Tunde Bakare, the general overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly has said empty treasury made President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint ministers lately.

Mr Buhari after he was sworn in as president ran the government without ministers for six months, which economists say was responsible for recession the economy went into.

Mr Bakare’s account differs from that of the presidency which blamed the administration of former president, Goodluck Jonathan, for the delay in constituting the cabinet.

Mr Jonathan, in his new book titled ‘My Transition Hours,’ pushed back the blame.

For the cleric, the president wasted time in constituting his cabinet because there was no money to pay them.

He stated this in a interview he granted Heritage Media in Calgary, Canada.

Bakare said Buhari did not assemble the best cabinet that will turn things around unlike those of his predecessors.

“Development under President Buhari has been slow because as he said, he inherited an empty treasury,” he said.

“For six months, he could not appoint ministers because there was no money to pay them, and little by little, thank God, oil picked up.

“But a person like Obasanjo will now attack him and say, rightly, the price of oil had fallen completely and I met an empty treasury but I didn’t give excuses, I worked.

“But the difference is this, Obasanjo assembled the best, the brightest from across the nations of the earth, economists that knew their onions, to begin to help steer the affairs of the nation, and that is less seen in this administration,” Bakare added.

The cleric also advised the president to deal with alleged corrupt cronies of his administration.

“The allegations by the Nigerian public is that those around the president are also stealing, and some names have been mentioned. You cannot be a clean man surrounded by rogues, if you don’t deal with those rogues, they would colour you with the same tar,” Bakare added.

PMBNG:
“For six months, he could not appoint ministers because there was no money to pay them, and little by little, thank God, oil picked up.

By CLIFFORD D. MAY
Published: January 19, 1984

LAGOS, Nigeria, Jan. 18— Nigeria's new leader, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Buhari, swore in the members of his Cabinet today, warning them that the ruling Supreme Military Council ''will keep a keen and watchful eye on your performance, your style of life and general public conduct while in office.''

He said the new administration, which came to power after the overthrow of the civilian Government of President Shehu Shagari on Dec. 31, ''will not tolerate fraud, indiscipline, corruption, squandermania, misuse and abuse of public office for self or group aggrandizement and other vices which characterize the civilian administration of the past four years.''

Of the 18 ministers named, only 7 are career military men. The proportion surprised some Western diplomats here but essentially accorded with statements by Mr. Buhari in an interview on Tuesday in which he said ''only a small number'' of military officers would be named to top political posts.

Apparently responding to criticism in the Nigerian press over the pace of decision-making under the new military regime, Mr. Buhari said that ''the appointment of ministers has taken us some time because we had to undertake a deep search for competent Nigerians of proven integrity, a high sense of discipline, public probity and transparent honesty.''

Tomide007:
Pst Bakare gave a very balanced report, telling buhari his fault and giving Jonathan his own share of the blame.