Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, on Monday, said that the 43 ministerial list submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Senate for screening is to boost formation of an all-inclusive government.
Oshiomhole was reacting to the criticism that the list is based on political patronage and not credibility.
Speaking with State House correspondents after meeting President Muhammadu Buhari in the State House, he wondered how credible the people
According to him, some of them started criticising the list before seeing it.
He also noted that President Buhari was magnanimous to have nominated up to two ministers from state that contributed less than 5% of the President’s votes in the 2019 Presidential election.
On his reaction to criticism trailing the President’s ministerial list being political patronage and not credibility, 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 center, state and local government level must deliver. That is the entry point for every Nigerian.
“And when you talk of patronage, should we appoint…have you heard of Americans appointing 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? He queried
“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
“Otherwise, where we got less than five percent, I saw two ministers coming from that state, inspite of the fact that he got less than five percent 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,” he said.