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President Muhammadu
Buhari
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President Muhammadu Buhari may not appoint ministers “in the
next two months”, The Nation
learnt at the weekend.
Three factors may account
for the delay. They are:
•the President’s plan to
clear the “rot” inherited from the Goodluck Jonathan administration;
•the crisis in the
National Assembly over the choice of principal officers; and
•the need to reduce
ministries and parastatals.
But the reduction or
merger of ministries or parastatals will, however, not lead to retrenchment of
workers.
A Presidency source, who
had a confidential briefing with some journalists in Abuja, said the mess
Buhari inherited was “sickening”.
The source said: “You
cannot even begin to imagine the situation we have met on ground.
“Almost everything is in
a state of decay. There is absolutely no way the new government can hope to
achieve anything long-lasting without first building a new foundation.”
The source said President
Buhari’s plan of action could be compared to that of “a doctor who first has to
break a poorly set bone afresh, before resetting it to allow for smooth and
proper growth”.
On the National Assembly
crisis, the source said it was “yet one more excuse why forming a cabinet will
be impossible until further notice”.
He added: “Look at how
they are fighting among themselves.
“The Senate has now
adjourned till July 21. That means no one to scrutinize or approve any
ministerial list until the end of July.”
When told that the
National Assembly said it was ready to cut short its break to consider any
request from the President, the source asked the reporters to await the
President’s “long-awaited” intervention in the crisis between the party and the
National Assembly.
”The President wants to
walk his talk on stable politics and being a leader for all. He has a plan for
the National Assembly.”
The source debunked the
insinuations that the delay in appointing ministers had stalled the government.
He said civil
servants had been “supervising the day-to-day running of ministries and that
permanent secretaries of the various ministries have access to the President”.
He added: “All these
reports and agitations are being fuelled by politicians who want to put
pressure on the President.
“They have tried doing it
other ways and those haven’t worked. Now, they are trying to use the media. They
only want their cronies appointed to ministerial posts anyhow and they are
fuelling the agitation through newspapers.”
He advised the media not
to fall for the “old tricks and shenanigans” of politicians.
Buhari is set to reduce
or merge some ministries and parastatals to make the size of the civil service
manageable for efficiency.
The exercise will,
however, not lead to retrenchment of workers.
The source added: “The
President plans to cut down the number of ministries and parastatals.
“He wants to cut down the
cost of running government. He wants to make sure that all the loopholes that
enable corruption to thrive are blocked. All these are procedures that require
time and careful planning. You cannot do it in a rush.
“Remember that he has to
make sure that all this is done without any job losses or mass retrenchments.
All this is not a day’s or one-month job.”
He added that President
Buhari could not realistically have begun this process without first receiving
the full report of the transition committee and ascertaining exactly the
situation his government faced.
The spokesmen of the
President, Mr. Femi Adesina (Special Adviser on Media and Publicity) and Mallam
Garba Shehu (the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity) said this
narrative as the “nearest to the truth than all that are being peddled by many
others.”
The President has been criticized
in the past few weeks for allegedly being slow in constituting his cabinet.
Some critics accused Buhari
of not planning enough to hit the ground running since his election on March
28.
Buhari May Not
Name Ministers Until Sept
The Punch reports for
those that are eager to hear President Muhammadu Buhari name his cabinet
members, they will have to tarry awhile because the President’s cabinet members
may not be announced untill the end of August or early September.
A source very close to
the President confided in The PUNCH on Sunday
that Buhari would not form any cabinet until the “rot left behind by the past
administration” is cleared.
“Mr. President is
reluctant to build on a rotten foundation he inherited from the Peoples
Democratic Party administration. You cannot even begin to imagine the situation
we have met on the ground; almost everything is in a state of decay.
“There is absolutely no way the new government
can hope to achieve anything long-lasting without first building a new
foundation,” the source said.
The source added that
clearing the PDP rot was not a month’s job and said those that had been
heckling the President over lack of cabinet were politicians looking for jobs.
“They have tried doing it
other ways and those haven’t worked. They only want their cronies appointed to
ministerial posts anyhow and they are fuelling the agitation,” the source said.
He also said Buhari was
taking his time to know the ministries that would survive government’s planned
pruning and the desire to cut cost of governance.
The source likened
President Buhari’s plan of action to that of a doctor, who first has to break a
poorly set bone afresh, before resetting it to allow for smooth and proper
growth.
Over the past week,
Buhari has come under criticism because he had yet to appoint his cabinet
members, despite having more than three months since his election, including a
month since his inauguration.
The President was sworn
in on May 29, exactly one month ago today.
Responding to the
criticism, the source pointed out that it would be impossible to appoint
ministers to portfolios without first knowing which portfolios exist and which
will be abolished.
He said, “The President
plans to cut down the number of ministries and parastatals. He wants to cut
down the cost of running government. He wants to make sure that all the
loopholes that enable corruption to thrive are blocked. All these are
procedures that require time and careful planning. You cannot do it in a rush.
“Remember that he has to
make sure that all this is done without any job losses or mass retrenchments.
All this is not a day’s or one-month job.”
He added that Buhari
could not have realistically commenced the process of forming a cabinet without
first receiving the full report of the transition committee and ascertaining
exactly the situation his government faced.
The source also denied
news reports which stated that President Buhari’s lack of cabinet appointments
had grounded the government, insisting that civil servants had been supervising
the day-to-day running of ministries and that Permanent Secretaries of the
various ministries all have full access to the President.
The source concluded by
referring to the current crisis in the National Assembly as one more reason why
forming a cabinet would be impossible until further notice.
“Look at how they are
fighting among themselves. The Senate has now adjourned till July 21. That
means no one to scrutinise or approve any ministerial list until the end of
July,” he submitted.
But when reminded that
the Senate had agreed to reconvene to consider the President’s ministerial
nominees as soon as such list was ready, the source asked our correspondent to
await the President’s intervention in the crisis between the party and the
National Assembly. “The President wants to walk his talk on stable politics and
being a leader for all. He has a plan for the National Assembly,” he said.
When contacted on Sunday,
the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam
Garba Shehu, said the information at the disposal of The PUNCH was “not far
from the truth.”
“This narrative is the
nearest to the truth than all others that are being peddled around. It is not
far from the truth,” Shehu said.
Meanwhile, our
correspondents learnt in Abuja on Sunday that Buhari would adopt the
recommendation of the Ahmed Joda-led transition committee of the All
Progressives Congress to prune down the number of ministries to 19.
The PUNCH learnt that the
President would appoint 19 senior ministers and 17 ministers of state as
recommended by the Joda committee.
It was also learnt that
besides adopting the recommendation, the administration would place emphasis on
the appointment of technocrats to man some ministries, including education,
finance, works, housing and environment
The 18-man committee
inaugurated on April 27, 2015 to prepare the ground for Buhari’s inauguration
on May 29, 2015 submitted its report on June 12.
There were 28 ministries
and corresponding number of ministers manning them under the immediate past
administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The Jonathan
administration also appointed 14 ministers of state.
A reliable source, who is
familiar with the activities of the new administration, said the President, no
doubt, had accepted and had been working on the recommendations of the Joda
committee on the number of ministries to remain.
The source, who did not
want to be named as he was not authorized to speak on the issue, said though
the President had not made his proposed ministerial list open, the President
had not hidden it from top presidency officers, including the Vice President,
Yemi Osinbajo, that “the President will be guided by the Joda committee’s
report.”
The source said, “I can
confirm that the President is going to work with the recommendation of the Joda
committee, which means he will operate only 19 ministries to be manned by 19
ministers.
“There will also be 17
ministers of state so that the President will not run afoul of constitutional
requirement, which expects him to appoint ministers from all the 36 states of
the federation.
“Top officers in the
Presidency, including Vice President Osinbajo, are aware that President Buhari
is going to adopt the 19-ministry recommendation.”
The Joda-led committee
had recommended that the new Buhari administration should operate only 19
ministries in the spirit of cutting down the cost of governance.
The committee recommended
that the President should appoint only 19 senior ministers and 17 ministers of
state to fulfil the constitutional requirement that the ministers constituting
the Federal Executive Council must be drawn from the 36 states of the
federation.
The Joda committee
recommended 19 ministries, some of which would be products of merging of some
of the existing ministries.
Those to be retained in
their present form are just nine- Trade, Industry and investment; Education;
Defence; Federal Capital Territory; Labour and Employment; Finance; Justice;
Foreign Affairs; and Budget and National Planning.
Others would either me
merged or subsumed under others. 
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