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”.
(NAN)
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