From Uche Usim, Abuja
With six days to the sunset of his administration, President Muhammadu Buhari has come out to defend some of his appointments and actions which may not resonate with many of his cronies.
Top on the list is his choice of women as Finance Ministers, which he said was a strategic way of repelling people, especially men, who naturally feel too big to disturb a woman for contracts and other favours.
Buhari made the disclosure in Abuja on Tuesday while commissioning the new Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) corporate headquarters.
Mrs Kemi Adeosun and Mrs Zainab Ahmed are the two women who manned Finance Ministry in eight years Buhari ruled as president.
He said: “I deliberately appointed ladies so that it will give me a lot of peace.
“I made sure I gave the ministry of finance to a lady to exploit the cultural behaviour of all Nigerians: once ladies are in charge, people feel too big to go to ladies. So, I am sure peace will be allowed in the Ministry of Finance where people will go and lobby for their contracts to be paid and so on. So, they feel too big to go to ladies. So, I put a lady in charge. That gave me a lot of peace,”.
Buhari also gave reasons why he defiantly appointed Hameed Ali, a retired Army Colonel and former military administrator of Kaduna State, as the Comptroller-General of Customs in 2015, despite deafening objections from various quarters, including the National Assembly.
The president, aside applauding Ali for his dexterity, recalled how late Sani Abacha assigned tough tasks to him to execute.
He said he loved Ali’s leadership style, prompting him assign the task of restructuring and reforming the NCS.
“As for Hameed Ali, I asked him to be in charge of Customs. No matter what people say about the late Sani Abacha, may his soul rest in peace.”
“I knew him very well, when somehow he became president of this country, Head of State, the biggest problematic area was around Kaduna.
“He picked Colonel Hameed Ali and dumped the problems on him. My decision for Hameed Ali to come to customs was a deliberate one. I brought Colonel Hameed Ali to ensure that I have peace of mind.”
Buhari also said he deliberately closed down Nigeria’s borders a few years ago to ensure that Nigerians eat what is produced locally, citing positive impacts of encouraging local production on job creation and security.
“Please note that from Lake Chad to Benin is more than 1,000km. Only God can effectively guard that border. So, you need a person who will have the energy and competence to effectively supervise it.
And I deliberately closed the borders because knowing Nigerians, they order rice and give some Niger people address and then they bring the rice here. We know our potentialities,” Buhari stated.