The Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has listed experience and competence as the major factors that should inform the selection of new ministers by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The party, which spoke through its Director of Publicity, Dr Azeez Olatunde, said there is no room for ministers who will start learning in the job given the magnitude of work before the APC government at the federal level at present.
Olatunde explained that the Eighth National Assembly constituted itself to opposition, and thereby drew the hands of the Federal Government back several miles in its effort to bring about the change it promised and for which Nigerians voted for the APC candidates in 2015. He added that the issue of insecurity currently requires urgent attention as it has also impeded the efforts of the government to ensure that the country produces the food its citizens eat.
He said: “What we believe that President Buhari should consider is that the change for which the APC was ushered in has not been fully met given the fact that we are our own enemy, courtesy of the Eighth National Assembly which turned itself to opposition. We feel that we have lost good grounds of meeting the yearnings of the people. As a result, the 2019 mandate is like a kind of respite to cover the lost grounds in the first tenure.
“By the virtue of this, the president will need very experienced and seasoned personnel with a lot of accomplishments they can call on. This is because right now, we have a huge security challenge which has to be tackled immediately.
“Two, there can’t be any development without constant power supply. Three, we challenged ourselves as a government and nation to produce what we eat but insecurity on farmlands has hindered that somehow. So, it has to be tackled headlong.
“These call for people that are experienced and who have the wherewithal for the immediate need of Nigeria. We don’t have time for people that will start learning on the job. We need people who will hit the ground running immediately they are sworn in. The patience of Nigerians can’t be tasked for too long. We will soon be in another election campaign. So we need a lot of accomplishments in the first two years. Roads, rails, power and agriculture have to be fixed along with insecurity and spiral unemployment. That is what will cast the APC in a better reputation.”
