Buhari Receives Knocks For Appointing 11 Personal Aides, ‘Abandoning Nigerians To Their Fate’

President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent appointment of eleven personal staff has been criticized by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as “unpatriotic and self-centered”.

Presidential aide, Mallam Garba Shehu, had announced the appointments which consisted of positions for “Senior Special Assistant to the President (Household and Social Events), Special Assistant (House Keeping), Personal Assistant (Presidential Photographer), and Personal Assistant (State Photographer),” among others.

According to the PDP, the new appointments are “a direct slap on the sensitivity of the citizens,” and which are “only associated with leaders who do not have the mandate of the people but found themselves in office as beneficiaries of manipulated elections.”

THE WHISTLER had reported that on the same day Buhari appointed the 11 aides, the Presidency announced the re-appointment of Mr Boss Mustapha as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), and Mr Abba Kyari as the President’s Chief of Staff.

The appointments came ahead of the much-awaited list of President Buhari’s second cabinet ministers.

Meanwhile, in criticizing Buhari’s appointment of the 11 personal aides, the PDP accused the President of “abandoning Nigerians to their fate and being more interested in appointing aides to serve his immediate personal comfort and necessities.”

The opposition party claimed that the appointments came “at a time millions of Nigerians are hurting and suffering untold hardship due to lack of attention to critical sectors of our economy and national life, President Buhari is only concerned about his personal needs.”

The PDP further said: “That is why at the time Nigerians expect urgent interventions on critical issues of national insecurity and uncertainties; kidnapping and bloodletting; high costs of food and essential services; lack of affordable healthcare, decayed infrastructure and excruciating poverty in the land, President Buhari and his handlers are more interested in appointing house keepers and managers of social events that has only to do with him.

“The PDP invites Nigerians to note that this development and the general lethargy in governance is a weighty effect of the validity challenge that confronts governance in our nation today, following the rigging of the 2019 Presidential election.

“Moreover, such unseriousness further amplifies the insensitivity and incompetence of the Buhari Presidency as well as signposts the deplorable situation that might further befall the nation under the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“The PDP however urges Nigerians not to despair but remain resolute for the retrieval of our stolen Presidential mandate at the court, so that our dear nation will have the benefit of a serious, purposeful result-oriented administration and not an incompetent, flippant and confused government that attaches no seriousness or urgency to the exigencies of governance,” said the opposition party in statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan.