Appointment charts made available by PUNCH
Northern socio-political groups were on Friday divided over President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointments, which have largely been criticised in the south as it has thus far favoured individuals from the northern part of the country.
Buhari had on Thursday approved the appointments of six persons including Babachir David Lawal from Adamawa State as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Mr. Abba Kyari from Borno State as his Chief of Staff.
The list takes the appointments made by the President so far to 30, with only seven of them coming from the southern part of the country and the rest from the North.
Socio-cultural groups and people from the southern region of the country have been united in their outrage over the appointments, but northerners have been split over the issue.
For instance, while the Chairman of the Northern Elders Council, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, was critical of the President’s appointments, the convener of the Coalition of Northern Politicians, Academics, Professionals and Businessmen, Junaid Mohammed, said he was not in favour of zoning in the giving of political appointments.
Yakassai, in a telephone interview with PUNCH Newspaper on Friday, said the President’s appointments so far showed that he was favouring his section of the country, where he got the most number of votes.
Yakassai said, “If you look at the voting pattern, zone by zone, you will see that Buhari is compensating the zones that favoured him. It depends on the angle from which you look at it. If you are a patriotic Nigerian, you will see it from the patriotic angle, if you’re a parochial Nigerian, you will see it as right.
“We (NEC) are for Nigeria because if you read the oath of office that Buhari subscribed to as President, he said he would do justice to all manners of people without fear or favour. You just judge for yourself whether he has adhered to the content of that oath of office.”
The former Special Assistant to former President Shehu Shagari also dismissed insinuations that Buhari was more concerned about appointing competent persons into offices than making appointments based on sentiments.
He said, “In Nigeria today, we have competent people all over the country, no doubt about it. It is a matter of choice; you can get them from all over the country. We have people with university education and working experience all over the country. So, we are not in dire need of competent people because they are everywhere.”
Mohammed, however, said giving key political appointments to some certain sections of the country could endanger the unity of the country.
The second Republic lawmaker also said that northerners had previously been marginalised in the country by public office holders of Igbo origin, while denying the existence of a northern agenda being allegedly pursued by Buhari.
He said, “I’m not and I’ve never been a believer in zoning or rotation in giving key political appointments. I also believe that it is not in the national interest to zero in certain key appointments to certain sections of the country because it allows for further division of the country.
“Thirdly, I believe that if there had existed a so-called northern agenda, I would know about it because I’m smart. I don’t believe that any Nigerian whether Buhari, Olusegun Obasanjo (former President) or anybody could hoodwink 170 million people. And if that agenda existed, certainly, Nigerians would know and knowing Nigerians for who they are, they would kick against it.
“So the talk of a northern agenda or a Buhari’s agenda which is pro-north is utter nonsense. If there is a perceived lopsidedness in any appointments, the political situation must be looked at closely to ensure that justice is done.
“But in this, you also don’t look at immediate appointments; you look at previous appointments made over the last 16 years where a particular section of the country was deliberately marginalised.
“There was a policy of disenfranchising the north, marginalising the north and especially among Ibo political appointees, there has been a deliberate attempt to go out of their way to offend, disgrace and undermine northern political interest. When some of us were talking about this, I don’t remember a single Igbo voice supporting us, and most people in the south did not say anything.”
Mohammed, who said he did not know Buhari’s motive for making the appointments, however, added that he knew the President as someone who would place meritocracy above sentiments.
He said, “I don’t know what Buhari’s intentions are but one thing I know from his track record of over 45 years is that Buhari has never been caught making appointments on the basis of primordial sentiments.
“Those who were in the army would testify and those with who he worked as governor and in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the committees he headed as a serving officer. Nobody can come out to say Buhari showed primordial, religious or any other sentiments other than merit sentiments which are the most important on his mind.”
