Why Presidency named dead persons on MDA boards

ITREALMS:

The Presidency has adduced some reasons on why it named some dead persons on the boards of Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government released Friday, reports ITRealms.

The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, Mr. Garba Shehu accepted there were some names of dead persons on the list of the over 1000 newly appointed chairmen and members of board of government parastatals and agencies.

ITRealms gathered the list was released on Friday by the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).

Shehu also revealed the list was prepared at the early stages of President Muhammadu Buhari , but was inadvertently delayed due to President illness which took him away for about six months on medical vacation.

This, Presidency said, was subsequently released by the newly appointed SGF, Mr. Boss Mustapha who replaced Babachir Lawal, “without any alteration.”

The President, Shehu disclosed had requested for the submission of 50 names each by the state chapters of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in 2015 which were later complied by the National Secretariat of the party.

“However, complaint arose from some governors who felt they were not carried along in the process. To answer this, the president constituted a committee under the vice president to review and reflect the interest of the governors,” he said.

Shehu further said that action on the report submitted to the President by the committee headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was delayed because of President Buhari’s illness and subsequent medical vacation abroad.

“The president’s trips for medical attention slowed down completion of the process,” he declared, stressing that the president only decided to revisit the matter recently and directed the new SGF to release the list of some 1467 persons including chairmen and members of boards of some federal agencies.

“The current SGF was only directed to complete that process by releasing the list which he apparently did without altering it,” Shehu insisted.

He said that the appearance of dead person’s names on the list was a mistake which would be corrected.

The President had approved the constitution of the Governing Boards of Agencies and Parastatals, under some Ministries, as well as the appointment of eminently qualified Nigerians to fill the Board positions.

One of the prominent appointments out of the 1,467 named by presidency was that of the chairman of the Nigerian Press Council (NPC), given to late Senator Francis Okposo, who reportedly died on December 26, 2016.

The appointment took immediate effect.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

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