Nigeria’s president-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari
(rtd.), has disclosed that his cabinet would be
announced very quickly within seven working days of
inauguration; and that “Anyone with a whiff of
corruption or any kind of taint will not be in the
cabinet. Our manifesto will reflect zero tolerance for
corruption”.
He however pledged to put an end to fuel subsidies,
adding that the oil and gas sector would be reformed
as a matter of priority in order to attract new
investments.
The President-Elect, who stated this while unveiling his
economic policies at a Lagos Business School breakfast
meeting, noted that he would run a very lean
government, which would involve rationalizing
overlapping and redundant ministries, departments
and agencies (MDAs) in line with the Steve Oronsaye
presidential committee report.
Gen. Buhari, who was represented at the meeting by
former Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi,
however disclosed that there would be very little
action from his government until October, partly due
to the fact that incumbent president, Dr. Goodluck
Jonathan-led government authored the currently
existing 2015 budget.
Asserting that the federal government under the All
Progressives Congress(APC) would seek “to align the
electoral and fiscal calendars to avoid this type of
problem in future,” he assured the audience that the
cardinal agenda of his government and their over-
arching themes would be security, fighting corruption
and unemployment.
“We believe that corruption has a very strong
negative link to both security and unemployment,”
he said.
According to reports, the President-Elect maintained
that there would be no real action until October partly
because the 2015 budget “is Jonathan’s and may be
fully approved in April. A very lean government is the
focus, largely in line with the Steve Oronsaye
presidential committee report. This report was
available to the Jonathan government, but the will to
implement it was absent”.
He acknowledged that the APC “is not a conclave of
cardinals, as it includes the good, the bad and the
ugly,” noting that in Nigeria, the bad and the ugly
could be the biggest electoral assets, though the new
government “will not interfere with law enforcement
agencies or the judiciary even if APC members are
involved in corrupt practices”.
He further assured that the Vice-President-elect, Prof.
Yemi Osinbajo, who did a lot of work as the Attorney-
General and Commissioner for Justice in Lagos State
would bring his experience to revamp and strengthen
the judiciary to complement the anti-corruption drive
and the rule of law, adding that “He will also anchor
the economic committee”.
He promised that his government would continue with
some of the programmes in the Jonathan
administration, which were successful.
“For example, agriculture, though there would be a
stronger collaboration between the federal and
state governments,” he said.
He also revealed plans to consolidate such anti-
corruption agencies as the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC, and Independent Corrupt
Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC,
into a single entity to make them more effective.
“We believe Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is getting
over-burdened by developmental finance issues at
the expense of its core objectives; this will be
changed,” he said.
According to Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, the subsidy on
petroleum products would certainly go and the
industry would be reformed as a matter of priority in
order to attract new investments, adding that “While
power reform has been commendable and will
continue, the approach will change”.
He explained that power transmission would be
deregulated, regionalised and privatized in order “to
break down centralized transmission, while the issues
of gas supply to Gencos will be addressed.
“But the new government believes that Discos are
the biggest bottlenecks presently. The government
plans to add on 4,000 MW of power every year and
expect that output will reach a minimum of 12,000
MW at the end of his tenure”.
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