President
Muhammadu Buhari on July 27 touched upon a currently sensitive issue
for Nigerians as he spoke in Abuja on “Good Morning Nigeria” TV
programme.
The country leader was questioned about the highly anticipated
appointment of ministers. Buhari, who has been under criticism over the
delay in announcing the senior officials, said that only patriotic,
decent and experienced people would form the cabinet, NAN reports. He
also claimed that politicians and technocrats would make the list of
nominees.
It should be recalled that since Buhari’s inauguration on May 29, the
talks about the ministerial list have continued without a break. Media
have been reporting about the possible and likely candidates. The
president, however, explained he did not want to hurry with such an
important decision.
In a recent development President Buhari wrote for the US Washington Post stating that the ministers would be appointed in September.
Now number one politician discloses more about the personalities of the ministers-to-be-appointed.
“From what I have seen so far, we need really patriotic Nigerians
– Nigerians that can work very hard, knowledgeable, experienced,
committed Nigerians – to be in charge of ministries.
“A lot of the institutions of Nigeria – important institutions –
were compromised. Everybody was for himself and God for all of us; its
most unfortunate.
“We have the people, educated people, experienced people but
everybody seemed to be working for himself – how much he could get as
much and as quick as possible.
“We have to look for technocrats and we have to look for
politicians and certainly we have to look for decent people in this
class to give them the responsibility of being in charge of ministries
and important parastatals (agencies).”
Regarding the under-dealings in the oil and gas sector, Buhari vowed to find and punish those involved in illegal schemes.
“The search continues; up to the third of this month, our crude
was still being illegally lifted by people who are in government. We are
trying to get these documents. We are getting the cooperation of the
international community.
“We are going to make sure that those who perpetrated this theft
against Nigeria are faced with facts very soon and are taken to our
courts. We’ve got the cooperation of some of the countries of the
destinations of our crude (oil) and we are discussing with them.
“We have to maintain high confidentiality so that we don’t risk
some of the loyal Nigerians that are helping us to trace the
destinations of this stolen crude and then the accounts into which the
monies are being paid instead of the Federal Government account.”
As far as his just concluded four-day trip to the United States in
concerned, Buhari characterized it as a very successful, set to bring
improved cooperation to tackle Nigeria’s economic and security
challenges.
