The President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari,
is said to be considering the reduction of
the number of ministers as part of his
strategies for reducing the cost of
governance
. This formed part of
the cost-saving proposals which Buhari
presented during the All Progressives
Congress National Working Committee
meeting in Abuja on Wednesday.
Those to be done away with are ministers
of state.
The NWC, which is yet to conclude its
deliberations on proposals, according a
high-ranking member of the APC NWC, is
working on various options, including
streamlining the ministries and
parastatals.
The NWC member said, “No concrete
decision has been reached on any of the
issues yet. We are still meeting
tomorrow.”
The meeting, which was chaired by the
party’s National Chairman, John Odigie-
Oyegun, also reviewed the just-
concluded general elections, the
deadlock in the Taraba State
governorship poll as well as the alleged
electoral fraud in Rivers and Akwa Ibom
states.
National Publicity Secretary of the party,
Lai Mohammed, who spoke to journalists
during a short break by the committee,
confirmed that the NWC reviewed the
governorship election.
He added that with the “elections behind
us, we have to prepare the ground for the
transition committee and for the
business of governance.”
When asked to comment on the
proposals made by Buhari on
streamlining the ministries and
parastatals, he dismissed the question.
Mohammed said, “I think you have been
listening to a lot of gossips; nothing like
that was discussed. All we discussed
was to make recommendations to the
transition committee; how the
government should hit the ground
running and what should be the
immediate, mid-term and long term
policies of the incoming government. So,
all these issues of ministers and MDAs
are your own imagination.”
Responding to another question on
power sharing, he said, “This
government is not going to be like
before; we discussed serious issues and
honestly, I am telling you what we
discussed since morning has been what
should be the priority of the incoming
government.
“Power sharing was not discussed. I
don’t know who gave you information on
what was discussed and not discussed.
Anyway, we are going to resume the
discussion tomorrow (Thursday).”
He said the party was not satisfied with
what happened in Akwa Ibom, Rivers,
Taraba and Imo states.
Earlier, the party’s candidate in the
Taraba State governorship race, Aisha
Alhassan, who joined the meeting at
some point, drove out of the party’s
headquarters at 7.48pm.
She declined comments when reporters
approached her. It was however learnt
that the NWC received a briefing from her
about the happenings in the state after
which she answered a few questions and
was allowed to leave.
Muhammed also declined to make public
the names of the chairman and members
of the transition committee.
It was however learnt that the Vice-
President- Elect, Yemi Osinbajo, would
chair the Buhari transition committee.
Meanwhile, the National Organising
Secretary of the APC, Osita Izunaso, and a
former Governor of Bayelsa State,
Timipreye Sylva, have condemned the
April 11 elections in the South -East and
the South- South.
They said but for the timely intervention
of the APC leaders, the people in some
states of the regions would have taken
the laws into their hands.
Sylva said the APC and its members
especially in Bayelsa State, were
confronted with a choice between
winning the elections and protecting the
lives of the people who were being
attacked, intimidated and killed.
