The National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has said that there is no better demonstration of an inclusive government than President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointment of two ministers from a state that gave him less than two per cent votes in the last election.
Speaking to State House correspondents after a meeting with the President in Abuja on Monday, the party boss dismissed criticism over the manner of screening of ministerial nominees by the Senate.
The lawmakers had drawn the ire of some Nigerians over the manner they have carried out the screening with most nominees not having the opportunity to be thoroughly questioned.
Oshiomhole also condemned accusations of political patronage on the President’s selection of the ministerial nominees, saying that Buhari could not have appointed non-Nigerians.
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Asked to comment on the credibility of the appointment process, he said: “Whose credibility? How credible are some of those who are talking? The point is that I don’t know if there is a Nigerian who knows every Nigerian.
“Even as I can say that I have worked for Nigerian people at all levels, as a worker in a factory, as President of the NLC, as governor of a state and now as a national chairman of a party, there are too many Nigerians I will never be able to know.
“The screening process is meant to enable those watching, it is not for nothing that it is televised, it is to enable Nigerians see who these people are.
“But you will find that people started dismissing the list even before they saw it, just like some other things that Nigerians dismiss without knowing the meaning.
“So, what you and I should insist on is that in the president’s second term, in this next level, our party, our government at the centre, state and local government level must deliver. That is the entry point for every Nigerian.”
On political patronage determining Buhari’s appointments, Oshiomhole stated: “And when you talk of patronage, should we appoint…have you heard of Americans pointing Russians because they are experts to go and preside over their MDAs? Even in your newspapers do you invite me as APC chairman to come and write your editorial?
“Patronage can be positive or negative but if there is one man who has shown the capacity to patronize all including where he did not win election, it is President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Otherwise, where we got less than five per cent, I saw two ministers coming from that state, inspite of the fact that he got less than five per cent there. That speaks volumes about a large heart, to accommodate, appreciate and to have an all-inclusive government.
“I am very optimistic that these ministers coming all of us working together, the party, the executive which the ministers belong and the National Assembly where we have overwhelming majority, we have what it takes to take Nigeria to the next level and the next level we are going there”
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