The Peoples Democratic Party has said that President Muhammadu Buhari never intended to appoint ministers because he prefers to run Nigeria as a sole administrator.
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Chief Olisa Metuh, said this during a press briefing in Abuja on Monday.
He explained that President Buhari’s comments and hesitancy has shown that he won’t value or respect those he would nominate as ministers.
He 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.”
He warned that the refusal to name a cabinet is shifting the country to dictatorial inclinations.
He said “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.”
On the Buhari’s absence at the 70th United Nations’ General Assembly meeting of countries affected by insurgency, Metuh said the President should admit failure and apologise to Nigerians.
He said “Further reports indicate that due to the importance of that meeting, it was broadcast on United Nations’ official online television and radio channels, while officials of world bodies have continued to register their disappointment in our country due to the incompetence of the APC-led government.
“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.
“It is disheartening to note that the same meeting the President Buhari-led delegation shunned actually yielded a fall out of $6.8 million announced by the United States as funding for regional aid efforts.”