Why I Appointed Women As Finance Minister – Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday, said he deliberately appointed women to be Ministers of Finance in his eight years in office to ward off disturbances from people looking for award of contracts and payment of contract sums.

The president said he knows very well that most men would not find it easy to go to a woman as Minister of Finance to look for contracts or get payment for jobs done because of ego and pride.

“I deliberately appointed ladies so that it will give me a lot of peace.

“I made sure I gave the ministry of finance to a lady to exploit the cultural behaviour of all Nigerians: once ladies are in charge, people feel too big to go to ladies. So, I am sure peace will be allowed in the Ministry of Finance where people will go and lobby for their contracts to be paid and so on. So, they feel too big to go to ladies. So, I put a lady in charge. That gave me a lot of peace,” President Buhari said at the commissioning of a new Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) corporate headquarters in Abuja.

Buhari also said he deliberately closed down Nigeria’s borders a few years ago to ensure that Nigerians eat what is produced locally, citing positive impacts of encouraging local production on job creation and security.

“Please note that from Lake Chad to Benin is more than 1,000km. Only God can effectively guard that border. So, you need a person who will have the energy and competence to effectively supervise it.

“And I deliberately closed the borders because knowing Nigerians, they order rice and give some Niger people address and then they bring the rice here. We know our potentialities,” Buhari stated.