A former Director General of the Ogun State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 2015 campaign has expressed disappointment with the ministerial list that was unveiled by the Senate on Tuesday.
Speaking on Channels Television’s breakfast show, Sunrise Daily, Mr Segun Sowunmi, said that “I think it is important to say that Nigerians must be disappointed.
“As a party, the PDP is not surprised, we have always known that sometimes, when people pretend they have brought about a new idea and that they are going to take a society in directions the society hasn’t gone before, we try to look at the antecedents and capacity based on their previous training that suggests they understand what they have signed up to.
“The list is unfortunate. It is made up of people who have been tried, tested and whose integrity is questionable. Some of them are facing petitions, which challenge the things they have done before.
“We will expect a government that wants to bring about the change Nigerians are expecting, should be made up of some new people; fresh faces, people with new brilliant ideas.
“Nigeria is a nation that is extremely gifted. One of our greatest assets is human resource; it becomes extremely depressive and painful that President Muhammadu Buhari brought out a ministerial list under the people who were Ministers in 1979 like Audu Ogbeh.
“None of the names on the list suggest that the President either knows what he’s doing or has not pondered too much on his party.
“In pondering on his party, there are people in his party that could have helped him better, he maintained.
Giving his view about the Ministers performing more than expected while in office, Mr Sowunmi said that ” there are models for determining whether a change process is on track.
” If it were the PDP that presented the list, it would have been understandable.
“When you tell a nation that we are coming on a fresh start, we are going to run on the best of our character, conduct and integrity, you can’t come up with this.
” There is another area that is very unfortunate. The list has few women.
“How can President Buhari present a ministerial list to the Senate without young people. He has forgotten that the energy that brought him to office is that of the youths.
“Where are the change bringers here”, he questioned.
Mr Sowunmi, however, opined that “for a nation like Nigeria that is in a haste for change, you need to depart from party tendencies if you want to create change.
“The list cannot match up with that which former President, Olusegun Obasanjo presented in 2003/2007 session because he went out of his way to look for people who have capacity.
” President Buhari is good, but he needs a good team and this can’t be it”, he stressed.
Speaking further, Mr Sowunmi said that when you run a government of nepotism, you tend to appoint people who had helped when vying for a position.
He, however, suggested that when you want to run a government that is unbiased, ” You look for less important policy driven directional positions to give them.
Giving his opinion on how the ministerial nominees would be screened, Mr Sowunmi said that ” I believe that this is the area where the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, is going to demonstrate that he is a better material than most of his traducers.
“Despite the fact that they are making life unbearable for him, he was calm while reading the list.
“Sometimes, we can find good people in opposition who are from the PDP”, he ended.
