his statement that Nigeria at the moment can’t afford to
pay 36 ministers in far away India on Friday, last week,
president Mohammad Buhari Tuesday in Abuja ruled out
the possibility of assigning portfolios to all the confirmed
36 ministerial nominees by the senate.
Though he gave vent to the constitutionally mandatory 36
ministerial slots, he also reiterated that the economy was
battered to accommodate the number.
This came as the senate president, Dr. Bukola Saraki said
that the idea of having ministers without portfolio was not
entirely novel in the Nigerian political system.
President Buhari spoke when he received the second and
last batch of the screened nominees from the senate
president at the presidential villa in Abuja.
Saraki had at a brief ceremony to mark the presentation
stated that the senate had concluded the assignment.
Aware that the he had come under heavy criticism
following his statement on the state of Nigeria’s economy,
the president said he would continue to speak the truth
about the economy.
He said: “Mr. President, we have finished the screening of
the last batch of the ministers on Thursday and we waited
for our vote of proceedings today which we finished this
morning.
“I want to formally present the list of the 18 ministers who
have now been cleared to you and that makes a total of all
your 36 nominees that have been cleared by the Senate.
“I was just engaging the SSA to check in the record when
last that has happened. So it must be credit to the
nominees that were submitted and also credit to the
Senate”.
Speaking after receiving the list, president Buhari also
thanked the senate for a job well done.
“I thank you the President of the Senate for the work of the
Senate leadership in our strive to follow the constitutional
provision that states that the President should submit the
names of those he wants to form the cabinet.
“If I can remember, there must be a member from each of
the 36 states. That was why I limited the number of my
nominees to that number, 36.
“The Senate worked extremely hard and they have passed
all the nominees. I think there is some enthusiasm in some
parts of the Presidency today that portfolios are to be
given to the 36.
“The constitution certainly said there must be one member
of the cabinet from all the states but the constitution did
not say I must have 36 ministries.
“I will explain the details. Because of the economic
imperative, to have a lot of ministers, substantive
ministers, let me put it that way, whatever somebody
speculated in some of today’s new papers, I think that the
economy as I have seen it now since my sitting here for the
last four months, that we are so much battered. Although
some people are saying I am giving bad publicity and
scaring away investors.
“Any investor who is interested in investing in Nigeria will
seem to know more about the economy more than
ourselves. So when I come and tell the truth about the
position of the economy of the country, I am going out
looking for investors.
“But I am confirming to them that we are truthful, that we
need them to come and help us help ourselves by getting
in industries, manufacturing and services. They know our
needs. The economy of human resources, I believe will
make them eventually come and help us.
“Mr. Senate President, I thank you very much for leading
the Senate to do this hard work technically within record
time. I assure you that we will follow the constitution and
all the 36 will be sitting in the cabinet as the constitution
stipulates”, he said.
In an interview session with State House Correspondents
after the brief event, the senate president said it was not
new to have mi imagers without assigned duties.
He however urged Nigerians to focus on “major issues”.
According to him, the appointment of the ministers would
give room for serious government works to better the lots
of the citizenry.
He said: “Well I think before you had ministers of state in
the past, I don’t think there is anything new, there was
minister for special duties which really don’t have
portfolio. I think the key issue is being in cabinet, is being
part of government and those that would have the
responsibilities of ministering are those that at the end of
the day would do that.
“So minister of state is not new. We had it before, if you
remember that very well. Honestly I believe we need to
move away from the small issues and begin to focus on
the major issues. I think the country presently now is at a
very trying time no doubt about it.
“We have the challenges of revenue drop, challenges in
trying to boost revenue and create jobs and you know we
have some of these issues which we really need to address
and I think that it is time for us to address them and these
are some of the issues we looked at as a
senate, that it is time for us to give support to the
executive to move the country forward and I think all of us
apart from those in the legislature and the executive and
even those of you in the media, we must begin to proffer
and put our country in a positive view otherwisethere is no
way we are going to have those major issues addressed.
“As I said it is not new in having all not full time ministers,
but let us wait to see what portfolio or responsibility some
of them will
have. I cannot speak on behalf of the President on that,
but we have done our own constitutional responsibility.”
Saraki also scored highly the nominees, saying they had
the wherewithal to move Nigeria forward.
“As I said the work was not difficult because of the quality
of nominees that came in. Secondly it is the fact that we
put in the time to vigorously put the nominees to answer
the questions and at the end of the day, we found out that
most of them met the requirement and the senate was
satisfied.
“You noticed that in some cases we delayed the number of
one or two. It is all part of politics of behind the scene but
at the end of the day, we finished with them. That is all
about give and take and eventually I am happy with what
the senators have done. The entire 108 senators, we have
done a good job and I believe we have laid the platform
for the government to fully take off”, he said.
Asked why he had to deliver the names personally to the
president, the senate president hinted that there were
under private issues to discuss.
He however denied discussing his ongoing trial at the Code
of Conduct Tribunals.
“Because there were other things we discussed. As you can
see after you left we discussed for about 20 minutes on
some major issues as well. So it wasn’t just about the
letter.
I think at the right time they will get to know. I have a
constituency which is the senate which I must first engage
and I am sure with
time…the major issue has to do with moving Nigeria
forward.
“Did you think that will come up in this kind of situation?
No, it didn’t come up”, he said.
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