Ekiti
State Governor Ayodele Fayose said yesterday President Muhammadu Buhari was
operating as a Northern president, describing steps taken by him since May 29,
2015 as tainted in ethnic and tribal coloration. He said it is against
Nigeria’s unity.
The
governor, who decried what he called President Buhari’s “nothernisation of
Nigeria,” said “appointments made by the President so far negated the principle
of federal character and it appears the unity in diversity of Nigeria is being
taken for granted by the President.”
In
a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New
Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose said it was wrong for the President to
have made 31 major appointments and only seven came from the South.
“Under
Buhari, are people from Southern Nigeria only meant to be hounded and harassed
by anti-corruption agencies and the Department of State Services (DSS) while
those from the North are meant to enjoy juicy appointments?”
The
governor said, “apart from lopsided appointments, I am worried that
construction of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway has been slowed down while work has
stopped on Lokoja-Abuja road, 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 tax-payers in Lagos.”
Governor
Fayose, who maintained that Nigeria can only move forward if there was equity
and fairness, said those who made the constitution and enshrined the principle
of federal character were mindful of the ethnic diversity 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,” he said.
Source: Sun Newspaper
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