Hehehe....abeg our ministers make una good oooo....The Department of State Services has commenced the screening of ministerial nominees sent to it by President Muhammadu Buhari, Fidelis Chidi blog has learnt on Wednesday.
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It was gathered that no fewer than 20 nominees had been vetted by the DSS operatives since the exercise started.
The President was said to have sent to the agency a total of 36 names of would be ministers for security checks.
The identities of the nominees were top secret as of Wednesday.
The President had indicated in a chat
with journalists in Accra, Ghana, on Monday that he would keep his
promise of announcing names of his ministers this month.
Investigations
showed that the screening process by the DSS involved conducting
background checks on the careers of the nominees and operatives were
also checking for records of the nominees with anti-graft and security
agencies.
One of our correspondents gathered that
people on the list included mainly those who worked with Buhari when he
was in the military and during his stint as the chairman of the defunct
Petroleum Trust Fund.
The DSS could not be reached for comment on Wednesday as it had yet to appoint a spokesperson.
‘Security screening not public’
When asked if the Presidency had
directed security agencies to vet ministerial nominees, the Special
Adviser (Media) to the President, Femi Adesina, simply replied via a
text message, “Security screening is naturally a behind-the-scenes
matter, thanks.”
Top ranking members of the governing All
Progressives Congress have also refrained from speaking about
ministerial appointment by Buhari.
One of the APC leaders, who asked not to
be named, said, “The truth is that the President is someone who
believes in due process.”
“His choice of Daura (Lawal Daura), a
member of the old guard, as the DG DSS should tell you something; even
those contacted for screening know that any leak of information traced
to them could ruin their chances,” the source added.
The National Chairman of the party, Chief John Oyegun, has been out of Abuja for almost one week.
Calls to his mobile phone indicated that it was switched off.
Repeated calls to the mobile telephone
number of the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr. Lai Mohammed,
were neither picked nor returned as of the time of filing this report.
The ministerial list is yet to be forwarded to the Senate as it is still undergoing security screening.
The President, in an interview he
granted the Hausa Service of the BBC on Tuesday, had given a hint about
what influenced the appointments he had so far.
He had said, “If I choose people who I
know quite well in my political party, people whom we came (together)
all the way right from the All Paeoples Party, Congress for Progressive
Change and the APC and we have remained together through good and trying
times, what then is the reward for such dedication and suffering? They
did not defect because of positions; they did not involve themselves in
the pursuit of personal gains.”
Such considerations are also likely to influence his choice of ministers, sources indicated.
It will be recalled that Buhari had in July said his cabinet would be made known in September.
The President, in an article published
in Washington Post on July 19, said it would neither be prudent nor
serve the interests of sound judgment for him to have formed his cabinet
immediately he was inaugurated on May 29.
He said it was necessary for the country
to first put new rules of conduct and good governance in place before
he could make critical appointments into his government.
The article was published ahead of his historic meeting with President Barack Obama of United States in July.
He said it was noteworthy that Obama did not have his full cabinet in place for several months after first taking office.
He said the US did not cease to function in the interim despite that delay.
“When cabinet ministers are appointed in
September, it will be some months after I took the oath of office. It
is worth noting that Obama himself did not have his full cabinet in
place for several months after first taking office; the United States
did not cease to function in the interim,” he had said.
Meanwhile
Meanwhile
The National Leader of the All
Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and a former Governor of
Osun State, Chief Bisi Akande, held a secret meeting with President
Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa on Wednesday.
The visit came less than 24 hours after former President Olusegun Obasanjo met with Buhari.
Addressing State House correspondents
after the one-hour meeting, Tinubu, who is a former Governor of Lagos
State, said he did not come to submit any ministerial list to the
President.
“What
can I do about that, they have the right to speculate, they have the
right to their lies and I have the right to debunk,” he said.
However, a reliable source told one of
our correspondents that the ministerial list was one of the topics
discussed at the meeting.
The source said just as Tinubu was given
the power to pick Buhari’s running mate during the electioneering,
Buhari was giving him the privilege of filling some positions that
should go to the South-West.
He said, “Buhari never marginalised the
South-West as is being reported. Most of the northern appointments that
Buhari made are those that will work closely with him in the villa and
Tinubu was not really interested in them.
“It was Tinubu that recommended
Babatunde Fowler to head the Federal Inland Revenue Service and that is
the next best thing after oil which many people don’t understand.
“Buhari has insisted that people that
are answering to cases of corruption will not be part of his government
and Tinubu is aware of this. He has recommended a former commissioner in
Lagos for appointment too and he will be part of Buhari’s economic team
even if he is not appointed as a minister.”
When asked how many ministerial slots
Buhari had given Tinubu, the source said he could not say for sure but
added that Buhari was planning to compensate Tinubu for losing out to
Senate President Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara during the National
Assembly internal elections
He added, “Every state is expected to
produce a minister and we already know that there will be some issues
with some stubborn state governors. So, if Tinubu loses out at the
ministerial level, he will be made to nominate the chairman of some
parastatals and government agencies.”
When asked to explain why Tinubu and
Akande chose to visit Buhari just a day after Obasanjo, the source said,
“It was purely coincidental. Buhari is travelling out of the country
tomorrow (today) and Tinubu wanted to tidy up some things before the
President’s departure.”
Meanwhile, Tinubu has dismissed the Peoples Democratic Party’s allegations of dictatorship levelled against President Buhari.
Tinubu, in an interview with State House correspondents said the PDP should be quiet, if it did not have anything to say.
The former governor stated that the PDP
created the rot that Buhari was cleaning, adding that the rot could not
be swept under the carpet.
The PDP governors, after a meeting in
Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, on Tuesday said Nigeria was sliding
into dictatorship under the leadership of Buhari.
Defending the President, Tinubu said,
“What is dictatorship about what he has done? He has helped to stimulate
the economy in the various states and that is where the people are. So
what is dictatorship? And the institutional paralysis had occurred in
the country.
“It is very important for a steady man
like the President to really help the nation recover from the paralysis
and that is what he is doing so I don’t see what is dictatorial about
that. If they don’t have anything to say, they rather be quiet. They
created what is wrong here today and we can’t sweep that under the
carpet. There must be rule of law.”
He also denied a claim that he went to
the Presidential Villa to submit the ministerial list to Buhar, saying,
“What can I do about that, they have the right to speculate, they have
the right to their lies and I have the right to debunk.”
The APC leader said that there was no power struggle between him and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar
“Our party is not even looking at the
direction of power struggle or anything of such. The support structure
is to encourage and support the President as you have heard from Chief
Bisi Akande, to help him institutionalize his goal, principle and vision
for a new Nigeria,” Tinubu stated.
He defended Buhari against criticisms
that trailed his delay in releasing ministerial list, adding that there
was a pitfall in rushing.
Tinubu stated, “Rush can cascade into
mistakes of unimaginable magnitude. There is equally glory and recovery
in slowness, when you have a slow fix of a bad foundation. So to me, I
would rather take the one that will last the country and endeavour for a
longer period of time than the rush hour shopping.”
Also speaking ,Akande, who was at the
meeting, said the President “inherited piles of rot.” He said that they
discussed the rot the PDP left for it was defeated.
President Buhari on September 9, received APC
Chieftains: Ahmed Bola Tinubu and Bisi Akande at the Presidential
Villa, Abuja. More photos abeg
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