The All Progressives Congress has
assured Nigerians that President
Muhammadu Buhari would appoint
his ministers this September as
promised.
This is contrary to the widespread
speculations that the president would
not unveil the list of his long-awaited
cabinet next month.
Speaking with the Leadership, the
National Publicity secretary of the
APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, stated
that only president Buhari knew those
he would appoint as he had decided
to keep it ‘to his chest.’
He said, “We will wait for September,
and whatever else anyone has said is
just innuendos. I don’t know why
Nigerians are in such a hurry. If a
man has a mandate for 48 months, I
don’t think it is inordinate to spend
four months. Who will get medal
because he appointed ministers
within record time? It is the quality of
the ministers – when they are able to
deliver – that the country judges him
with.”
The party chieftain stressed that the
president should not be put under
pressure to name ministers as the
citizens will hold him responsible if
he appoint wrong people into his
cabinet.
“We have seen people that appointed
ministers in the first month, what
happened to them at the end of the
day?” He queried.
On who and who may make the list
and the condition with which they
may be appointed, Mohammed said:
“I know that there are informal
meetings going on daily between the
president and leaders of the party. I
don’t think there is anywhere either
at NEC, NWC or Caucus that anybody
has discussed the issue of ministers.
The president I know has kept this
thing very close to his chest.
“The constitution says there would be
federal character in the appointment
of ministers and I think the president
is not going to violate the
constitution.”
On the party’s position on subsidy
removal, he said “if our refineries
work, we will import less refined
products. If you import less refined
products, and if in truth there is fuel
subsidy, you will pay much less.
There is a lot within the mathematics
of subsidy that we don’t understand.”
He stated that crude oil, according to
former minister Dr Ngozi Okonjo-
Iweala, accounts for 80 per cent of the
landing cost of refined products and,
therefore, “if you are sending crude at
$100 per barrel, your refined products
would be more expensive than if you
are sending crude at $50 per barrel; it
is common sense.
“If the cost of crude accounts for 80
per cent of the landing cost of the
refined product, therefore, the higher
the cost of crude, the higher the cost
of refined product and the higher the
so-called subsidy.
“What happens when your crude has
plummeted to $50? One would also
expect that the landing cost would go
down by 50 per cent. But now, they
now bring in this factor of your
currency, saying it is not going down
because your currency has also been
devalued.
“What we have now decided to do is
that the government has now put
some 41 items out of the foreign
exchange list. In other words, you can
bring these 41 items to Nigeria – they
are not banned, but you can only
source your foreign exchange from
other source,” he added.
SOURCE:
DailyPost
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