Dialogues: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Buhari not yet the change we voted for

'On Buhari's executive cabinet list, he said "I find it astonishing that in these fiscally and economically famished times; PMB apart from having obtained the approval of the Senate to appoint 13 Special Advisers has sent a list of 36 ministerial nominees to the Senate for confirmation.

"There is absolutely no difference between this and the PDP era of opulence and waste associated with the costs of governance. Where then is the change?"

On the Ministerial screening, Ayobolu noted that "There is hardly any difference between the utter lack of seriousness and rigour that characterised the screening of ministerial nominees under the PDP-dominated Senate of the past 16 years and the new APC-dominant Senate."

"If an incumbent party and President could be defeated in 2015, the same feat is not impossible in 2019."

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Joe Attueyi topcrestt@yahoo.com [YanArewa] <YanArewa@yahoogroups.com>
Date: 25 October 2015 at 20:49
Subject: {Yan Arewa} Buhari not yet the change we voted for – Tinubu Aide
T

The daggers are coming out.

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A former aide to Ahmed Tinubu, Segun Ayobolu, who is currently for The Nation newspaper, has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of negating the change mantra the party stands for.

Ayobolu, Tinubu's Chief Press Secretary and Special Adviser on Information and Strategy on Health to Raji Fashola the immediate past governor of Lagos on said Buhari's five month old administration had proven he is yet to provide the change Nigerians voted for.

"Are they conscious of the fact that the greater the time lag between their formal assumption of office and the manifestation of their promised changes, the greater will be the growing frustrations of sections of the populace with the attendant increasing nostalgia for an idealised past?

"It is now nearly five months after PMB was sworn in following the sweeping victory of the APC at the polls.

"Yet, the party is only just putting in place members of its Federal Executive Council (FEC) to assist the President in driving the machinery of governance.

"PMB claims he needed sufficient time to pick the very best men and women in terms of competence and moral integrity to work with him.

"Yet, impressive as the ministerial list he has sent to the National Assembly is, any President could have assembled the team within a month."

Ayobolu lamented further that "The APC's mantra of change remains just a slogan. No one is sure of its concrete content.

"Nigerians who voted for the party in droves expect more than that.This honeymoon can surely not go on forever, he said."

Ayobolu pointed out that Buhari's first major error was not following Federal Character principle enshrined in the constitution for appointments.

Giving examples, Ayobolu said Mahmood Yakubu's appointment as Attahiru Jega's successor as substantive Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, was unjustifiable and very insensitive.

Quoting the Mohammed Uwais panel on electoral reforms, which proposed a wide range of reforms to strengthen the electoral process, he said "One of these, which the opposition parties at the time vigorously supported, was that the President would pick the chairman of INEC from a list of three nominees by the National Judicial Council NJC.

"Although, President Goodluck Jonathan from the South-south did not implement this reform, he at least picked a man of integrity from the north, Jega, as head of the electoral umpire."

Expressing shock, he said "The least one expected of PMB as a northerner was that he would emulate this worthy example and also pick an INEC chairman of intellect, character, experience and integrity from the South."

On Buhari's executive cabinet list, he said "I find it astonishing that in these fiscally and economically famished times; PMB apart from having obtained the approval of the Senate to appoint 13 Special Advisers has sent a list of 36 ministerial nominees to the Senate for confirmation.

"There is absolutely no difference between this and the PDP era of opulence and waste associated with the costs of governance. Where then is the change?"

"If an incumbent party and President could be defeated in 2015, the same feat is not impossible in 2019."