The much talked about phantom interim government is actually in active operation currently and as things stand, three cabinet level ministers under Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and a retinue of assistants are piloting this illegal contraption.
Making this allegation is the prominent civil rights advocacy group—Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), which accused the Information Minister, Lai Mohammed; Youth and Sports Minister, Sunday Dare; Minister of State for Labour, Mr. Festus Keyamo and scores of presidential assistants supposedly working for the current government and are being paid by the taxpayers but these persons have constituted themselves into a ‘quasi government within a government’ devoted to marketing the interests of the yet to be sworn-in president-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the All Progressive Congress (APC).
HURIWA said these tendencies and assignments being carried out at the behest of the President-elect making use of appointees of the incumbent administration, is absolutely illegal, unconstitutional and constitutes a huge affront to constitutionalism and civil democracy.
“We wonder what else the security services mean by ‘interim government’ when certain principal officers of the extant Federal government have on their own or under circumstances not approved by the constitution have begun full time strategic communications and media propaganda in foreign jurisdictions on behalf of someone that the Independent National Electoral Commission proclaimed controversially as President-elect—Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu and whose proclamation as President-elect is a subject of intense litigation.
“Yet ministers have constituted themselves perhaps into somewhat or some kind of illegal interim government, taking orders from God knows where but are all over Europe, the United States of America, and everywhere else including the federal capital territory working for the president –elect whose position is not a constitutionally created position and who is not permitted to run a ‘quasi-cabinet’ until he is officially administered the oath of office and oath of allegiance to the Nigerian constitution”.
HURIWA affirmed that these serving ministers working now under President-Elect, Bola Tinubu, have told the international media that the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate won the February 25 polls contrary to the claims of opposition parties such as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP).
The team, led by serving ministers who are cabinet level members of the Federal government currently are Mr Festus Keyamo, who doubles too as the chief spokesperson of the Tinubu Campaign and Minister of State Labour, the team, Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Sunday Dare; and Assistant Principal Spokesperson, Mr Ajuri Ngelale, had told them at a parley with the International Media at the Press Centre Washington DC, United States on Wednesday.
HURIWA said it is obvious that these assignments are nothing short of cacophony of illegality.
HURIWA recalled that in a statement titled: “Separating the Facts from Fictions,” Keyamo and members of his team said that the 2023 polls were free and fair and the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration ensured a level playing via no interference.
According to them, the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System, BVAS, did not fail on Election Day as alleged by the opposition but recorded 88 per cent success, adding that opposition parties accepted the results of senatorial and House of Representatives elections held on the same day, which they won but chose to kick against that of the presidential they lost.
Insisting that Tinubu won the polls and met the constitutional requirement to be declared president-elect, they said incidents of violence and irregularities recorded in a few polling units were not enough to affect the overall outcome of the election.
They said having gone to court to challenge the result, the opposition parties should desist from spreading false tales.
According to the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the APC had 8,794,726 (36.61%); PDP – 6,984,520 (29.07%); LP – 6,101,533 (25.40%); and NNPP – 1,496,687(6.23%).
The statement by these ministers who are working now actively for a ‘government within the government” states as follows: “The country’s out-going President, Muhammadu Buhari, signed into law a Bill that seeks to improve our electoral process by introducing technology as a means of accrediting voters at the polling units. This is known as the Electoral Act, of 2022. The opposition and international observers hailed him on this.
“There was also complete non-interference in the political process by State institutions. There were no reports of the deployment of security agents or State apparatus in support of the candidate of the ruling party. In fact, in some instances, the opposition celebrated the fact that our candidate had no support of the Government. These led to well-published reports (albeit false) that the President was not in support of the candidate of his own party”.
Speaking further, HURIWA said, “We wonder what else the security service are doing instead of inviting these ministers listed who are practically not working for the present government but are working for someone who holds a non- constitutional position of president elect but they still collect salaries from the tax prayers. We call on these ministers of sports, information, labour and productivity, the Minister of State, to tender their resignation immediately since they are now loyal to the President-elect and not the current president.
The Rights group therefore asked that these persons appointed by the current administration but who are now devoted to working for the President-elect yet to be inaugurated be forced to resign since what they are doing shows divided loyalty both to their appointing authority and to the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
