Why President Buhari is not in a rush to announce ministers.-Presidency

President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision not to rush into making an
announcement on his ministerial appointments might not be unconnected with
his scale of preference, which has stamping out insecurity and corruption as
top agenda.

Nigerians have waited with bated breath to know the Buhari-administration’s
policy direction with the appointment of ministers but they might have to wait
longer as the president is said to be exercising caution in his selection so that
he would have political appointees who were never implicated in corrupt
practices in the past.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba
Shehu, who made this known in an exclusive chat with VANGUARD on Friday,
said the appointments would be made but they have to tarry until the process
of evolving a corruption free society has gathered momentum.
Shehu stressed that the president did not want the drive for a corruption free
system to rub off negatively on anyone who would be announced as ministers
in the future.

According to him, should any minister after appointment be found to be corrupt
or alleged to have stolen public funds in the course of his job, the president
would not hesitate to fire such a person but he would be full of regrets that he
ever appointed such a person.

The presidential spokesman, therefore, appealed to Nigerians to be patient
with the present administration, assuring that Buhari would make the
necessary appointments in due course.

“It is about security. That is his number one campaign agenda and he is living
up to it. He has concentrated all his energy trying to put together a credible
response to Boko Haram terrorists. And this has taken him to the neighboring
countries. He has met Defence Chief, the Service Chiefs almost every week. He
has also taken this to G7, also to the African Union. He has been trying to
form a massive alliance, a massive response to the Boko Haram terrorists.
“Besides that, he is also restrategizing also for the economic revival of the
country and the coming of foreign investment, again using the platform
provided by the G7 and the United States of America. And then, you can see
that he has started making moves about the recovery of the stolen billions of
dollars by some Nigerians that are recoverable. So, he is actually working
without making so much noise on the fulfilment of his election promises.
“Nigerians have a choice to make. What do they want as their priority? Is it
appointment, security or even better economy or do they want a corruption free
environment? That is the thing. For the president, appointment is not the key
issue for him now. That is very clear from his action. The most important
thing is to get the job done. And he is working.

“As it is now, is there any lacuna? Are you thinking there is any gap that is
not being covered by the bureaucrats? There is nothing that is not being
covered. The Permanent Secretaries are part of the meetings. Nobody is
saying that it is not important to make political appointments. He will make
appointments.

“As he has said himself, he wants to scrutinized and make the right kind of
appointment. He doesn’t want to appoint one today and make changes
tomorrow. Given this war for the recovery of stolen funds, that will have
implication for the people who are going to be appointed. If he appoints you
today and may be in the drive, you are implicated, he will fire you”, Garba
Shehu said.