Moghalu urges Buhari to pick cabinet carefully

Former presidential candidate, Kingsley Moghalu, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to be careful in his choice of cabinet members.

Buhari beat Moghalu and 71 other presidential candidates in the February 23 election, but is yet to announce his cabinet almost a month after he was sworn in.

While speaking at a book launch in Anambra State, Moghalu said the president should pick his cabinet based on competence and not other factors such as party membership.

President Muhammadu Buhari was inaugurated last month but is yet to announce a cabinet [Twitter/@BashirAhmaad] Pulse Nigeria

The former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) urged the president's administration to fix the nation's security challenges to stop it from becoming a failed state.

He said, "Nigeria, as a country, is drifting into the status of a failed state. With the security situation we have in the country, if it is not corrected, the path to the state failing is staring us in the face.

"So there is an imperative on the government to perform its number one duty, which is to secure the lives and properties of the citizens of the country.

"Also, the economic problems must be tackled headlong; poverty is rife in this country and it is a shame that Nigeria with all our human and natural resources is judged the poverty capital of the world.

"My advice to President Buhari is to pick members of his cabinet very carefully and competence should be his priority, not membership of party or close associates.

"He is not going to run for any election in Nigeria and should use this last opportunity to write his name in gold or bury it in the dustbin of history of non-performers."

Moghalu had promised before the election that he would announce a cabinet after 48 hours of being sworn in as president if he won at the polls.

When he was inaugurated for his first term in May 2015, Buhari did not announce a cabinet until October. He blamed the delay on the previous government's decision to not cooperate with his transition committee.