Nigeria’s president-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.), has disclosed that his cabinet would be announced very quickly within seven working days of inauguration; and that “Anyone with a whiff of corruption or any kind of taint will not be in the cabinet. Our manifesto will reflect zero tolerance for corruption”.
He however pledged to put an end to fuel subsidies, adding that the oil
and gas sector would be reformed as a matter of priority in order to
attract new investments.
The President-Elect, who stated this while unveiling his economic
policies at a Lagos Business School breakfast meeting, noted that he
would run a very lean government, which would involve rationalizing
overlapping and redundant ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in
line with the Steve Oronsaye presidential committee report.
Gen. Buhari, who was represented at the meeting by former Ekiti State
Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, however disclosed that there would be very
little action from his government until October, partly due to the fact
that incumbent president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan-led government authored
the currently existing 2015 budget.
Asserting that the federal government under the All Progressives
Congress(APC) would seek “to align the electoral and fiscal calendars to
avoid this type of problem in future,” he assured the audience that the
cardinal agenda of his government and their over-arching themes would
be security, fighting corruption and unemployment.
“We believe that corruption has a very strong negative link to both security and unemployment,” he said.
According to reports, the President-Elect maintained that there would be
no real action until October partly because the 2015 budget “is
Jonathan’s and may be fully approved in April. A very lean government is
the focus, largely in line with the Steve Oronsaye presidential
committee report. This report was available to the Jonathan government,
but the will to implement it was absent”.
He acknowledged that the APC “is not a conclave of cardinals, as it
includes the good, the bad and the ugly,” noting that in Nigeria, the
bad and the ugly could be the biggest electoral assets, though the new
government “will not interfere with law enforcement agencies or the
judiciary even if APC members are involved in corrupt practices”.
He further assured that the Vice-President-elect, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo,
who did a lot of work as the Attorney-General and Commissioner for
Justice in Lagos State would bring his experience to revamp and
strengthen the judiciary to complement the anti-corruption drive and the
rule of law, adding that “He will also anchor the economic committee”.
He promised that his government would continue with some of the
programmes in the Jonathan administration, which were successful.
“For example, agriculture, though there would be a stronger collaboration between the federal and state governments,” he said.
He also revealed plans to consolidate such anti-corruption agencies as
the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and Independent
Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, into a
single entity to make them more effective.
“We believe Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is getting over-burdened by
developmental finance issues at the expense of its core objectives; this
will be changed,” he said.
According to Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, the subsidy on petroleum products
would certainly go and the industry would be reformed as a matter of
priority in order to attract new investments, adding that “While power
reform has been commendable and will continue, the approach will
change”.
He explained that power transmission would be deregulated, regionalised
and privatized in order “to break down centralized transmission, while
the issues of gas supply to Gencos will be addressed.
“But the new government believes that Discos are the biggest bottlenecks
presently. The government plans to add on 4,000 MW of power every year
and expect that output will reach a minimum of 12,000 MW at the end of
his tenure”.
He said the party’s groundwork showed that N3 trillion in savings could
come out of plugged leakages, noting that the employment drive would be
private sector led.
“The government will allow market forces to prevail, including in the foreign exchange regime,” he said.
The President-Elect debunked speculations that he would use fiat to fix
the foreign exchange, adding, however, that the government would keenly
seek to protect the more economically vulnerable segments of the
society.
He added that there would be a tightening of the tax noose, though there would be no tax increase.
“The Federal Internal Revenue Service (FIRS) will be strengthened and
the LASG IGR template will be adopted at the national level,” he stated.
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