President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday in
Abuja said he was working towards appointing
only patriotic, decent and experienced Nigerians
as ministers in his government.
The President, who was responding to questions
on ‘Good Morning Nigeria’, a television
programme, said politicians and technocrats
would make the list of nominees for ministerial
appointments.
“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).”
Mr. Buhari has yet to appoint ministers, two
months after taking office. The president said
last week that he would appoint ministers in
September after instilling some degree of ethics
and reforms in governance.
But speaking Monday, Mr. Buhari said his
government will try as much as possible to
“avoid appointing hostages”.
“By this, I mean people who have been in the
system but compromised their personal and
professional integrity. It is taking so much time
because a number of knowledgeable people have
been compromised,” the president said.
“They have been compromised by people who
will like to depend on them to damage our
economy and security,” he said.
President Buhari said the worst scenario is to
get a “compromised person to be in charge of
institutions. There is no way he could be efficient
or patriotic. Somebody behind the scene will be
teleguiding him at the expense of the nation.
“This is what we are trying to avoid and I assure
you that so much damage has been done to
Nigeria. We cannot rush to give this
responsibility to people that have unfortunately
been compromised,” he said.
The president said he will eventually appoint
ministers, as there is no way he can effectively
supervise about 20 ministries.
On the reported under-dealings in the nation’s oil
and gas sector, the President said the Federal
Government was working very assiduously to
expose the persons behind the illegal activity.
He promised that his administration would
continue to update members of the public on
government’s investigation into the matter.
He said government’s aim was to identify and
prosecute all those found culpable.
According to him, the relevant shipping
documents are being compiled for onward
submission to countries of destination of stolen
Nigerian crude oil.
“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.“
Mr. Buhari said his administration was still
studying the recommendations on how the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation should
be reorganised.
He described his recent trip to the United States
(US) as very successful as he was able to
extract the commitment of the American
government to assist and support Nigeria toward
tackling the economic and security challenges it
was facing.
He said the U.S. and other European countries
had also pledged to assist Nigeria by putting in
place necessary security mechanism in the Gulf
of Guinea to help check the theft of the
country’s crude oil.
Commenting on the leadership tussle in the
National Assembly, the President reiterated his
that he would not interfere directly in the affairs
of the lawmakers.
Buhari, who expressed displeasure and
frustration over the lingering crisis in the
Assembly, however, called on those behind the
dispute to search their conscious and obey
party’s decisions on issues concerning their
affairs.
He called on Nigerians to cooperate with his
administration to move the country forward and
warned that no part of the country would be
allowed to operate on its own.
The President added that the Nigeria “must
remain one”. http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/187328-the-kind-of-ministers-i-want-buhari.
(NAN)

I trust buhari will appoint people based on merit and not ethnic region,cos that is what this nation needs ,people who care less about whjere they are from but who care so much about Nigeria growth and development..baba do the needful,the masses are behind you,the wailing wailings will keep wailing till 2023......God bless PMB...God bless Nigeria...God bless us all!!!!

Ok

isookay o...the wailing wailers would soon be here

Buhari should just appoint fresh graduates to run these ministries...

Mtm5313:

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/187328-the-kind-of-ministers-i-want-buhari.

gud

Good one. We can not continue having people who have no love of this country at heart heading our angencies and ministries. We need to redirect our thinking process and make the politics appeal to the decent ones in our society. The practice of thugs, drug Barrons and militants getting elected into offices should be stopped. This is what this government is working towards. Thank you God for giving us Buhari and Prof Osinbajo, the best and perfect combo ever in the history of Nigeria.

Mtchewww!!! #BabaAlwaysTalking

The kind of baboons and monkeys I want as ministers- cattle buhari

Is very unfortunate for Nigera because if this is what a president has for his country,very irretating,what does he mean by 'compromise' used in his loosed statement, in fact Buhari is the most compromised person since 1999.Can he explain to Nigerians how he got the DSS bose back if not of his parochial compromise,can he explain to nigerians why 95percent of the appointments made so far are from the north of a particular zone if not of compromise? Buhari should tell us why he failed to publicly declare his assets as promised during his electoral campaign than running to the CCB and said he had fullfiled his first electoral promise if not of his compromised attitude. What Nigerians need are strong institutions,functional institutions and not just strong men on weak institutions. Buhari should know he's the president and not a critic. If everybody is compromised as he claimed, how does he successfully go into allience and formed a party? With angels or with the same compromised people. Somebody is sick.