LONDON TRIP: Did Buhari Return With A Ministerial List?

As the first term of Muhammadu Buhari gradually winds down to usher in his second term in office as President of Nigeria, a lot of issues surrounding his second term have continued to dominate public discourse.

One among these issues is the question of those the president would pick as ministers for his next cabinet.

Recall that the president was criticised in 2015 when he appointed his ministers six months after his inauguration in May 29. The criticism then according to many was not unconnected to the fact that the president spent that long a time only to appoint those considered “recycled politicians” who wouldn’t have anything to offer the administration.

“Impatience is not a virtue,” said the president to his critics, who thought that the long delay in naming a new government was bad for business. Buhari was unmoved: “Careful and deliberate decisions after consultations get far better results,” he said.

Nigerians expected technocrats and fresh brains bearing in mind the time the president took to compile the list of cabinet members.

When the president departed the country on April 25 for the United Kingdom on what the presidency described as a “private visit”, not many Nigerians, if at all any, knew the reasons for his visit to London.

But upon his return to the country yesterday, April 5 after spending ten days, new indication has emerged to suggest that Buhari may have travelled out of the country in order to enable him, among other things, compile the list of who would make his new cabinet members.

During an interview immediately he landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja in the Nigerian Airforce 001 aircraft, a reporter with the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, Adamu Sambo had interviewed Buhari.

When the reporter asked the President whether he traveled to London to compile the list of his next cabinet, President Buhari said:

 “I didn’t discuss it with anybody, so I don’t know how they knew about it. I didn’t discuss it with anybody.”

Going further the reporter asked: “What kind of people are we likely to see in your cabinet, next level sir?”

Again Buhari replied “I wouldn’t tell you.”

“Are we likely to see an expanded cabinet sir?” the reporter asked again.

“I wouldn’t tell you,” Buhari concluded.

From the responses of Buhari, it may not be wrong to conclude that the president’s “private visit” has more than meets the eye, as he may have gone to the UK to have the time to think of and compile the list of individuals who would make his new administration.

His responses shows that he actually spent the ten days in UK to consider members of his next cabinet. His responses may have also laid to rest speculations that he travelled for medical check-up, as his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina earlier in the day took a dig at some online media platforms and some opposition parties who had reported that the president may extend the duration of his stay in the foreign country to attend to his health condition.

If indeed the President has come back from the UK with a list of likely ministers for his second term, it is an indication that his second term would move faster as he is likely to announce his new cabinet soon.