MINISTERIAL LIST: Mental Age more important than Chronological Age – ADESINA

The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has asked Nigerians to disregard the age of the ministerial nominees sent to the Senate by President Buhari.

While speaking on a television programme during the weekend, Adesina emphasised that the President is mindful of fair representation in the country and he will do what is needful.

Since the ministerial nominees list was made public last Tuesday by the Senate, it has been trailed by mixed reactions and negative reports with most critics slamming the president for nominating ‘old people’.

Adesina further stressed that President Buhari would respect the constitution. As the constitution says Ministers must be appointed from each state. Knowing fully well that people who have been nominated are qualified and are Nigerians.

His words: “Talking of age, there is a saying that ‘age does not matter’. We must rather talk of the mental age rather than the chronological age. It is not the chronological age that matters…. ”

“God himself is ageless, so you can’t be talking of whether someone is old or not. Talking about women, yes, three women in this list, 15 yet to come, if all the 15 are now women, what would you have to say? Just be sure that the President is mindful of fair representation in the country and he will do what is needful.”

In his response to the president’s position as the Minister of Petroleum, Adesina said, “President Buhari is not going to be designated as Minister but will supervise the Ministry…he has all it takes to supervise the ministry” citing that during the regime of former President Olusegun Obasanjo while he was in office, he supervised the ministry for 6 years, and wasn’t named the petroleum Minister”.

Reiterating his point, he stressed that “President is going to supervise and maybe, he would have Minister of State to work along with him. I daresay, he has all it takes to supervise that ministry having been oil minister for 3 and half years in the past”.

Further, Adesina stated that the President didn’t consult with state governors because he made it clear in the past when he told the governors that whenever they were appointing commissioners in their states, he would not interfere, so he in turn didn’t expect them to interfere in the choice of his ministers.

Adesina concluded saying, “That was the original position and then later, he came back to say when he had his list ready that he was going to run it by the governors, that is the position. I guess there must have been some consultations but it does not mean that the position of any government will be sacrosanct on the nominee”.