Not all nominees will be ministers - Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has indicated that he plans to have a lean cabinet.

Speaking from New Delhi in an interview with NTA and Channels Television, President Buhari said that because of lack of funds, his government may not appoint more than 21 ministers as opposed to the 42 that operated under the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

Buhari was in New Delhi to attend the third summit of the India-Africa Forum.

The president said that he only sent 36 ministerial nominees to the Senate for screening and confirmation to meet the constitutional requirement that each state of the federation must have a representative in his government.

He said that not all the 36 nominees would be ministers as some would only sit in the cabinet to fulfill the constitutional provision of one representative from each state.

“Yes, there used to be 42 ministers, I think we will be lucky if we can have half of that now because we cannot afford it.

“Others may not be substantive ministers but they will sit in the cabinet because that is what the constitution says and we cannot operate outside the Constitution,” he said.

When asked pointedly if he would be appointing less than 42 ministers, he retorted,
“Of course! Unless you can volunteer to be paying them (ministers).”