The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has reacted with scorn to the list of President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministerial nominees as announced by the Senate on Tuesday.
The party said “by a mere look at the list, one can tell that there is nothing to be excited about, especially considering the length of time it took the President to come up with it”.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, in a statement on Tuesday, said “looking at the list, it is hard to put a finger on why it should take any serious-minded and focused government, six months after its election to assemble such a regular team.”
The party said the list and the length of time it took have further confirmed the fact that the APC-led administration is driven by propaganda and deceit, a development that raises doubts on the sincerity of its anti-corruption crusade.
A former Governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, has also voiced his disappointment at President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministerial list arguing that that there is nothing spectacular about the names.
According to him, “why did it take the President four months to come up with these names? I believe this is the question that many informed Nigerians should ask.
“These are the same old names, ordinary Nigerians who the President knows and he must have even met them several times. So, what is particular about them that he wasted so much time in appointing them ministers?
“But there are about two or three who I can say are distinguished among them like, Audu Ogbeh who I have known for a very long time.
“We were together during the Second Republic. He was a minister while I was governor then. Audu Ogbeh has an outstanding public record that everybody knows.”
Spokesman of Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, goes a step further by describing some of the ministerial nominees as poster boys of corruption.
“Nearly everybody on that list has been involved one way of the other, at one level or the other since 1999. Quite a few of them have serious allegations against them.
“In fact, some of them are poster boys of corruption. We hope that those who would do the screening will do a thorough screening. If we are fighting corruption on one hand, then those who have been portrayed to be corrupt should not be promoted to higher responsibility.
“There are some who have governed at the state level and have been alleged to be corrupt. So, to jump that and move to become ministerial leaders, rubbishes the whole concept of our fight against corruption,” he argued.
