Is Buhari Being Slow or Being Careful?
Many of those who gave President Muhammadu Buhari no chance of winning the March 28 presidential election are on a daily watch for where he will falter so they will yell, “Yes, we said it”. Already, those in this group are worrying themselves sore over the non-constitution of the Federal Executive Council (the federal cabinet). The murmuring in the closets are getting louder on the streets about why more than three weeks after, the Buhari-led government is yet running without ministers, Chief of Staff, Secretary to the Government of the Federation etc. etc.
The PDP megaphones are already making a song and dance over how unprepared and inexperienced the APC is for governance.
Already, some people are lapping up the comment by Mr President in South Africa, that at 72, there is a limit to what he can do, to mean that he lacks the capacity for either quick actions or overall poor performance altogether.
Even within the APC, many of the politicians eyeing one position or the other, in accordance with the old order, are already pushing media pressure to so-to-say, stampede President Buhari into announcing his cabinet and making more appointments; after all, that is how they will have access to the famous national cake.
But with the interview granted Arise TV News early in the week, those baying for the ministerial appointment list will have to wait a little longer since Mr President has declared that he is not in a hurry to make the appointments.
The Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, cleared some of the fog surrounding the said appointments when he explained that not only is Mr President doing a thorough check on the calibre of persons he will appoint, but also that he will indeed look beyond the APC to fill up his cabinet.
But those who think the president can be a little faster in his said checks, argue that ever since he knew he will form the government since March 28, he ought to have fished wide enough for suitable persons, after all, he is believed to have developed a governance template long before now.
And pray, will the president also look beyond the party to name his SGF, Chief of Staff and all such other inner-circle appointees? Why have such appointments not been made?
It is perhaps even more confounding to party chieftains as everybody is left guessing what the president will do. It is said that he has kept the list to his chest like an infant clutching his new toy. Not even the said top-rank chieftains of the party know their fate as far as the list is concerned. It is said that everybody who comes to make any suggestion of what to do and how to do it, only gets a “Thank You” from the taciturn president.
Buhari has managed to present an image of an unusual politician. Like Teflon, he has been able to wash-off all the pressure on him. And Nigerians are eagerly waiting to see those who will make the cabinet.
Those who think Buhari is slow fear that it might turn out to be like a young lady who is so selective of suitors and ends up marrying a deformed crook.
Such people who believe the President can expedite action in his consultations argue that too much discussion brings confusion noting that it is such indecision of where to go that created the crisis in the National Assembly because for too long, the APC was neither here nor there in what position it will take in the leadership of the National Assembly . Not even Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso’s warning could jolt the APC up from its inertia.
On the other hand, those who believe Buhari can take all his time to sift all the chaff from the wheat note that it is the deference to such pressure that often threw up people who aggregated bad name for a government as they help to devalue the government by the way they conduct the affairs of their offices.
Many of such ministers whose first loyalty is to the godfathers who brought them into the cabinet, end up serving other interests other than the overall interest of the Nigerian nation.
All said, President Buhari must draw a balance between his microscopic scrutiny of his nominees, and the need to urgently rev the engine of governance by putting his cabinet in place. The nation in in dire thirst for action given the plundering that it had suffered in the past.