 |
|
President
Muhammadu Buhari
|
*President gets list of confirmed nominees
*Retreat for incoming cabinet members
All is set for the
inauguration of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) following President
Muhammadu Buhari’s receipt of the list of ministers-designate from Senate
President Bukola Saraki. The would-be ministers will begin a retreat in Abuja tomorrow
to prepare them for the task ahead, it was learnt yesterday. They may be sworn in next week as the
retreat is expected to end on Friday.
President
Buhari did not indicate when they will be sworn in when he received Saraki in
Abuja yesterday.
He,
however, said not all the ministers-designate would get portfolios.
Buhari
thanked Saraki for the Senate’s clearance of his nominees, adding that he
followed constitutional provision in picking his team.
The
Nation report continues:
The
Constitution, he said, stated that there must be a minister from each of the 36
states.
“That
was why I limited the number to 36”, the President noted, adding:
“The
Constitution said there must be one member of the cabinet from all the states
but the Constitution did not say I must have 36 ministries.”
He
said the country could not afford a large carbinet because of the prevailing
economic realities.
The
economy, he said, had been battered, explaining that he was being factual by
saying it as it is and “not to scare investors as the opposition is claiming”.
“Any
investor who is interested in investing in Nigeria will know about the economy.
So, when I talk about the position of the economy, I am also looking for
investors,” Buhari said.
Earlier,
Saraki said: “Mr. President, we finished the screening of the last batch of the
ministers on Thursday and we waited for the adoption of our votes and
proceedings today (yesterday) which we finished this morning.
“I
want to formally present the list of the 18 ministers who have now been cleared
to you and that makes a total of all your 36 nominees that have been cleared by
the Senate.
“I
was just engaging the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to check in the records
when last that happened. So it must be a credit to the nominees that were
submitted and also a credit to the Senate.”
Speaking
with State House correspondents, Saraki said the screening and confirmation of
the nominees were faster because of the quality of those presented by Buhari.
“Secondly,
it is the fact that we put in the time to vigorously put the nominees to answer
the questions and at the end of the day we found out that most of them met the
requirement and the Senate was satisfied.”
On
having ministers without portfolio, he said: “Well I think before we had
ministers of state in the past, I don’t think there is anything new, there was
minister for special duties which really doesn’t have a portfolio.
“I
think the key issue is being in the cabinet; is being a part of government and
those that would have the responsibilities of ministering are those that at the
end of the day would do that.
He
said the issue of his trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) did not come
up.
“Did
you think that will come up in this kind of situation? No it didn’t come up,”
he said.
 |
| President Muhammadu Buhari (AFP) |
Discordant Tunes Trail Buhari’s Plan For
‘Ministers Without Portfolios’
The Guardian reports:
As
Nigerians await President Muhammadu Buhari’s allocation of portfolios to his
ministers-designate already confirmed by the Senate, opinions are divided over
the likelihood that some of them may be without portfolios.
The
President had, in New Delhi, India, on Thursday, said the economy was not
buoyant enough to pay the huge wage bill so many ministers would entail.
But
while stakeholders disagree, there were indications yesterday that former Lagos
State Governor, Raji Fasola may be heading to the Ministry of Power while the
former governorship aspirant in Kogi State, James Ocholi San may have been
penciled down as the Attorney General and Minister of Justice.
Though,
information about the portfolios of the ministers-designate was still scanty by
yesterday
evening, the senator representing Central Kaduna District, Shehu Sani and a
former governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa say there is nothing
wrong with Buhari appointing ministers and not allocating them individual
portfolios while the chairman of the Port Harcourt branch of the Nigerian Bar
Association (NBA), Dennis Okwakpam, said it is unconscionable to appoint ministers
with portfolio and not pay them salaries.
Similarly,
while Professor of Law in the Enugu State University of Science and Technology
(ESUT), Prof. Gab Agu and two other lawyers, Mr. John Nwobodo and Olu Omotayo
agreed that it was within the President’s prerogative to appoint ministers
without assigning them portfolios, a former Attorney General of Enugu State and
Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Anthony Ani, said such a step by the
president would be unconstitutional.
Another
SAN , Sabastin Hon said the decision to tinker with ministers is at the
discretion of the president going by the express provisions of the
constitution.
“It’s
at Mr. President’s discretion. Under the constitution, combined reading of
sections 5, 147 and 148 show that the President has almost an unlimited
discretion in terms of appointing ministers and assigning portfolios to them.
He is the chief executive officer and he knows where it is pinching him most.”
According
to Sani and Musa, there is no constitutional provision barring Buhari from
appointing 36 ministers with some of them manning designated ministries, while
others function as non-
But
Okwakpam told The Guardian that if Buhari intended to reduce the cost of
governance, he ought to have forwarded a bill to the National Assembly as soon
as he was sworn-in to seek for an amendment of the constitutional provision
that provides for at least one minister to be appointed from each state of the
federation.
Agreeing
with Buhari, however, Agu and Nwobodo in separate interviews in Enugu that what was important was representation of each state in the
cabinet, stressing that such would mean contributing to issues of governance.
Agu
said: “The constitution did not give express approval that every minister
should be assigned with portfolio. It is within the prerogative of the
president to assign such portfolios as he wishes.”
On
his part, Nwobodo, who is also the state chairman of the Social Democratic
Party (SDP), stated that it was important that the ministers contribute to
policy issues of governance.
Omotayo
said what was important was appointing the ministers to reflect federal
character and not their portfolios.
But
a law lecturer at the University of Lagos, Dr Fassy Yusuf said: “I don’t know
what the president means by that, maybe he will appoint them Ministers of
State. He can not do such thing; that would be a constitutional aberration.
Ministers are not appointed until they are assigned portfolios.
I
think what he is saying is that they would not be assigned substantive
portfolios but serve as Ministers of State.’
‘‘If
he wants to minimise cost, then he should direct the Revenue Allocation,
Mobilization and Fiscal Commission (RAMFC) to reduce the salaries of public
officers.”
Expressing
his own view, a Lagos lawyer, Chief Michael Agbamuche said: “Are they even
going to attend the meeting of the Federal Executive Council? He needs to
clarify issues. If you are attending FEC meeting, representing Benue State for
instance and you don’t have any ministry that you are assigned to, it is not a
proper representation of the state. It means they won’t have a stake in
governance. That is why the constitution says 36 ministers for 36 states.”
The
source, which maintained that Fashola was heading to the Power ministry said
given the importance of the ministry to the development of the nation, the
President is rooting for Fasola to help deliver the President’s promise on
power to the nation.
Ocholi
is being considered as the Attorney General and Minister of Justice based on his
excellent performance during his screening at the Senate.
Former
National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chief Audu Ogbe is
penciled down for Agriculture based on his success as a farmer.
Others
believed to have been assigned portfolios include former governor of Ekiti
state, Dr Kayode Fayemi ,former National Chairman of the defunct All Nigeria
Peoples Party (ANPP), Dr Ogbonnaya Onu for the Ministry of Works and Gen
Abdulrahman Dambazau for the Ministry of Defence.
Sources in the presidency
disclosed that Okechukwu Enelamah may head the Finance Ministry, Ondo-born
Professor of Sociology, Cladius Daramola may be posted to the Ministry of
Interior while former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi may be posted to
the Ministry of Niger Delta.
No comments:
Post a Comment