TheCable

John Oyegun, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) says President Muhammadu Buhari has spent the last two months of his administration studying the state of things as he found them.

In a chat with Association of Northern Students (ANS), who visited him at the APC national secretariat in Abuja to felicitate with him on the occasion of his 76th birthday, Oyegun expressed confidence that his party had the midas touch to transform the country.

“What some of us in the progressives movement that has now transformed into a governance in this country cannot accept is that the nation needs not to be as bad as it is today. Yes, the circumstances of last 15 years are different, the nature of economy is different, people have evolved but the basic fact remains the same and that is for any nation, for any government to have any legitimacy, its key emphasis and the whole justification for its existence must be the welfare of the people who have entrusted that party or that leader with the governance of their common affairs, that is the key thing,” he said.

“Fortunately, we have a blueprint which makes your welfare and everybody’s welfare the core of his attention. Yes, things have turned out to be worse in the economy than we expected when we were campaigning. Every known indicator of good conduct has been violated and our institutions have factually been destroyed, even to the extent of tampering with security institution.

“So we have a major reconstruction efforts ahead of us. One can only say at this time to plead through you to Nigerians to be patient with us and with the pace at which the changes we envisage start occurring because things are much worse than we expected.

“Let anybody make no mistake about it, committed as president Buhari is, in fact that is the core of his life and he has spent the last two months understanding the situation that he has taken over without interference and distractions. He has been able to hear, sit and interact with the core operators without third party intermediaries.

Regarding the appointment of ministers, the chairman revealed that “In the next few weeks he (Buhari) will now assemble the team who he can now give confidently direct instructions as to what he expect to be done. Which means he is in a better position to measure whether anybody entrust with any function is performing or not performing, he is meeting target or not.”

“So, we have a totally new situation, a new reality and a new approach to governance which is emphasising target and deliverables in the lives of the people that he has been entrusted to govern,” he added.