Buhari's parochial appointments-The Punch Editorial

CARRIED to power on a groundswell of goodwill and disgust at the

thoroughly corrupt Goodluck Jonathan administration, Muhammadu Buhari

appears bent on political self-immolation. While he received massive

support from across the country to become President, he is by his

appointments, presenting himself as a parochial, sectional leader. For the

sake of the country's corporate survival, he should rise above primordial

instincts and become a father to all Nigerians.
In his inaugural speech just over a year ago, Buhari promised Nigerians

that “having just a few minutes ago sworn on the Holy Book, I intend to

keep my oath and serve as President to all Nigerians. I belong to

everybody and I belong to nobody.”  But too often, the pledge has been

honoured in the breach. Buhari's sectionalism is not only unprecedented,

it could not have come at a worse time. The reality today is that

Nigerians are deeply divided. Seventeen years of dashed hopes of progress

under a democratic dispensation have reopened the deep fissures in the

polity and polarised the populace into mutually suspicious camps.

Sectarianism and ethnicity have been rearing their poisonous heads. The

presidential election of 2015 was particularly divisive, with some major

actors openly deploying base religious and regional sentiments. Add to

this the terrible state of the economy that Buhari inherited, headlined by

a collapse in global crude oil prices, our main export earner, and the

rapacious emptying of the national treasury by previous governments, and

you have a seething, discontented people.
It is a sad reality of the Nigerian experience that when crisis −

political or economic − hits, segments of the populace retreat into ethnic

and sectarian cocoons. It is in this combustible mix that Buhari

stubbornly presses ahead with appointments that weigh heavily in favour of

his northern regional base.
He struck again last month when he removed Ibe Kachikwu as head of the

Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to put a Northerner; named

another, Hadiza Bala-Usman, as managing director of the Nigerian Ports

Authority along with three executive directors, two of whom are also

Northerners. Before then, he had ring-fenced himself with appointees from

his northern constituency at the Presidency, thereby deepening the

long-held fears of many Southerners that he has not overcome his

well-known insularity.
But the 1999 Constitution explicitly stipulates in Chapter 14 subsection 3

that the “composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its

agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall…reflect the federal

character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to

command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no

predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other

sectional groups…” Buhari is breaching this with impunity in his

appointments. Apart from this, Nigeria's plural setting demands that no

group or ethnic nationality is seen as too domineering in critical areas

of governance.
Among his first appointments, even while he dithered on assembling a

cabinet: he recalled a retired officer to man the Department of State

Services; a former army officer to head the Nigeria Customs Service; a

personal acquaintance as Chief of Staff, and loaded the other security and

law enforcement agencies heavily in favour of Northerners. While the DSS

head is from his hometown, Daura, the others are also almost all

Northerners and overwhelmingly Muslims. In spite of public opinion, he

replaced the immediate past Inspector-General of Police, a Southerner,

with a Northerner, an assistant inspector-general whose ascension induced

the retirement in one fell swoop of 21 DIGs and AIGs who were senior to

him. This is beyond absurdity.
We declare emphatically that this is corruption. It is wrong to view

stealing of government funds as the only form of corruption. A former

member of the House of Representatives, Junaid Muhammed, alleges that not

only is Buhari sectional in his appointments, several appointees are

actually his relatives. Nigerians did not vote against the Jonathan

administration's impunity for corruption, only to be assaulted with

another pernicious impunity for cronyism.
Buhari should be told that sectionalism and nepotism are also acts of

corruption. You do not wage war against financial corruption while

indulging in sectional and sectarian favouritism. It is self-defeating; a

veritable weak link that the formidable ranks of those fighting back

furiously to preserve the existing corrupt order are already capitalising

on. The President simply does not need this. Many are willing to concede

that he is only demonstrating political naiveté; now, however, is the time

to radically change tactics.
The country is in a bad shape, compelling that all efforts be made to

rally all segments of the polity behind measures to reverse economic

recession, defeat terrorism in the North-East, renewed militancy and

sabotage in the South-South zone, Fulani herdsmen's terrorism in the

North-Central and general insecurity across the country. The government

admitted that the country is technically in recession last week, while

Bloomberg reported that foreign reserves fell to just over $26 billion in

June; oil production also fell to about 1.6 million barrels per day, while

over 4,440 megawatts of power were lost last week, both due to sabotage of

crude and gas facilities by criminals in the Niger Delta region.

Meanwhile, though seriously degraded, Boko Haram terrorists are recovering

their ability to ambush and inflict casualties on Nigerian troops.

More importantly, the South-East and South-South zones voted massively

against Buhari, who is deepening their alienation from his government by

his lopsided appointments. But in truly democratic societies, elected

leaders go all out to unite their people after elections.  Apart from

meeting the constitutional requirement that a minister be appointed from

each of the 36 states, the two zones are sparsely represented in the

Federal Government. If some past presidents indulged in primitive

sectionalism, Buhari should not. Olusegun Obasanjo, alone among our last

four presidents, significantly sought to rise above such primordial

instincts. Buhari, also a former military head of state, and senior

citizen, ought to do better, having tried and failed thrice before to win

the Presidency exclusively with Northern votes. His party, the All

Progressives Congress, the National Assembly and civil society groups

should be more vigorous in resisting this trend.
It is time to put an end to this provincial inclination. Nigeria has over

250 ethnic nationalities and wide disparities in culture. If, as Buhari

wrongly repeats that Nigeria's unity is inviolable, why then does he

alienate many Nigerians with appointments? Until we take the right,

inevitable step of restructuring the country, the minimum expected of a

Nigerian president is to ensure equity in federal appointments.

-The Punch
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