Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has said President Muhammadu
Buhari was operating as a president of the 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
“Nothernisation 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 said “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’s 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.”
