Buhari: Governors Won't Nominate Ministers For Me

President-elect Muhammadu Buhari has dismissed the ministerial list in circulation on the social media as fake because he hasn’t discussed it with anybody yet even as he said the way his ministers would emerge will be a radical departure from the past.

Buhari made this known in an exclusive interview he granted senior editors of Daily Trust at his country home in Daura, Katsina State.

With about a week to the May 29 hand over date, there have been speculations about those who would make it into Buhari’s cabinet.

The list, which was circulated on social media had persons picked from across the 36 states and the six geopolitical zones, in line with the outgoing Peoples Democratic Party-led Federal Government’s tradition of appointing a minimum of one minister from each state of the federation and six others from the geopolitical zones into the Federal Executive Council.

But in the interview, the president-elect dismissed the speculations, stating that “I am not speaking about it; I have not put anything on paper, so nobody has seen it and I haven’t discussed it with anybody; I am just keeping it close to my chest”.

Giving an insight into how his ministers would emerge, Buhari said, “I am ardent listener of Hausa Service of Voice of America (VOA) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) from 6am to 7am every morning. I am going to quote myself because I heard in one of the interviews that I said the type of people I am supposed to appoint, like in the cabinet and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and service chiefs, will be different. Definitely my approach is going to be different from what we had under the PDP where governors nominated ministers”.

The president-elect said if state governors are at liberty to appoint their commissioners, he, too, should be at liberty to choose those who would serve with him in the FEC, thereby abolishing the existing tradition where state governors are the ones that submit names of their candidates for ministerial appointments.

According to Mr. Buhari, he was still looking around for the kind of persons who could help to transform the country, stating that, “I have been around long enough to know people that I can approach for things like that… Deliberately we will look for competent people, dedicated and experienced to head ministries and, of course, there will be schedules for ministers and we will expect them to fill them. Economically we will try and stop a lot of wastages and encourage austerity so that we can fund the ministries. Education and healthcare will get more attention. Of course, security is Number One. Certainly, there is a lot to do but we are hoping that we ‘ll get good people to be in charge of ministries who can apply themselves to their responsibilities so that in no time Nigerians would begin to see the difference”.

When asked if he would present the list of his ministers to the Senate in the first week of the proclamation of the 8^th National Assembly, Buhari simply responded “I will not make that known before you”.