Politics

How dead men crept into Buhari’s board appointee list

Published

9 years ago

December 31, 2017

The presidency on Saturday talked down the inclusion of the names of some dead persons in the list of appointments into boards of over 2000 agencies released by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation on Friday.

The list was said to have been readied over two years ago.

Anybody among those included could have died before now, the official statement said.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity Garba Shehu clarified this an interview with journalists in Abuja.

According to him, it all started in 2015 while a reviewed list was presented to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2017 shortly before his health challenges.

Buhari only instructed the new SGF, Mr. Boss Mustapha, to release the list.

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“The President asked all state chapters of the APC to forward 50 names for appointments to the SGF through the national headquarters of the party.

“The then SGF, Babachir Lawal, presented the report in October 2016, one year after he was commissioned.

“The report was disputed by state governors who said they were not carried along or the list was not representative enough.

“So, the President constituted a new panel chaired by the Vice President. The panel has some governors and some leaders of the party as members. They were asked to go and review the list.

“The panel did its work and turned in its report early in 2017. The President had his health challenges during that period.

“Now that he is back and strong, he asked the SGF to go and release the list. So the new SGF did what he was asked to do. There is nothing scandalous or extraordinary about what has happened.”

Shehu assured that nominees who are dead would be replaced.

The list has generated lots of furore. Many called the APC government incompetent as a result of this.