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President Muhammadu Buhari has said that not all the ministers screened will get portfolios. He said he nominated 36 ministers because the Nigerian constitution mabdates him to nominate one minister per state.
Buhari said this in an interview with Channels TV and Nigerian Television Authority in New Delhi in India.
According to him, some of them would not have portfolios but would be members of his cabinet.
He explained that Nigeria was ‘material and morally vandalized’ and that he will reduce the numbers of ministries, because the government can not sustain the number of ministers it used to have in previous administrations.
His words: “We can not work outside constitution there must be a cabinet representative from each state.
“There use to be forty two minister but I think we can barely keep half of that now because we can not afford it.
“Others may not be substantive ministers but they will seat in the cabinet because that is what the constitution said and we can’t operate outside the constitution
“We are reducing the number of ministries we can’t afford to pay.
Buhari also admitted that the country was in deep financial difficulty.
“Where is the money?” he said. “Do you know the Federal Government has to help twenty seven states out of thirty six to pay salaries?.
“Nigeria can not pay salaries. Nigeria had to summon the Governor of the Central Bank to see how it could pay salaries not to talk of projects, agreement signed with foreign countries, counter funding and so on. The country was material vandalized and morally so”