*He’s Not Working With His Cabinet – PDP *Majority Of His Ministers Are Performing Well – Sagay *Senate May Not Clear His Appointees, Says Tony Momoh *Government Is On Autopilot – Odumakin

Temidayo Akinsuyi, Lagos

In less than a month from now, President Muhammadu Buhari would celebrate the third anniversary of his government which was inaugurated on May 29, 2015, but some Nigerians have expressed concern over his failure to effect changes in the executive council.

The concern stemmed from the fact that many Nigerians believe that the performance of some of his ministers is less than satisfactory.

The president constituted his cabinet six months after his inauguration with the claim that he was carefully choosing the right team for his government.
After the long wait, Nigerians were greeted by what they considered to be a not-too-inspiring list of nominees for the cabinet.

Many believed that the minister-nominees were already known politicians who contributed in one way or another to the president’s victory at the polls.

There were, however, some trusted and competent professionals in the team, and this gave Nigerians some hope.

The first of the only two changes effected in the cabinet so far was due to the vacancy that occurred following the death of the Minister of State for Labour, James Ocholi (SAN), from Kogi State. Ocholi died in an accident on March 6, 2016.

A vacancy also opened up when Amina Mohammed, from Gombe State, who was Minister of the Environment, was appointed Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations.

The two ministers were replaced by Stephen Nkani Ocheni (Kogi State) and Suleiman Zana Hassan (Gombe State).

After months of speculations about a likely cabinet reshuffle, the president, in October 2017, gave Nigerians assurance of effecting a change in his cabinet.

While addressing members of his party, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), majority of whom were aggrieved about the delay in cabinet reshuffle, the president, in a speech delivered to the National Executive Council (NEC), said the Federal Executive Council (FEC) would be expanded to bring in more supporters at the federal level, with fresh ideas to be injected into the government.

“The compressed Federal Executive Council will be expanded to bring in more supporters at federal level, with fresh ideas to be injected into the government,” he said.

The president is, however, yet to fulfil that promise as at May 1, 2018.

With the 2019 general elections around the corner and the declaration for second term by the president, many believe time is running out for the administration to fulfil many of the electoral promises it made to Nigerians.

Commenting on the development, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said the failure of President Buhari to rejig his cabinet three years after being sworn in was an indication that the president and his cabinet were not in sync.

Kola Ologbondiyan, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, said since there was no working relationship between the president and his appointees, it had been difficult to assess their performance to know who should be asked to go or be retained.

“For us in PDP, his failure to effect any cabinet change portrays the fact that he is not working with his cabinet.

“If a president is working with his cabinet, he would have been able to measure the capacity of members of his cabinet and know those who are functioning well and those whose performance is below par that should be shown the way out.

“It clearly shows the level of relationship between the president and his ministers.

“He just appointed them and just left them alone to do whatever they like.

“That is why there is no measure of deliverables in this government and Nigerians are the ones suffering for it,” he said.

Also speaking, Yinka Odumakin, National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, said there had not been any cabinet reshuffle because the Buhari administration was on auto-pilot, with no clear direction or purpose.

He said: “You reshuffle cabinet when you have programmes you are pursuing and then you can assess what your people are doing to know those who are on the same page with you or not.

“But when you have a government that is on auto-pilot, that anybody will just wake up and decide to do something without any concrete plan or organic programmes that they are implementing.

“This is one of the governments without capacity in the history of Nigeria.

Read more https://independent.ng/worry-as-president-fails-to-reshuffle-cabinet-after-three-years/

Buhari is only interested on those you call cabals, to him they're the real ministers.

He is so super clueless, no idea about 21st century governance.

Buhari is the closest road to Igbo Presidency in 2023.

Something , there's always something new to wail about