Buhari appointments unsettle APC

In from Victor Ebimomi …
The top echelon of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is not happy with the appointments being made by President Muhammadu Buhari, Ripples has gathered.
While some leaders of the party are complaining that they were not consulted before some of the key appointments were made, others are said to be miffed that the appointments were an infraction of the federal character as they appear to favour only the North.
Besides, it was gathered that the party leaders are disturbed at the backlash the appointments might cause in the polity.
The outrage about the appointments is more pronounced in the South-East geo-political zone with the people claiming that they have been totally marginalized.
Before now the people of the zone had high expectation that the position of the Secretary to the Federal Government (SFG) would be given to them.
A national leader of the APC, Chief Ogbonnaya Onu, was even said to have been under consideration for the position but when the appointments were eventually made, the zone was not favoured in anyway.
The spokesman of the APC in the zone, Osita Okechukwu, told Ripples that he aligned with the sentiments of the people from the zone but maintained that it was too early to judge the government.
“To be candid as the South-East spokesman of APC, one is not happy that my people are angry for not making the list.
“However one relies on the timeless Igbo adage that it not wise to score the market too early in the day, for there are over 400 appointments to be dispensed in the next few months.
“Methinks that Mr. President cannot deliberately breach the federal character principle spelt out in section 14(3) of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”, he said.
Another top party member in Lagos who spoke on condition of anonymity to Ripples warned that Nigerians are too sensitive to be taken for granted especially on political issues, advising the president to try and make amends in his appointments before people would start tagging him Northern president.

Read also: FG appointments: Adesina assures Nigerians

“Nigerians are already complaining and this is not good for our party. The oppositions will now be laughing that we have started to misstep before we take off”, he added.
A group in the South-East, Ohanaeze Youths Council (OYC) has even rejected the recent appointments made on Thursday by the president saying it is unacceptable to the South-East zone.
The president on Thursday approved the appointment of Babachir David Lawal from Adamawa State as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
He also named Abba Kyari from Borno state as his Chief of Staff.
Other appointments are those of Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (retd.) as the new Comptroller-General, Nigerian Customs Service; Kure Martin Abeshi, Comptroller-General, Nigerian Immigration Service; Senator Ita Enang, Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly Matters (Senate); and Suleiman Kawu as Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly Matters (House of Representatives).
Both Ali and Kawu are from Kano State and Abeshi is from Nasarawa.
Enang, the only one from south geo-political zone is from Akwa Ibom State.
Before Thursday appointments, there was only one Southerner among the initial nine appointments, the president made since assuming office.
The northerners in the first appointments are the Director-General of the State Services, Lawal Daura; Acting Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mrs. Amina Zakari; the Director, Department of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Mordecai Danteni Baba Ladan; and the Accountant-General of the Federation, Alhaji Ahmed Idris.
Others are President’s Chief Security Officer, Abdulrahman Mani; State Chief of Protocol, Mallam Abdullahi Kazaure; Aide- De-Camp, Lt. Col. Muhammed Abubakar; and the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu.
Only the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, is from Osun State in the South-West zone.

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