Welcoming the Buhari’s new ministers

Penultimate I Wednesday, President Muhammadu Buhari swore in his new ministers and assigned them portfolios. Unlike in 2015 in which the president maintained a lean cabinet, the President has expanded his cabinet to 43 with the creation of additional ministries. Although some Nigerians are surprised and not comfortable with the kind of personalities that made the Buhari’s ministers list, in the two days induction training organised for the new ministers, President Buhari has told the ministers that they would be ‘laborious’ this time and drew their attention on the numerous challenges ahead.

With the inauguration of ministers, the Buhari administration should hit the ground running. In his first tenure, the country experienced increase in the waves of attack by dreaded Boko Haram insurgents, the rampage Fulani killers, ethnic and communal strife and high rate of kidnapping. These problems have defied lasting solutions and seemed to rear their ugly head in Buhari’s second term. I think the new minister of defence should be fully prepared to tackle these security challenges with iron hand. The ministry of defence should involve all the security apparatchiks to secure our country from these blood thirsty terrorists.

The unnecessary intra-agencies rivalry has done more harm than good and should be resolved speedily through the regularly security agencies meeting organized and coordinated by the office of the National Security Adviser. There is also the need for intensive intelligence gathering and deployment of modern security gadgets to monitor the movement of terrorists and other criminals in the length and breadth of the country.

With the swathe of internally displaced people due to numerous crises in the country, the creation of ministry of humanitarian disaster management and social development is apt and timely. The new ministry which is headed by the former Commissioner of National Refugee Commission, Sadiya Faruk, will provide the emergency response to the natural and manmade disasters. The Buhari second term ministers will face the unresolved national minimum wage, the education crises and many more challenges. President Buhari should ensure his ministers perform to the satisfaction of Nigerians. It seems Nigerians have run out of patience, endured enough excuses and now blindly need dividends of democracy.

Ibrahim Mustapha,

 Pambegua, Kaduna state.                             

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