clear plan of what he wanted to achieve & was methodically following it. I have recently seen some issues raised regarding what appears to be a leaked letter from him to the SGF. The leak is unfortunate.
I will try and explain what MAY have happened in the last couple of days of his tenure. You see, when your tenure is coming to an end, there is really no written convention anywhere. You are an appointee of the President and you serve at his pleasure. There is a norm though.
If you went into government from the private sector, like I did, you would want to give your employer notice. For the level of seniority of a Chairman FIRS or a DG, a notice period of at least 3 months would be the decent thing to do.
If you want to be considered for another tenure, you would indicate it in your notice letter then. If you give notice but are silent on whether or not you want another tenure, the Office of the SGF will call you to ask you if you want to be consider for a second term or not.
You see government doesn’t like offering you a job that you will turn down. There are 200 million Nigerians. It’s a privilege to exercise State power. Not many people will have that privilege in their life time. If you don’t want, another person will want abeg.
Some people who don’t want a second tenure do not give notice. They wait for their tenure to expire and just leave quietly. When you don’t give notice and indicate and interest to be considered for a second term, govt assumes that you don’t want. They won’t ask you. They don’t.
If you don’t know the Federal Government, you could be there expecting a letter offering you a second term. It won’t come. You might think “Wait o. They haven’t asked me. Maybe they don’t want me.” If you want a second term, you will make a few enquiries to know what’s going on.
When it’s a day to the end of your tenure and you ask what is going on, someone will ask you: “Have you notified government that your tenure is coming to an end? Have you indicated an interest in being considered for a second term?” You would think “But they should know nau.”
The Office of the SGF has a database of appointments but it is not necessarily comprehensive, especially as we don’t really know how many agencies we have. A former DG of Standards Organisation of Nigeria stayed TWO YEARS beyond his tenure and nobody knew until someone petitioned
The post of Chairman FIRS is so high profile that nobody will forget though. The press has even been raising the issue. Sometimes, the issue-raising is sponsored. Anyway, a day to go, someone advises you to write formally. It could be genuine advice. It could be to mess you up.
When you write, the feeling could be “Haba! You didn’t say you wanted a second term nau. We thought you didn’t and have already identified someone else.” If you are in the bad books, it could be “Let’s get him to write and to believe he will get a second term if he does.”
That way, you can’t lie that you only ever wanted one term in office or that they offered you and you didn’t want. You get? I hope that this has been informative. It is for those that want an insight into how government works, not for the bots paid to attack Joe Abah. End! 😂✌🏽
