Figure 1 The President and his son.
President President Muhammadu Buhari finally on Sunday
evening moved into his official residence in the Presidential Villa,
Abuja. The President's wife, Aisha Buhari had moved into the official
residence since last Thursday.
Buhari and the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, have since
their inauguration lived outside the Villa. The duo had also been running their
administration from the Defence House, Abuja.
They had been using the place in view
of the renovation works being carried out at the Villa. Sources at the Villa reveal security
details and other staff of the presidential villa were on hand to receive the
president whose wife, Aisha Buhari moved into the Villa last week
Thursday.
Truckloads of equipment moved into
the Villa on Sunday evening ostensibly bearing the personal effects of the
president who returned to Abuja weekend from Katsina State. Meanwhile the President appears
set to effect major changes in the administration of the country in a bid to
translate the ‘change’ mantra of his party into reality. To start with, the President
is said to have accepted the recommendation of the transition committee he
raised a few weeks ago to slash the number of ministries from the present 42 to
19 with a view to saving cost and making them more effective and responsive to
the needs of Nigerians.
In the same vein, many of the
ministries have been merged to ensure proper coordination of duties and ensure
greater efficiency and service delivery. A top source also said Buhari was
expected to make some key appointments this week so as to get the machinery of
his administration running. The delay in naming the critical staff of his
office had forced some of his key loyalists to demand that he acts fast to
deliver the change he promised Nigerians during the campaigns.
It was learnt that the number of
Federal Government departments and agencies had also been trimmed in line with
the policy of the administration. Effectively, it means that no fewer
than 50 of the MDAs that were not backed by relevant laws might be scrapped and
their staff moved into relevant departments to save cost.
Presidency sources say, “But the
point being made is that relevant MDAs that will exist under the present
administration must be those backed by laws. “What that means is that the era of
doing things the wrong way to please certain persons in positions of power is
over.”
Shedding light on some of the
ministries that had been merged, the official pointed out that the Ministry of
Aviation and relevant agencies had been subsumed with Inland Waterways and
associated agencies.
Similarly, the Ministry of
Agriculture has been merged with that of Water Resources under what the
Presidency source described as the consolidation of larger ministries. It was learnt that under the
administration of Buhari, only 19 ministers and 17 ministers of State would
operate as opposed to the previous arrangement where there were at least 42.
It was further gathered that some
ministries would be run by senior ministers while others would be manned by
junior ministers to save cost.
On the fight against corruption,
it was also learnt that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) is to be merged with the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission,
ICPC, to tackle graft in a new way that would be prompt, fearless and decisive.
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