ANALYSIS: South 82, North 75 — Buhari finally provides the answers on appointments

 So we now know. President Muhammadu Buhari has favoured the south above the north in his 157 appointments since he was sworn in on May 29, 2015. He has appointed 82 southerners and 75 northerners. Who would have believed that?

To make matters worse, or is it better, he has appointed more people from the south-east, the bastion of  opposition to his government, than the north-central. Even more than the south-south, where the oil is. Now you cannot make that up.

According to the list of appointees (including those appointed by former president Goodluck Jonathan and retained by Buhari) released on Saturday night by Femi Adesina, the presidential spokesman, Buhari has appointed 22 south-easterners, a zone where he did not win a single state in 2015, and just 19 from the north-central, where he won five of the six states.

What else? The south-west actually took the lion’s share with 40 appointees. Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo comes from that geopolitical zone, just you know. And Ogun state has the highest number of appointees — 21. That’s more than 50% of south-west appointees. Again, Osinbajo is from Ogun state.

THE OFFICIAL LIST

THE ACTUAL (ADJUSTED FOR ERRORS)

Osinbajo’s accusers must be sharpening their knives now, after the furore generated by what he did, or was accused of doing, as acting president in the absence of Buhari. But that would not be fair. After all, Buhari’s right-hand man, Ibikunle Amosun, is the governor of Ogun state and he gets virtually all his nominees appointed by Buhari. Now you know.

But is Maryam Uwais, the special adviser on social investment who works in the office of the vice-president, actually from the north-central as stated in the list? Except she has done change of state, TheCable can confirm that she is from Kano state, which is in the north-west (barring any last-minute changes).

Even her husband, Mohammed Uwais, former chief justice of Nigeria, is from Kaduna state — at least in his official documents. There is no re-enactment of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala here, who though is from Delta state, was nominated in 2003 as minister from Abia state where her husband comes from. No, both Maryam and Mohammed are from the north-west. Error number 1.

Another error: Mohammed Babandede, the immigration boss, is from the north-west (Jigawa) and not north-central, as listed.

Then there is error number 3 as a result — the north-west has 32 not 30. That leaves the north-central with 19, not 21. With 19, north-central has the lowest. We at TheCable are generously assuming that there is no other misalignment of names and zones.

We almost missed something though. The north-west is where the president comes from — so 32 appointees is not bad. That is next only to the south-west. Katsina’s 14 appointees are not that little too; it’s the president’s home state. Only Ogun’s 21, Kano’s 16 and Imo’s 15 are better. Adjusted, Kano’s figure rises to 16 to accommodate Uwais. We still don’t know the north-central states allocated to Uwais and Babandede so that we can adjust accordingly.

The list also has numbering errors. It gives the impression that there are 159 names. Those who love to do arithmetic might have been at a loss as the numbers did not tally. All additions ended up at 157, no matter your mathematical skill.

Some might have wished Chike Obi, eminent professor of mathematics, were alive to help them sort out the confusion. No, there was no need to invoke Obi’s genius. Two serial numbers were marginalised — No. 118 and No. 151. They are missing in action. So it is a list of 157, not 159, appointees.

However, arguments could now shift to headship of “grade A” or “juicy” ministries, agencies and departments with big budgets and patronage which some commentators allege favour the north. Now we have no way of figuring that out. And it’s a difficult argument to pursue.

Presidency released the list in reaction to the allegations of lopsidedness, with a report suggesting 81 out of 100 appointees are from the north. Not true, as statistics have shown.

But why did it take Buhari so long to release the list?