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CABINET: Ignore governors, avoid 2015 mistake, Shehu Sani tells Buhari

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The senator who represented Kaduna Central at the 8th National Assembly, Shehu Sani, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari on what he should do in choosing cabinet members in his second term.

He said Buhari should immediately pick members of his cabinet and get his government working and should do that by ignoring recommendations by governors, who according to him always recommend incompetent persons for ministerial positions.

The senator, who was not able to thwart the decision of his state governor, Nasir El-Rufai, to ensure he was never re-elected a senator during the last general elections, said Buhari should ensure he appointed capable, competent and patriotic persons as members of his cabinet.

He also advised Buhari not to repeat the mistake he allegedly made in 2015 by supposedly appointment some persons believed to be incompetent as members of his cabinet, as well as appointing his ministers about six months after being sworn in as President.

He, however, warned against the neglect of any zone or state in getting key appointments under the pretext that they did not vote for him or did not vote for the ruling party.

Sani spoke to newsmen at the weekend in Minna, the Niger State capital, soon after delivering a keynote address at a one-day youth awareness forum themed, ‘Niger Open Forum, organised by The Blue Revolutionaries (TBR).

He said, “Experience has shown that governors do not send names of competent people, they send their loyalists and they send people who are not going to say anything to them and who are not going to outshine them.

“Unfortunately, the governors do not own up to failures of the kinds of people they send. So, the President should form a cabinet of people who are capable, competent and patriotic.

“The report that I am hearing that he is going to appoint his ministers based on merit and not recommendation from the governor is quite commendable. This is because he has a legacy to leave behind. This is because when things go wrong, it is about Muhammadu Buhari; if it goes right, it is about Muhammadu Buhari.

“I am happy with that decision because if no governor consults the President before appointing his commissioners, then there should be no compulsion for the President to consult any governor before appointing his ministers.

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“I think he should not repeat the mistake of 2015. The most important thing for him now is to pick his cabinet immediately and hit the ground running. There should be no excuses again over failure to perform in the sense that he now has all the ample opportunity.

“It is expected that when you win an election, you are for everybody. We have a pattern in this country where people are excluded and marginalised out of government on the basis that their ethnic or religious group did not vote for the government in power. That is very dangerous to do.”

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