Yesterday, President Buhari made several key appointments into his administration but all of the appointees were from the northern half of the country, leading to some consternation within the APC. Concerned about the perception this will create, several party leaders said that the APC must move fast to cope with the backlash of expected rumblings in the polity.
In a surprise move yesterday, President Buhari 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 approved by the president are those of Col Hameed Ibrahim Ali (retd) as the new comptroller-general of the Nigerian Customs Service, Kure Martin Abeshi as the comptroller-general of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Senator Ita Enang, as his senior special assistant on National Assembly matters in the senate and Suleiman Kawu as his senior special assistant on National Assembly matters in the House of Representatives). Both Messrs Ali and Kawu are from Kano State and Abeshi is from Nasarawa, while Mr Enang from Akwa Ibom State is the only one from the south.
One party leader said: “The president does not consult before making most of these appointments and I can tell you that Nigerians are going to term the party and the president as a northern party and the president of northern Nigeria."
Some party leaders said they had hoped that President Buhari would learn from the criticisms that trailed his first appointments where more northerners were appointed into sensitive positions than southerners. Before the latest appointments, the president had only named only one southerner among the initial nine appointments he made.
Northerners in the first appointments include the director-general of the State Security Services Lawal Daura, the acting chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission Amina Zakari, the director of the Department of Petroleum Resources Mordecai Danteni Baba Ladan and the accountant-general of the federation Alhaji Ahmed Idris. Only the president's special adviser on media and publicity Femi Adesina, hailed from Osun Staten in the southwest.
One APC leader said: "Although the president did not get much votes from the southeast but we must not neglect the zone in key appointments. Even the southwest that supported and was the backbone of the party, what are we giving the zone in appreciation? We need to be careful before the party is destroyed.”
With fears that the issue may become a hot potato, some party leaders are already thinking of having an enlarged meeting where the appointments would be reviewed. However, one senior APC member said such a meeting, if it would hold at all, would have to wait until the party holds its Kogi State governorship primary on Saturday.
One member of an APC state executive in a southwest state, said: “When President Olusegun Obasanjo took over, you saw balance in appointments as he reflected federal character. President Goodluck Jonathan too reflected a semblance of balance but Buhari is pursuing a northern agenda.
"This is the same agenda pursued by the late Sir Ahmadu Bello, when everything was pro-north. Buhari made six appointments at a go and five of them are northerners.”
One APC chairman in another southwestern state said the list of the new appointees had left him perplexed. An APC member of the House of Representatives also added that the leaders of the party in the southwest were shocked by President Buhari’s latest appointments, adding that he did not consult anyone before making them.
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