Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has said President Muhammadu
Buhari was operating as a president of Northern Nigeria only, describing
steps taken by the president since May 29, 2015 as tainted in ethnic
and tribal colouration, which is inimical to the unity of Nigeria.
The governor, who descried what he called President Buhari’s
“Northernisation of Nigeria”, said “appointments made by the President
so far negate the principle of federal character and it appears the
unity in diversity of Nigeria is being taken for granted by the
President.”
According to a statement issued on Monday, by his Special Assistant on
Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose said
it was wrong for President Buhari to have made 31 major appointments
and only seven will come from the South while 24 were from the North.
He asked: “Under Buhari, are people from Southern Nigeria only meant to
be hounded and harassed by anti-corruption agencies and the Department
of State Security (DSS) while those from the North are meant to enjoy
federal government juicy appointments?”
The governor added: “Apart from lopsided appointments being made by the
President, I am worried that construction of Lagos-Ibadan expressway has
been slowed down while work has stopped on Lokoja-Abuja roads, which
are the major roads linking the Southern part of Nigeria with the North.
“Also, we have been told by the Federal Government that the Second Niger
Bridge project has been suspended and one is now beginning to remember
how Buhari cancelled the Lagos Metroline Project in 1985 at a loss of
over $78 million (then) to the Lagos tax payers.”
Governor Fayose, who maintained that Nigeria can only move forward if
there was equity and fairness, said those who made the country’s
constitution and enshrined the principle of Federal Character were
mindful of the ethnic diversity of the country, adding that President
Buhari running Nigeria as if he was a Northern Nigeria’s President was
not in the interest of the country.
“They said the President made the appointments on merit and I wish to
ask whether there are no competent people in the All Progressives
Congress (APC) in the Southern part of Nigeria, especially South-East
where no one has been appointed.
“Are they saying Igbo leader like Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, who graduated with a
first class honours degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of
Lagos, is not competent to be appointed as Secretary to the Government
of the Federation (SGF)?
“To my mind, these lopsided appointments skewed in favour of the North
is a reminder of President Buhari’s tenure as Military Head of State and
I hope the President is not seeing Nigeria of today as that of 1984
because doing so will mean that he has turned himself to a northern
president, thereby justifying his notion that those who gave him 97
percent votes must get more benefits than those who gave him five
percent votes.”
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