Federal appointments: Buhari favoured North against others -- South East leaders

Following the appoint­ments of Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), which the Igbo had hoped would come to them and the Chief of Staff by President Mu­hammadu Buhari on Thurs­day with the northerners fill­ing the positions, the Igbo feel that they have lost out in the “big” positions under this ad­ministration.

Therefore, prominent Igbo leaders and groups have con­demned the appointments made by President Buhari so far, say­ing it negated the spirit of Fed­eral Character as enshrined in the constitution as his administration has so far relegated the Igbo to the background.

The Archbishop of Enugu Anglican Ecclesiastic Province, Most Rev (Dr) Emmanuel Chuk­wuma said that

“It is absolutely unacceptable because we feel the Federal Character should be respected. And more especially that the South-East should be considered. It is unfortunate that Mr. President who had made a very great statement that he belongs to everybody and belongs to nobody has started deviating from that statement.There is every evidence that there is a certain part of this coun­try that Mr. President is about to favour. Even in his quest to fight corruption which we very much support, we are also very much interested to know who are the targets? Inasmuch as we support his fight and whatever he wants to do in the fight against corrupt politicians, it should not be selec­tive.                                               We feel it should be holis­tic, particularly those who have privatized our agencies should be looked at.Again we feel that appoint­ments should be based on federal character. And each zone in this country definitely has qualified and credible people that can oc­cupy any post. Anything apart from that is another beginning of corruption. Corruption should be avoided in appointments because appointing people sectionally and without considering other areas like the South-East does not give credibility to the fight against cor­ruption.                                                                                                                                 And that is what we are say­ing, South-East people should see the whole thing the way it is and begin to unite. I feel very sad that there seems not be unity among us. There is no common front for leadership for the South- East which is very much unfor­tunate. The other day, there was this South East Forum that went to see Mr. President. And I felt very sorry that Ohanaeze Ndigbo seems to have lost its relevance and the earlier we begin to orga­nize ourselves the better.                                                                               Our elders should begin to come together to form a common front to defend the cause of the Igbo and the South-East, other­wise we should not complain of any marginalization. We need to talk with one voice and not when one forum is talking, another section of the zone is talking and we begin to disgrace ourselves, making people capitalize on our division, which is very unfortu­nate. So, Ndigbo should wake up. Let us with a common voice fight a common cause that will bring progress to us.”

Obasa, who is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party urged the President to unite Ni­gerians with his appointments. He counseled him to search for competent Nigerians across the nooks and crannies of the coun­try, in order to balance his ap­pointment to command national loyalty.