President-elect, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, has given an insight into the composition of his cabinet. Buhari, in an interview granted a Lagos-based private television station, TVC, said he would not bring into his government people of questionable integrity. Buhari, in the interview whose transcript New Telegraph obtained yesterday, also spoke on when the change mantra, which was the campaign slogan of his party would begin; his position on the report of the National Conference; why he changed his mind about not running for presidency again and how President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to concede defeat has saved Nigeria from been plunged into chaos.
According to him, although the All Progressives Congress (APC) will play a prominent role in determining who he will work with, his administration will not have room for shady characters. “The party has a lot of role to play here (in picking cabinet members). But more importantly, I think we need seasoned technocrats, people of professional and personal integrity. There is so much mudslinging, accurate and inaccurate accusations of how corruption has eaten deep into our system.
So we cannot afford to make a mistake. Those people who had been identified as incompetent and of doubtful personal and professional integrity, I don’t think they will get a role to play in the cabinet of the APC,” he stated. On the National Conference report, he said: “Frankly speaking, I haven’t studied the report. I have problem with that confab. Well, the problem is that if you could recall, at a time the Federal Government budgeted N7 billion for that confab, ASUU was on strike and ASUP too.
These strikes were on for a whole academic year. I think a serious government that has N7 billion to throw about should have gone to negotiate with the striking teachers so that our children would remain in school by providing them with facilities. I was so much passionately against that confab because well again, the National Assembly was there. People would have sent a memo to the National Assembly in line with the constitution if they had wanted constitutional amendment.
Why take N7 billion for confab when we could not afford to keep our children in schools? I think this government has capacity for wrong priorities.” He also promised Nigeria that it will not be business as usual under his administration as the change they clamour for will begin to manifest from June. He said: “I think from 1st of June this year, after we are sworn in, from the processes of taking new ministers, then people will know we are living to our manifesto’s commitments. And I will ask our observers to please study our manifestoes. It is not the Bible or the Qur’an because you can’t change either the Qur’an or the Bible, what you meet there you believe. But I want to tell you that our manifesto was developed by very experienced Nigerians. It took us several months to arrive at it but it is still subject to modification; so people must understand such manifesto according to the laws of the land.”
On whether or not his administration will reduce the pump price of petrol as canvassed by former Minister of Petroleum, Prof. Tam David-West, Buhari said he should not be held accountable for the position of the former minister in his military regime. “The pump price of fuel could be lesser than N87, but it would be very difficult because of infrastructural decay because of long years of neglect but we will look into it. The petroleum industry is in such a mess just like other sectors of the economy because the PDP had allowed the refineries to decay and allowed the pipelines to be destroyed by saboteurs. I cannot promise magic because I don’t think I have got that magic wand,” he stated.
When asked why he changed his mind not to run again after his defeat in the presidential contest in 2011, Buhari said he had to do so because his associates made him realise that it was only the party that could have the final say in such a decision.
He added that Jonathan’s decision to concede defeat was the hallmark of a statesman as it saved the nation from a looming crisis. “For an opposition party to successfully win an election against an incumbent party which had been there for 16 years, and more significantly what the president did by calling me even before the final tally shows a remarkable statesmanship and that stabilised the politics of this country,” he stated.
He praised former APC Interim National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande and the party’s National Leader, Senator Bola Tinubu for the roles they play in bringing to fruition the merge of key opposition parties to form APC. He was not bothered by the exodus of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members into the APC, saying there is no problem as long as the defectors agree can establish themselves in their constituencies and begin to operate there.
Culled from New Telegraph
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