Outsourcing of presidential powers sign of weakness, Tanko declares

Chairman of the National Conscience Party (NCP), Dr. Yunusa Tanko, has declared that President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive that ministers should interface with his Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, indicates that the President was weak and incapable of fully discharging his duties.

Arguing that the President’s weakness necessitated the development, he said Buhari’s action, in spite of his acclaimed personal knowledge of his appointed ministers, means there is more that meets the ordinary eye.

Speaking to The Guardian yesterday on Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s recent ordeal, Tanko said he doubted Buhari’s capacity to continue to lead the country as President.

“The capacity he has shown so far leaves much to be desired, whether he is in control or not and that points to when he said ministers should report to his Chief of Staff. He said he did not know his previous ministers, saying he would appoint those he knew this time.

“If he knew the ministers he appointed why would he put a barricade that they have to pass through Kyari?

He said this means there are some hidden issues that the President and his chief of staff are hiding from those around them, adding: “That gives me a lot of doubt and I hope that it is not anything to do with his health or any other thing.”

“The situation now is that many of us doubt whether President Buhari is actually leading this country the way it ought to be led.”

He noted that the situation gives room for all the hawks and hyenas to take control of governance as it were, saying: “So those getting back at Osibanjo may not be the President himself. They may be those already midwifing the activities of governance and therefore are taking their own pound of flesh on him.”

Tanko pointed out that development was not good enough for the Nigerian polity but that he was not holding brief for Osinbajo, maintaining: “I am not a town crier for Osinbajo, I don’t know him from Adam, but the fact still remains that if there is a constitutional provision, we all must support it.

“In 2012 when President Goodluck Jonathan suffered a similar fate, I was the field Marshal of the Save Nigeria Group that led the demonstrations with Tunde Bakare, Wole Soyinka and the rest of us.

“If there were gunshots, I would have been the first to go down. So, we led in the defence of democracy and so also we would lead in this case,” he added.