One of the major criticism levelled against President Buhari is the fact that his cabinet did not reflect the demographic reality of Nigeria as it concerns the age of his political appointees.
The President received lots of sticks from several quarters after he ignored calls for the inclusion of young Nigerians into his cabinet, President Buhari opted for trusted old hands instead.
Last Saturday, Buhari secured another term in office after he defeated the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar, who had during his campaign promised to have a robust cabinet filled with young Nigerians.
It was hoped that Buhari will toe this line after his reelection, however, in what would seem to be a shocker, the president insists on continuing with his preference of appointing old hands to help him run the country.
Buhari made this know during a dinner with the All Progressives Congress (APC) women and youth members.
“I assure you that I have listened on the representation made that my cabinet should include women and youth. Don’t celebrate it yet, I said I have listened to some of the representations made here.
“Well, I myself I am considering some of the old people and I will protect my constituency too. But I will assure you I will continue to have a team of people of integrity that are really concerned with Nigeria and Nigerians,” Buhari said.
“I will not disappoint you, our objectives are the same. We have to fix this country so that the next generation can have a country to be proud of. We are working very hard to get the infrastructure in place, the roads, the rails so that Nigeria will mind their own businesses.
“I very much appreciate your coming here tonight …, but I’m congratulating ourselves for succeeding, if we had failed, my good God, thank goodness we have succeeded,” he added.
“Please continue to bear with us, we have a very short time in terms of the damage done to the country. I have tried to educate people on the condition we found ourselves when we came in 2015.
“My short experience in the petroleum industry for three and a quarter years, gave me an idea about the economy of Nigeria and I never let go,” President Buhari concluded.
Still, on APC, The Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, has thanked the people of the state for accepting the APC and for trooping out to vote for the party in last Saturday’s election.
Though the APC did not win the state for President Buhari, the margin of defeat the President suffered in Edo State in 2019 was significantly less when compared to that of 2015.
Obaseki viewed this as an indication that the people of Edo State are beginning to embrace the party and its policies at the Federal level and results will continue to improve in subsequent elections.
“With the results, it is obvious there is a growing acceptance of the APC in the presidential and National Assembly elections in the state.
“The margins show that we have considerably closed the gap here. The outcome of the polls turned out to be better than the previous one held in the state in 2015,” Obaseki said.
“In 2015, the margin of defeat was 78,400 votes, but, in 2019, it dropped by 90 per cent to 7,849 votes. This is a considerable improvement on the party’s performance,” he concluded.
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