Ministers: Buhari needs momentum first, says Shehu

Against the backdrop of delay in the appointment of minsters by President Muhammadu Buhari, the presidency has offered more reasons as to why it is taking so long.

According to his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, the appointments would be made but they have to tarry until the process of evolving a corruption free society has gathered momentum.

He suggested, that Buhari has understandably drawn a scale of preference top amongst which is his desire to stamping out insecurity and corruption in the country.

Shehu told Vanguard that the president is being cautious not to appoint a candidate that could be later accused or indicted for corruption.

He 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.

“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. Nobody 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”.

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