The national leadership of the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, has
alleged that ministers
will be useless in President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.
The party said the disposition of the President was not to appoint aides, but to run the
government as a sole administrator.
It alleged that this was the reason why President Buhari had been shifting the dates
when he would appoint members of his cabinet, adding that the President had also
tagged ministers as “noise makers.”
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Chief Olisa Metuh, stated this at a press
briefing in Abuja on Monday.
Metuh alleged that because of the President’s disposition, those to be appointed
ministers would not be respected by Buhari.
The spokesman for the opposition party said, “The flip-flopped promise of our President
to name a cabinet, a deadline which he shifted from two weeks of assumption of office
to the end of September, is actually a reluctant pledge and done under great duress.
“From his hesitancy and comments, it is deducible that President Buhari never intended
to appoint ministers but rather prefers to run a monocracy and evidently does not value
or respect those he would nominate as ministers.
“Otherwise, how can anyone repackage the mindset of the President when he, in an
interview with France 24 Television in France, stated categorically that his preference is
to rule without a cabinet and denigrated ministers as ‘noise makers,’ and of no
importance or value in the running of an administration?
“Given this worrisome outlook, it is obvious that the Presidency would not attach any
value or importance to the ministers under the new sheriff.”
Metuh added that the refusal of the President to have a cabinet was already taking its
toll on government’s activities, both in the country and outside.
“The refusal to have ministers has resulted in the government conveying dictatorial
inclinations as amply exhibited in its adamant stance in running a government without
the statutory component of an executive cabinet, even when the negative consequences
of this strange totalitarian approach are taking serious toll on the polity,” he added.
Metuh also alleged that the recent case of the absence of Nigeria at one of the meetings
at the 70th United Nations General Assembly in New York, where the issue of
humanitarian crisis arising from the insurgency in Lake Chad countries including Nigeria,
was a further proof of the ineptitude of the handlers of the President on national and
international issues.
He said his party was angry because of what he described as the President’s
delegation’s dereliction of duty, which he said manifested in the snubbing of a crucial
meeting where countries affected by Boko Haram insurgency sought international
assistance for millions of people displaced by terrorism.
He said that whereas other affected Chad basin countries were fully represented and had
fruitful discussions with officials of the world body, the government of Nigeria, which had
the biggest challenge of displaced persons, was nowhere to be found.
He said, “Much more pathetic and shocking, but very revealing of the insincerity and
ineptitude of those around the President was the disconcerting excuse by an aide of the
President in trying to explain away this blunder.
“Instead of admitting failure and apologising to Nigerians, the Presidency sought to
hoodwink the public by claiming that the meeting was not one of the official events for
which the President and his delegation are in New York, only for the official brochure of
the meeting tagged, ‘High Level Event on the Lake Chad Basin’, to show that ‘high level
representation from the government of Nigeria’ was scheduled to make contributions at
the meeting.”
But the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, Mallam Garba Shehu, insisted
that the meeting in question was a side-event, not an official meeting, otherwise he said
it would have been listed as a UN event on its calendar of meetings.
He said in an electronic mail to our correspondent that it was not true that the meeting
“was a high-level meeting. High-level meetings are attended by Presidents.”
Shehu added, “Only the Secretary-General can call high-level meetings. The meeting
called by Stephen O’Brien, an Under-Secretary General, is a right step in the right
direction.
“Unfortunately, there is no record of any invitation to the Nigerian Mission as confirmed
by our Permanent Representative in UN, Prof. Joy Ogwu.”
Attempts to get a reaction from the governing All Progressives Congress were
unsuccessful. Calls to the mobile telephone number of the party’s National Publicity
Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, were neither picked nor returned.
A response to a text message sent to him on the subject was still being awaited as of
the time of filing this report (8.10pm.).
http://dailyreportersngr.com/?p=245
