In the height of his very public fallout with then
President Jonathan, Gen. Obasanjo wrote in an
18-page open letter that one of his grouse with
Jonathan was that the latter had set up himself
as the president of only the Ijaws. I wonder how
Obasanjo is feeling this morning after Buhari
unveiled a kitchen and store-room cabinet of
100% Northern males.
Muhammadu Buhari
As feared by some people, Buhari has quickly
reverted to being a local champion, an
unabashed sectional leader and not a broad-
minded statesman President.
The true measure of a human being is what he
or she does privately, when no one is looking. In
other words, without the encumbrance of the
dictate of the constitution that stipulates that
Ministers must come from all States of the
Federation, Buhari has chosen all his core
appointments from the Northern part of Nigeria.
He’s given a one-finger salute to the entire
Southern Nigeria – including his APC mates. It
would appear his vaunted Party supremacy only
applies to Legislative officers.
For a president of a country to openly declare
that he would favour only those that massively
voted for him to the exclusion of others; you
don’t need to look far to know what is really in
his heart.
As a national politician, if people reject you, if
they are not convinced by you, you should want
to know why. Then you build bridges and begin
to cultivate friendship, making necessary amends
where possible. You do not go out of your way
to emphasize parochialism, reinforcing their
original fears.
What irks is that no attempt at all was made to
even pretend to be inclusive. The core
appointments that Buhari has to make without
worrying about Federal Character, he made
exclusively from his neck of the woods. The
utter disdain shown to others is scary indeed. It
is insensitivity taken too far.
When, before the election, some of us raised the
issue of parochialism, nepotism and all the other
negative isms that litter Buhari’s public record,
we were told that the man is not discriminatory
at all, that his drivers, cooks and gardeners were
from the South. Well, the man is here to reprise
that wonderful formula.
Take for instance the Nigerian Customs. The
most senior Custom officer in line to be the
Comptroller General of that service is a Yoruba
fellow. Buhari completely ignored and bypassed
him and brought in a retired (yes, Northern)
Army officer to head Nigerian Customs.
How about that for gumption? The single
mindedness and the determined manner these
lopsided core appointments are being made and
the utter disregard for others and their feelings is
quite troubling. At this rate, it is only a matter
of time before the current Police boss is replaced
by another ‘trusted’ hand.
Right under all of our collective nose, while we
were still yammering about APC-PDP dichotomy,
we were dragged right back to the era where one
region lords it over all others. As we childishly
focus solely on the War Against Jonathan’s
Corruption, power is being consolidated in just
one place. And, wouldn’t you know, some of the
folks that were shouting marginalisation less
than a year ago have suddenly discovered the
beauty of meritocracy.
One inelegant argument I heard was that
because Yar’Adua appointed his people as Chief
of Staff and as Secretary to the Government of
the Federation (SGF), and because Jonathan of
the Southsouth appointed Ayim from the
Southeast as SGF, it is alright for Buhari to put
only his Northern brothers everywhere. My
response is: I thought this was supposed to be a
corrective government.
Some people say that Buhari has assembled a
team he feels he can work with. I say why
contest a national post if you can only work with
folks from just your region. Others say we
should be patient and watch the President
assemble a team to rescue the nation. I ask;
rescue Nigeria from what?
Yet some others insist that we should wait as
Buhari still has about 5,000 appointments to fill.
I don’t know from where they obtained that
figure, but the important point to note is that the
core appointments have all gone to Northern
males. The fluff and space-fillers will be thrown
as token to others. Is this where we should be
as a Federation? Treating very sensitive matters
with complete disregard for the notion of ‘one
Nigeria?’
I can confidently predict that Buhari will only
unhappily and grudgingly obey the constitution
when it comes to appointing his Ministers. And
even at that, the meatier Ministries will all be
handed over to older Northern males. Why?
Action speaks louder than campaign promises.
If you take social participation away from people,
you make them slaves. Buhari must resist the
temptation to continue treating sections of
Nigeria like conquered territory. The President
must not see some of his citizens as
adversaries. He is president of all Nigerians and
must always demonstrate that in all of his
actions.
In the meantime, I hope that Vice President
Osinbajo has enrolled himself in a suitably
accelerated Hausa language lesson...

Source: www.saharareporters.com/2015/09/02/buhari-your-face-michael-egbejumi-david

reading

j

O

lemme siddon

Studying

As someone who strongly backed change.......I must say I am feeling very short-changed at the moment..... .....How can you claim to want to be President of Nigeria and then claim you are only able to work with people from your section of the country....All his campaign promises are being backtracked and no new policies have been tendered or are being suggested.....All we hear is fight corruption even that one.....we never see nada.....

mrpackager:
lemme siddon

shift abeg make i manage...

Word!

only in Anambra, people know what politicking Is all about.
at least most of them...

this hyping of sophisticated people in politics accredited to Yoruba's, I really don't get it.
these people are just nothing in terms of politics. they are only hungry power mongers .

crap?!?

still reading.... BT....... I do know that GEJ increased minimum wages for workers and corpers allowances within his first 100days.

GMB is yet to give us 1k out of 5K..

Dharniel:

shift abeg make i manage...

oya manage
hope you get orijin for there.

5%.

One chance Govt.

The mouth that speaks evil of you, will turn around and speak good of you one day.

- an old Igbo proverb.

coolitempa:
As someone who strongly backed change.......I must say I am feeling very short-changed at the moment..... .....How can you claim to want to be President of Nigeria and then claim you are only able to work with people from your section of the country....All his campaign promises are being backtracked and no new policies have been tendered or are being suggested.....All we hear is fight corruption even that one.....we never see nada.....

Where do you even stand,pls don't wail for us.

vayne:

Where do you even stand,pls don't wail for us.

I stand for full confederacy.....nothing less will satisfy Nigerians....I wail not for the wailing wailers but will also stand against Buhari when he steps out of line..... ...nothing binds me to him other than the fact that he is the president of Nigeria and I voted for him.....as a better choice against Jonathan..... ...that is not to say that he was the best Nigeria has to offer...... ...sho ti gbo....

coolitempa:


I stand for full confederacy.....nothing less will satisfy Nigerians....I wail not for the wailing wailers but will also stand against Buhari when he steps out of line..... ...nothing binds me to him other than the fact that he is the president of Nigeria and I voted for him.....as a better choice against Jonathan..... ...that is not to say that he was the best Nigeria has to offer...... ...sho ti gbo....

okay,do you regret voting him?

vayne:

okay,do you regret voting him?

Given the choice......I had no option....jonathan was a joke...

coolitempa:


Given the choice......I had no option....jonathan was a joke...

okay o,just know that the top guns are already crying about it.
Ab.oki na Ab.oki

I am beginning to lose confidence in this present administration. Baba Buhari should wake up from his slumber. This is Nigeria and not northern Nigeria.

The recent appointments by baba Buhari has justified the need for biafran agitation.

Who ever is advising him should think twice because the consequences may be terrible.

coolitempa:
As someone who strongly backed change.......I must say I am feeling very short-changed at the moment..... .....How can you claim to want to be President of Nigeria and then claim you are only able to work with people from your section of the country....All his campaign promises are being backtracked and no new policies have been tendered or are being suggested.....All we hear is fight corruption even that one.....we never see nada.....

I forgive your sins.
From now, go sin no more.
Now go, meet your kinsmen, tell them how God have delivered you
From the hands of the devil, the father of all liars APC.

Offcourse! I too wasn't born of a woman!

sdindan:

I forgive your sins.
From now, go sin no more.
Now go, meet your kinsmen, tell them how God have delivered you
From the hands of the devil, the father of all liars APC.

Kolo......na your middle name..... ...APC is still ten times better than anything PDP can offer....

coolitempa:



Kolo......na your middle name..... ...APC is still ten times better than anything PDP can offer....

I see.
Suffering and Smiling

It so sad that a party would come out and lie shamelessly to defend a man.

A president should be able to work with anybody from any part of the country...We are all Nigerians!


if not...then am sorry to say he's an unrepentant tribal bigot!

cc Lalasticlala ishilove

omenka change

coolitempa:


Given the choice......I had no option....jonathan was a joke...

simple. you were FOOLED as usual... they were laughing at your stupidity while you were screaming CHANGE!

Sahara Reporters should please keep quiet and allow the once and future King, do as he pleases. All this cheap attempts at playing the good umpire, is just tacky usurpation.They simply want to put the east against the north in their haphazard divisive scheme of Fufu politics. They should just keep in mind, that no one can play this sort of game like an easterner. Failure to learn their place, will only see, them land face first, in the dirt.

BushidoBlue:
The mouth that speaks evil of you, will turn around and speak good of you one day.

- an old Igbo proverb.

onu kwuru njo, ga-ekwu mma. Gbam!