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President Muhammadu Buhari said yesterday that Nigerians should pass a
verdict on the performance of his appointed officials during the
administration’s first year in office so that he will know if he should
change them.
Asked if Nigerians should expect changes in his team during this
anniversary period Buhari said, “I am waiting for the newspapers to tell
me the performance of my ministers and whether I should make changes.”
President Buhari explained why his government took off rather slowly.
He said former President Obasanjo, who had experience with hand over
and take over, recalled that in 1999 outgoing Head of State General
Abdulsalami Abubakar made each ministry to prepare handing over notes
and then brief the president-elect, for him to choose what he wanted out
of it.
He said President Goodluck Jonathan agreed to do the same and asked
all his ministers to prepare handing over notes and brief Buhari but
they protested at the last minute that Buhari should not be allowed to
take over the government before he was sworn-in.
As a result, he said no proper transition took place and after his
inauguration he had to take briefings from two ministries a day in order
to make up for lost time.
The president also spoke about budget padding. He said though he had
been in public life since 1975, he never heard of budget padding until
when he saw Minister of Health Prof Isaac Adeoye on television defending
his budget before a National Assembly committee.
Buhari said he was shocked when the minister told the committee that
he could not defend what he did not propose because the budget had been
padded.
He said, “I went [to the National Assembly] and bowed and delivered
[the budget] but I did not know that what I delivered was a shell.
They removed what they wanted and added other things.”
He said when the budget as passed by the National Assembly was
brought to him, he refused to sign it because throughout his life he
never signed anything that he did not understand.
At one point, he said, Minister of Budget and National Planning Udoma
Udo Udoma persuaded him to sign it and he said “I will sign it because I
trust you.”
However, he said before he could sign, Udoma read the budget
thoroughly and rushed back to him and advised him not to sign it unless
amendments were made.
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