After several days of equivocating, Presidency on Friday finally confirmed that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved moves to reduce aides of both the President and those of the Vice President.
In a statement, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said the move is in tandem with government’s plans to reduce costs.
The statement confirmed “that there is, on-going, an unprecedented overhaul of the nation’s seat of government, arising from which a number of political appointments have either been revoked or not renewed in the Second Term”.
Shehu said the “exercise, which has been ordered by the President, is to streamline decision-making, cut down multiple authorities and reduce the cost of administration”.
The streamlining, he revealed, was not personal or targeted to undermine the Vice President’s office, “as the so-called insider sources quoted by the media appear to make it seem.”
Read also: Presidency disowns list of Osinbajo’s aides sacked by Buhari
The Presidential spokesman who declared that the “President is in absolute control of his government” urged the media to stop attributing non-existent powers to some people. “There cannot be anyone too powerful for President Buhari to control,” he declared.
“In the light of this, the Presidency wishes to strongly deny rumours of a rift between President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, adding that “relationship between the two leaders remains excellent and trusting. Together, they will script a glorious future for the nation.
Justifying further the reduction in the number of aides, the spokesman declared that: “It is also an appropriate response to the general perception that the Presidency has an oversized and bloated workforce which acts as a drag on efficiency”.
According to him, this also explains the fact that “as may have been noticed by discerning members of the public, a number of political appointees among the few that served in the office of the President were not returned for the Second Term”.
“The office of the Vice President, His Excellency Yemi Osinbajo has, in compliance with the directive of the President, equally been shed of a number of such appointees,” Shehu said.
He attributed the overriding objective of the purge to the need to “save taxpayer money and deliver the needed service to the public.
“As far as the President is concerned, there is no scope for an excuse for the administration after getting a huge mandate to run the country for four more years.”
Shehu declared that the media reports of a soured relationship are originating from the minds and mouths of mischief-makers, who are desperate for entertaining stories from the Aso Rock Villa with which to titillate the public.
He said that ulterior motive was the basis of the wrong interpretation given to the recent exercise in the Presidency.
“There has been a streamlining of staff going on for a while. The President has always had less staff than the Vice President, and there were always plans to reduce the number of staff at the Villa,” Shehu said.
