Buhari Splits the North

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 one of our correspondents 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.