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Dr
Hakeem Baba-Ahmed
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Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, a
chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna State, has advised
President Muhammadu Buhari to drop non-performing ministers.
News
Agency of Nigeria report continues:
Baba-Ahmed
gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Kaduna on
Sunday.
He
also urged the President to quickly push through, policies that would reduce
current high level of poverty in the country.
“If
you go by the opinion of a lot of Nigerians, some of the ministers are just
filling up space.
“There
is a case to be made for the argument that the president should critically
assess his ministers and remove those that he believes have not performed as
well as they should.
“Replace
them with people who will bring greater energy, greater vibe and greater
imagination in managing scarcity and high expectations in the context in which
we live.”
Baba-Ahmed
said the level of poverty in Nigeria require urgent solution, adding that
government should continue to mobilize resources to tackle the problem.
“What
the government can do is what I think it is doing, trying to come up with
policies that in the short time, can alleviate the crushing poverty.
“There
are a lot of people who feed only once a day, there is a lot of hunger,
frustration and bitterness.
“If
we have ₦500 billion in the presidency now waiting to be disbursed, one would
like to see an imaginative and productive use of that money, so that it reaches
people that need it to feed, pay school fees, pay medical bills, rent and to go
to places where they can earn a living.
“Government
must mobilize resources directly and make sure that it gets to the people.
“In
the longer term, we need bold and imaginative policies that should reposition
and restructure the economy, to reduce dependence on oil.”
On
the performance of President Buhari, the former APC state chairman said “one
year is long enough to assess people and too short to actually pass judgment”.
He,
however, said a lot had been achieved by the President in some key areas, but
that there was room for improvement.
“I
will say yes, he has done well in the area of fighting security, he has done
well in terms of signaling his intention to fight corruption and has many
challenges in managing economic recession.
“He
can do a lot better in terms of the quality of people he works with, the
quality of his policies and his ability to work with a political platform to
engineer and sustain public confidence.”
The
chieftain, who was a retired federal permanent secretary, called for caution on
the desirability or otherwise of obtaining about US$30 billion loan by the
Federal Government for infrastructure development.
“I
don’t think that there is anything wrong in getting the loan, however, I do
think that we should draw appropriate lessons from the past.
“We
borrowed money in the past and we paid a huge amount of interest and we haven’t
seen the benefit directly from those loans that we repaid.
“I
think that this particular loan has to be scrutinized, has to be rigorously
interrogated by the National Assembly, and if they are convinced, then we
should go ahead and get it.
“What
is important is that the President needs to improve the manner he engages
Nigerians in explaining to them why he needs to borrow US$30 billion dollars,
what are the benefits, what are the possible draw backs.
“Because
this money, as I said before, is been borrowed for our children not for
ourselves, it is important that we don’t leave them a legacy of huge debt.”
He
further advised that more efforts be put to enhance the management of the
nation’s economy.
“There is room for improvement in terms of thinking through key policies, monetary, economic policies that are relevant to the peculiar nature of recession in Nigeria.
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