The wind of change is not only sweeping across the economy; even the Presidential Villa is changing too.
A lot of things that used to happen at the seat of power, especially under the immediate past administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, have given way to change.
Only those with genuine business with the government have been visiting the Presidential Villa under Buhari.
All those hangers-on who normally visited the seat of power under Jonathan have all disappeared.
In the past two months of relocating to the Presidential Villa, more than 70% of guests and visitors to the President during the daytime have been government officials, especially Permanent Secretaries and Heads of Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs).
They have been trooping in to update the President on their Ministries activities.
One of the changes, as pointed out by some visitors to the seat of power who normal visited the State House under Jonathan, was in the area of entertainment for guests and visitors.
Under Jonathan, guests and visitors were often entertained with tea or coffee, other light drinks, snacks, sweets and on special occasions, meals.
This appears to be fast changing as noted by some recent visitors to the State House, Abuja.
The Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), Eze Duru Iheoma, at the State House a fortnight ago noted the changes while answering questions from State House correspondents on anti-corruption stance of President Buhari.
He said: “Let me tell you, the truth is I don’t think any right-thinking person in this country is comfortable with the word ‘corruption’. So, that the President has declared war against corruption should please every good-thinking Nigerian. I think it is a very good effort. For taking up that challenge and meeting it head-on, we thank him because, in fact, my colleagues pointed out something I didn’t take note of: the atmosphere in the Villa is a far cry from what it used to be in the past.
“We were there at the reception and in the past you find tea and all that you know. But now you see a conscious effort to cut cost. And that is part of the fight. So, we commend Mr. President.” He stated
Another area where the changes were recently noticeable was during the commemoration of the 2015 International Youth Day at the old Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja.
It was obvious that mainly those that have business with the event attended the function unlike any function held at the venue under former President Jonathan’s administration.
Under Jonathan, such function would have attracted all dick and harry with up to seventy percent of guests not necessarily having any relevance to the function.
Other things were absent at the 2015 International Youth Day event, which was the second major function to be attended at the venue by President Buhari since his relocation to the Presidential Villa.
Then, long queues of vehicles of those trying to gain entrance to such function will line up from the old Banquet Hall gate to as far as the front of the Fire Service building outside the State House gate.
That was the hallmark of any function at the old Banquet Hall under Jonathan.
While there were unusual free flows of traffic to and from the venue, the Banquet Hall car parks were not half filled throughout the duration of the event.
This prompted a passerby who arrived the car park after the function have started to say loudly to his friend: “Are you sure the function has not ended and guests gone back?”
But entering the hall, more than 80% of those in the hall were members of the National Youth Service Corps and other youths.
While those who don’t have business with the seat of power may not have easy access, some staff who do not normally have access to the forecourt of the Presidential Villa close to the President’s official office now have easy access.
Most of them who belong to the Muslim faith now easily join the President at the State House mosque for prayers.
Huge production hours and costs are now saved by the staff who prior to the new administration normally go to the National Central Mosque, Abuja for their Friday Jumaat prayers.
The State House mosque was virtually under lock and key under Jonathan, who was Christian.
Crackdown
on racketeers
Racketeers have been in the system over the years extorting money one way or the other from job seekers who are mainly youths.
There have been several stories of those in charge of such recruitment exercise either directly or through their cronies and middlemen get up to N500,000 from each job applicant.
Many of the applicants have fell into fraudulent hands and never got the desired job after parting with such huge amount of money.
Some of them in the process of the recruitment exercise have also lost their lives.
A recent case in point was the failed Nigeria Immigration Service recruitment exercise, which was said to be hijacked from the recruitment board by the then Minister of Interior under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Similar stories were also said then about recruitment exercises in the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and many government agencies.
But the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday has sent a warning note to all government agencies that it will no longer be business as usual for staff recruitments.
A test case before the government now is the coming recruitment of 10,000 personnel into the Nigeria Police Force.
Only time will tell if those in charge will heed the new administration’s warnings or device new system to beat the directive.
