BY Fredrick Nwabufo
In an effort to douse tension and end speculations over President Muhammadu Buhari’s undisclosed ministerial list, John Oyegun, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Monday said the party and the president were not in dispute regarding the issue.
Oyegun, who spoke to journalists in Abuja, also refuted reports that he was scheming to become the secretary to the government of the federation (SGF).
He added that he was comfortable in his skin as the APC national chairman.
“There is absolutely no dispute between the party and the president,” he said.
” We agreed that we shall use all manner of people: politicians, technocrats, all manner of people, even if not politicians, who can deliver and who subscribe passionately to the agenda of the president, to move this country forward, irrespective of where the people come from; irrespective of whether the person is a card-carrying member of the party. What is important is the qualification of the person and the ability of the person to deliver on the ideas of Mr President.
”What we are interested in is the ability of the people to bring up the ideas that will help Mr President achieve the set objectives and the ability to deliver on what the President wants.
”Secondly, this is an executive function and the president has the right to consult as widely as possible. This means he might pick people within the party; people outside the party. It is a prerogative the president should exercise and we cannot question that. We are quite happy about the way he is proceeding.”
Oyegun said the party was trying to resolve the fall out of the national assembly election before the president sends his ministerial list to the senate.
“All other things will have to wait. This is because, if for instance, the president says he wants to present his list of ministerial nominees to the senate, we don’t want a situation whereby the senate will be divided,” he said.
“So we are trying to sort that out; it is our number one priority. We are happy that we are arriving at amicable settlement of the situation; this one cannot wait for long. It has to be immediate.”
Regarding his reported interest in the position of SGF, the APC national chairman said: “I have not in anyway, in capital letters and underlined, solicited for any position other than the national chairmanship of the APC. I think I am clear enough, isn’t it? And nobody has approached me that he is considering me either on that position or another.”
TheCable reported on Sunday that President Buhari has kept the identities of the future members of his cabinet secret, even from his associates, a development that is rankling some of the party’s leaders like Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Abubakar Atiku.
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