The Muhammadu Buhari  presidency swiftly moved to calm nerves on Friday as angry reactions trailed Thursday’s appointment of two key kitchen staff of President Muhammadu Buhari with many Nigerians, especially from the Southern part of the country accusing him of “Northernisation agenda.”   

The President, from Katsina State, North west Nigeria, had appointed his long time political associate, Engr. Babachir David Lawal as Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF and former banker, Alhaji Abba Kyari as Chief of Staff.

The new SGF hails from Hong Local Government Area, Adamawa State while the COS hails from Borno State in the north-east of the country.

In the appointment which was announced by Femi Adesina, spokesperson to the President on media and publicity, the President also announced four other appointees- Col. Hameed Ali (retd.) Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service, Kure Martin Abeshi (Nasarawa, North Central) as Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Immigration Service; Senator Ita Enang (Akwa Ibom, South south ) as Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters on Senate and  Hon. Suleiman Kawu (Kano, North West) as Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (House of Representatives).

Only one of the six appointees is from the Southern Nigeria, a fact which attracted instant criticisms and uproar across the country immediately the appointments were made public in a statement by Adesina.

Critics who backed up their criticisms with analysis of the appointments made by the President since he was sworn- in argued that Thursday’s series of appointments ran against expectations that the President will select his Chief of Staff and SGF from either the South-south or the South east part of the country which are not yet represented at the top level of the executive branch of Federal Government.

 “We stand to condemn this glaring hatred for Ndigbo by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. We recall that apart from several other appointments, Buhari’s government has also appointed Service Chiefs and in a similar manner, he sidelined the South-East zone,” said Ohaneze Youth Council, a socio-political group representing the people of South East Nigeria.

In a statement signed by its President, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, and the group’s National Public Relations Officer,  Obinna Adibe, the  group added that the appointments were totally unacceptable to Ndigbo as they were made in violation of the principle of federal character, which is enshrined in the Nigerian constitution.

The group also lamented that the expectations that someone from their part of the country will be appointed as the SGF was dashed: “As if that was not enough, the long-awaited position of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, has come at last and this government deemed nobody from the South-East qualified enough to occupy that position, which was earlier zoned to Ndigbo. We are indeed shocked by this turn of events, which are totally at variance with Mr. President’s earlier stand that he was for nobody but that he was for everybody.”

While other groups and individuals from the South east had spoken in similar manner, the criticisms of the appointments have not been limited to that part of the country.  

Farooq Kperogi, a Northerner and a University teacher based in the United States of America noted for instance that of the 36 appointments the President has made so far, 27 are from the north and only 9 are from the south.

“There are competent and credible people in every part of Nigeria if Buhari looks hard enough. Buhari may well pleasantly disappoint some of us his early critics after all his appointments have been made, but he is inflicting needless self-injury on himself to allow his administration to be defined as regionalist this early,” the University teacher added.

 Prof. Akin Oyebode, a constitutional lawyer, has also warned the President that he risked being accused of trying to foist northern hegemony on the country if he continues to make appointments which are clearly in favours of the Northern part of the country as he is presently doing.

The Professor of Law who spoke on a television programme this morning said while he recognized that the president has the prerogative to appoint whoever he feels comfortable with, the country’s constitution makes a case for federal character principle to be a determinant in making appointments.