There was outrage in the ruling All Progressives
Congress party on Thursday over the
announcement of new appointments by President
Muhammadu Buhari.
Leaders of the APC complained that the
appointments were mostly in favour of the North
and Northerners.
“The President does not consult before making
most of these appointments and I can tell you
that Nigerians are going to term the party and
the President as a northern party and the
President of Northern Nigeria,” a leader of the
party said on Tuesday.
He said, “Though the President did not get much
votes from the South-East, we must not neglect the
zone in key appointments.
“Even the South-West that supported and was
the backbone of the party, what are we giving
the zone in appreciation? We need to be careful
before the party is destroyed.”
It was gathered that some leaders of the party are
considering having a meeting where the
appointments would be reviewed.
But another senior member of the APC said such a
meeting, would have to wait until the party holds
its Kogi State governorship primary on Saturday.
A member of the state executive of APC in a South-
West state, said the appointments were lopsided
against the South.
He said,
“When President Olusegun Obasanjo took over,
you saw balance in appointments as he
reflected federal character. President Goodluck
Jonathan too reflected a semblance of balance.
Buhari is pursuing a northern agenda. This is
the same agenda pursued by the late Sir
Ahmadu Bello, when everything was pro-North.
Buhari made six appointments at a go and five
of them are northerners.”
The Speaker of one of the Houses of Assembly in
the South-West, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, also described the new appointments
as shocking.
The Speaker, who is a member of the APC, said,
“This is shocking. It doesn’t speak well at all.
The South-West has been completely neglected
and the South-East too. The South-West was
neglected during the President Goodluck
Jonathan years. The South-West must rise up
against this.”
Similarly, an APC chairman in another South-West
state, who also spoke on condition of anonymity,
said the list of the new appointees left him
perplexed.
He said:
“This is not good at all. Why should he choose
everybody from the North? I am sure he did not
confide in anybody before drawing up the list
and making the announcement. We will continue
to watch. It is condemnable.”
In the same vein, an APC member of the House of
Representatives, said the leaders of the party in the
South-West were shocked by Buhari’s latest
appointments.
“He didn’t tell anybody. We are all shocked. The
real shocker would be when he is going to
appoint ministers. The only thing that would
save us is that he is mandated constitutionally
to choose from all states, otherwise, he would
have chosen all the ministers too from the
North,” the female member of parliament said.
Punch
