Senator Gbenga Kakah, former deputy governor of Ogun State, in an interview with Vanguard warns that if the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration must succeed, the president should consider dropping some ministers in the next six months. He also spoke on other issues.
"There are those, despite the fact that the President said he was for everybody and for nobody, who still managed to squeeze their surrogates into that system. Whether they will have their way or not is a matter of time," he said.
When asked if he foresees the President having problems with his minister, he said: "We pray it doesn’t happen. Our expectation from Buhari is for him to succeed but he must be on guard."
Speaking on how President Buhari can perform to the maximum, he said: "It will be a Herculean task for Mr. President. He will need to work with people. Yes, he has assembled decent people, some with question marks. I pray he will be courageous enough, in the next couple of months if he has not already identified them, to identify those with question marks. He should identify them and replace them. We will be happy to have a government that can be compared with others in other countries."
"If it is still possible for Buhari to merge ministries and bring it from 24 to 16 for the purpose of efficiency and conservation of funds, that will be fine. Will anybody say that spending 70 percent of our budget on recurrent expenditure ideal?
"And if it is not ideal, then what is the hue and cry for? Let’s assume that the three ministries are still there and not merged, put together, the three ministries are not up to what he (Fashola) was presiding over in Lagos. Look at Ministry of Interior, I am sure the Police Affairs Ministry is now interior. Are you saying that merging them together under the Ministry of Interior is not normal?
"If people want to criticise, they should examine their brains first before they talk. As far as Buhari is concerned, he has done well. I have said it that there are still some big elephants in his administration that should be replaced in the next six months.
"The appointments don’t need to even be inspiring to anybody at all. Mr. President knows what he wants."