BBC, August 29:
It is now three months since Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in as president of Nigeria and five months since he won historic elections, the first time an opposition candidate had won…But it took nearly two months for him to replace his security chiefs and so far he has only made appointments in about a dozen government offices.
[…]
While it is clear that President Buhari has shown that Nigeria can run without a cabinet, there may be an unacknowledged cost.
On the bright side, with the briefings he is getting from civil servants, the ministers, when they are eventually appointed, will find that their boss knows more about their departments than they do – and that should keep them on their toes.
Vanguard, November 10:
President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday, approved the appointment of new Permanent Secretaries in the Federal Civil Service.
This came some hours after the President sacked about 17 permanent secretaries.
Permanent Secretaries are, in theory, civil servants who are not political appointees. This does mean they are immune from political controversies, however.
As the BBC said, the months without a cabinet may have allowed Buhari to interact more directly with senior civil servants than presidents usually do. Apparently the president did not always like what he saw.
Sahel Blog 