The Chairman of Northern Elders Council, NEC, Tanko Yakassai, says that Nigerians are in trouble today because Buhari's administration is still novice in the job of governance. He said Buhari’s Ministers are not performing because they were not appointed based on their own areas of expertise.
The Elder statesman stated this while fielding questions in a chat he had with Vanguard News.
Below is the Excerpt of the interview:
Some people say that the kinds of political appointees by the president is partly responsible for the present economic situation we have found ourselves. And that the core north got more than its fair share. Do you agree with that?
Look, I am a Nigerian who looks at every citizen as a Nigerian first. I look at Nigeria as a single entity. Every qualified Nigerian can be appointed to any office irrespective of where he comes from. You can never hear me say, ‘there are few northerners or Southerners’ in political appointments. All I’m after are good people who can discharge their duties in the best interest of Nigeria.
That leads me to say that some Ministers today, as good as they appear, are misfits in their present offices. Take the case of the Minister of Communication (Barrister Adebayo Shittu). This is a first class lawyer – a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN. He is posted to a Ministry where he is learning from the scratch. It is the same with the Minister of Budget and National Planning (Sen. Udo Udoma).
He is a lawyer. He is now in charge of planning and the Nigeria budget. He has to start from the scratch. Thank God he was a Senator and he once served on the budget or finance committee or something. But that does not make him an expert in that field. It is the same with the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Barr. Geoffrey Onyeama), he is a lawyer. That ministry is not his area of expertise. They are all novices in their areas of postings and you cannot expect a contrary result.
If President Muhammadu Buhari should ask for your advice on how to get Nigeria out of its present situation, what would you tell him?
I will start with his political appointees. People should be appointed based on their competence and be put in the right places. I will advise that the constitution be amended so that when Ministers are appointed, the ministry which they will be appointed to will be attached and submitted to the Senate.
Also, political parties should not make manifestoes before elections, but should be tested on their manifestoes before elections. For instance, this government came on the slogan of ‘Change.’ They never explained what their Change meant: Change from what to what?
That is why we are in trouble today. For one and half years now, this government is still learning on the job. But if they had articulated and understood what change they wanted and how to go about it, they could have achieved much, not minding other distractions. One and half years is a lot in the life of a government of four years.
Culled from Vanguard
