The Senate has defended the appointments so far made by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and approved by the red chamber.
The spokesperson for the Upper Chamber, Dr Ajibola Basiru, who addressed journalists after plenary on Tuesday, described as “beer parlour talks”, claims that Buhari’s appointment was lopsided.
He urged Nigerians to assess the various appointments made by Buhari based on geopolitical zones instead of looking at them from whether the appointee is from the North or South.
The Minority Leader of the Senate, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, and two senators from Akwa Ibom State had on Tuesday openly protested against two appointments made by Buhari, alleging clear cases of nepotism in the choice of the nominees.
But while specifically reacting to the Senate confirmation of a northerner, who is Buhari’s nominees for the position of the Chairman of the Board of Federal Character Commission when the Secretary is already from the North, Basiru said the two officials are from different geopolitical zones.
He said, “Please do a tabulation of all appointments to be filled up by the Federal Government and the ones that have been done and show empirically, scientifically, how it has been lopsided
“I will not with due respect, rely on what people colloquially call, beer parlor discussion.
“I want to tell you too that politicians can be mischievous; I am not saying any senator is mischievous.
“When you talk of the North we have three zones – North-Central, North-East, and North-West – but when people want to be mischievous when the appointment comes from the North Central and they want to just make it look as if is from the North, they will say this one is also for the North but when it suits them, then they will talk of South East and South West.” – Punch.
