Buhari Explains Why He Hasn’t Appointed Ministers, Reform NNPC

Buhari Explains Why He Hasn’t Appointed Ministers, Reform NNPC

With the uncertainty over a clear-cut policy direction impacting on the economy, President Muhammadu Buhari has again adduced a reason for the delay in the appointment of his cabinet, stating that he did not want to appoint people who have been compromised.

Speaking on the Nigerian Television Authority's programme, “Good Morning Nigeria”, Buhari said if compromised people were appointed as ministers, “then we will be back to square one and Nigeria will be the loser”.

He said: “It is taking so much time because a number of knowledgeable people have been compromised.

“They have been compromised by people who will like to depend on them to damage our economy and security, a lot of them have been compromised.

“The worst thing that I think can happen is to get a compromised person to be in charge of institutions. There is no way he could be efficient or patriotic. Somebody behind the scene will be tele-guiding him at the expense of the nation.

“This is what we are trying to avoid and I assure you that so much damage has been done to Nigeria. We cannot rush to give this responsibility to people that have unfortunately been compromised.”

He said the country needed very patriotic, knowledgeable, experienced and committed Nigerians, who could work very hard to be in charge of ministries.

According to him, a lot of institutions in Nigeria were compromised, saying, “Everybody for himself and God for all of us,” describing this as most “unfortunate”.

He lamented that even though Nigeria has people – educated and experienced people – many of them, he regretted had been compromised.

He said: “It is as though everybody seems to be working for himself on how much they could get away with as soon as possible.

“We have to look for technocrats and politicians. We have to look out for decent people in this class to give them the responsibility of being in charge of ministries and important parastatals.

“We will try as mush as possible to avoid appointing hostages; by this, I mean people who have been in the system but compromised their personal and professional integrity.

“Because there is no way you can effectively supervise, let’s say 20 ministries; you have to give it to people you trust and you allow them to perform according to the constitution of the country.”

He also provided clarification on why his government was taking its time reforming the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), explaining that the federal government was trying to establish the magnitude of fraud and inefficiencies in the corporation.

He said: “Frankly, I read the stories too that I intend to break up the NNPC. I think the best way to go about it is to establish the fact of the magnitude of the inefficient ways the NNPC conducted itself. When we do that we will be on a higher moral ground to carry out whatever recommendations that have been made to us.”

He maintained that the NNPC has lost track of the number of accounts belonging to it, adding that his government was discreetly working with some Nigerians to ensure that perpetrators of fraud in the oil and gas sector are brought to book.

Buhari also criticised the crude oil swap programme, which he said had been used to defraud the country.

He alleged that a number of operators in the oil and gas industry had displayed a lack of conscience and love for the country.

“These individuals have refineries all over the world. The swapping is tied into a major killing ground for corrupt officials with an average evil to loot the country’s crude; (they) work out how much they can bring back to us and we pay for the transportation and for the refining.