Those expecting President
Mohammadu Buhari to make
ministerial appointments now may be
highly disappointed as this may not
happen now even if it does not take
long time. Buhari has understandably
drawn his scale of preference and top
amongst his priorities are stamping
out insecurity and corruption in the
country.
The decision of the president was the
outcome of an exclusive chat with his
Senior Special Assistant on Media and
Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu
yesterday. According to Shehu, the
appointments would be made but
they have to tarry until the process of
evolving a corruption free society has
gathered momentum.
While stating that security is
uppermost in the mind of president
Buhari, Shehu emphasized that
Buhari was being careful in his
selection so that he would have
political appointees who were never
implicated in corrupt practices in the
past. He 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. He would also
regret that he ever appointed such a
person. Shehu 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.
No body 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. It was the first time
a voice from the presidency was
actually explaining the delay in
political appointments.

No problem. He should just ensure he selects the best hands.

I understand.

If we need to wait a little longer for Mr. President to be able to select the best team to drive the country to the desired enviable position, the we are ready to wait.

Its better to exercise patience and get a desired result at the end than otherwise.

May God grand PMB the wisdom to select the right people.

God bless PMB
God bless Nigeria