Senator representing Abia South senatorial district at the National Assembly, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, has said that former President Muhammadu Buhari’s kinsmen are finding it difficult to complain over President Bola Tinubu’s manner of appointments which favours his native South West zone.
He stated that Buhari’s kinsmen could find it difficult to complain because they enjoyed the concentration of appointments to their zone during their time.
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Abaribe, who stated this while featuring in a radio programme in Umuahia, noted the federal character law which stipulates balancing of appointments among the six geo-political zones, was observed in breached by the Buhari administration.
He lamented that Tinubu has taken the same route as the former administration in concentrating over 22 critical positions on his kinsmen in breach of the federal character law.
He said; “When Buhari started this ethnic concentration of positions; I was one of the first people to shout at it. At that time in 2016, it was very clear that Buhari was going a route that nobody had seen in this country, appointing those from his ethnic divide and religion.
“But we said that this was setting a wrong precedent for the country. We continually preached against it. We said this would be an ill wind that would not blow Nigeria any good. Now this is several years later, we have seen where this has collapsed the economy. We have gotten to a situation where the present government of President Bola Tinubu which we thought was going to repair the damaged psyche of Nigerians, is actually doubling on what Buhari did.”
“The Igbo have a saying that if a bad practice stays long, it becomes a custom. It became a culture for Buhari to concentrate appointments in his zone, and now Tinubu has continued it. It is like Tinubu saying if Buhari could do it, why can’t I do, he is even doing more than Buhari did. Most people who come from Buhari’s place are now finding it more difficult to complain because this is what they enjoyed in their own time. I remember a friend of mine who said, to leave Buhari to appoint who he wants, even if it is going to be from one village, so long as it will lead us beyond where we are today.”
“We told him it was not going to be possible. Today, the president of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu has done the same thing. You can count 22 critical positions, all the positions in the financial sector and too many are from his side.”
“Let’s look at the federal character says that you are not supposed to govern in such a way to make every other person not have confidence and bring out a sense of loyalty to the people. There are 6 zones in Nigeria, out of the 6 zones, only South East continues to have just the constitutionally provided number of ministers. The South East has 5 because we have 5 states, but every other zone has more than what they are supposed to have. South West has up to 10 ministers; North West up to that number, South-South has about 9 ministers. You know have a bloated cabinet.”
“They are all there and ensuring that each zone gets far more than what they are supposed to get according to the constitution which states that each state is supposed to be represented by a minister. So, this tells us that the number of ministers we are supposed to have is 36 plus the one from the FCT which makes it 37. So, the maximum should be 37, but now we have close to 50 ministers.”
“In all these excess, it is not also spread equally; the South West has preponderance, the North West too, then the North East before the South-South. The South East is left out and what everybody thinks is that you can do all these and get away with it. I’m telling you that from history when Buhari did it, it didn’t augur well for him and make the country better. Rather, it made the country worse, Tinubu’s government is following suit and definitely, it won’t make the country better. This is because you have to bring everybody together; it will also give a sense of belonging to all. Federal character makes citizens have confidence in the administration of the country.”
“The federal character has been observed more in the breach. The federal character principle is a law promulgated by the National Assembly which gave birth to the Federal Character Commission. The job of the federal character commission is to essentially look at all aspects of the ministries, agencies and departments that are running the government and ensure that there is balance within them, balancing of political positions. But that’s not what we are seeing.”
