Buhari making statement with appointments, North was marginalised – Dauda Birmah

A former Minister of Education, Alhaji Dauda Birmah, has justified President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent appointments.

According to him, the appointees were mainly from the North because the region had suffered marginalisation in federal appointments under previous administrations.

Assessing the Buhari administration after the first 100 days in office, Birmah told Vanguard that “my assessment is that Buhari has come in and he has seen the rot that preceded his coming and he is trying to see how to handle this rot, rot that has happened over a period of 15 years is not something you cure in 100 days or even in a thousand days.”

“Buhari has come on a change agenda and he is not expected to behave in a manner in which you will see things as business as usual.

“He has to change things and he has to fulfill his promise of change to people and he is trying to understand the place and put fundamental changes in place because if you put a very heavy structure on a faulty infrastructure, the building will collapse. I commend Buhari for what he is doing and I believe he is doing well and he is going to succeed”, he said.

On complaints of ‘lopsided’ appointments, he responded this way: “Well, during the 15 years preceding him, the north had been wailing and crying because the area was totally marginalized. Buhari is trying to rectify that marginalization of the north but I am not surprised that some people are complaining.

“But 100 days are not enough time to judge and I believe when we go forward and the total picture is zeroed down, I think corrections are going to be effected and people will be satisfied that everybody has been taken into consideration.”

On the Boko Haram insurgency, the former presidential aspirant under the defunct ANPP, said the previous government did not adequately tackle insurgency.

He said, “Now the atmosphere is settling down and I believe we shall see the end of insurgency very soon.”

Throwing his weight behind Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign, he said: “It is absolutely necessary to probe the previous government although I do not believe that probing and things like should be the essence of government.

 “But right now, government is moving and there is greater sanity in governance. Do you believe now that we can have the type of electricity we have now if the government has not been doing anything?”