President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday described Nigerian Ministers as noise makers, adding that the civil servants are the ones that do most of the work.
The President made the declaration while speaking during an interview with French television station, France 24.
But ex-ComTech minister, Omobola Johnson who reacted to Buhari’s statement via her Twitter handle @OmobolaJohnson described the remark as unfair.
She tweeted “President Buhari is being unfair to Ministers who work hard and don’t make noise. The civil service is broken and it needs to be fixed.”
When asked if the absence of a finance minister was affecting the Nigerian capital market and economy.
Buhari said, ”No. It is what we know –and which we learnt from the western system. The civil service provides the continuity, the technocrat. And in any case, they are those that do most of the work. The ministers are there, I think, to make a lot of noise; for the politicians to make a lot of noise. But the work is being done by the technocrats. They are there; they have to provide the continuity, dig into the records and then guide us, [those of us] who are just coming in.
”They have been there, some of them for 15 years, some for 20 years. So I think this question of ministers is political. People from different constituencies want to see their people directly in government, and see what they can get out of it.
”As for the cabinet, I said we will have one by the end of the month, and time flies. The end of the month is coming too quickly for my liking. Yeah, I will stick to it. I will send the names to the national assembly.”