Femi Adesina, special adviser to the president on media and publicity, has assured agitated members of the public that President Muhammadu Buhari intends to balance his federal appointments with time.
Adesina, who revealed this on Friday while speaking with Ray 100.5FM, said the president had thus far appointed his team based on merits. He promised that Buhari will respect federal character as stipulated by the constitution.
“Nobody can fault the fact that the persons appointed were appointed on merits,” he said.
“In terms of the spread, the president has prerogative to appoint and he knows there is federal character.
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“I am sure that there will be balance in the future. These are still early days. At the end of the day, we will have a balance. By the time more appointments are made, it will balance out.”
The former president of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) said Nigerians should disregard talks of key or no key positions, as the president has the interest of Nigerians at heart.
“The president is trying to get the very best of Nigerians. The issue of key positions and no key positions should not be the issue. He gave a deadline of September for the appointment of ministers and he will keep to it,” he said.
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Buhari came under more pressure late on Thursday after making six appointments, with five of them from the north.
Section 13 of the Nigerian constitution calls for a spread of government appointments to all parts of the country, in a bid to ensure national unity.
“The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to 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 State or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies,” the section states.
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4 comments
He is very tribal. He Buhari is not a true statesman. All the respect I used to have for him is gone.
the argument being made by the president’s party that the loopsided appointments made are those of his kitchen cabinet is a hollow excuse and is meant to deceive. one may ask whether the headship of costum, immigration,innc, dss, are these also his personal cabinets? moreover the ‘advice’ for agrieved party to be ‘patient’ deceiptive. Did he suspend the constitution to make these sectional appointments and will later lift the suspension when he feels other nigerians should be considered?
The national assembly should move in and address this misnormer. If the president does not have enough time to read the constitution then the senate and rep. should point-out when he deviates. that is there is check and ballances in democracy. they should not just ‘confirm’ whatever the president churns out and sends in to senate for ‘confirmation’ without considering the constitional implication. afterall the president to uphold the constitution and ‘do justice to all manners of people….
The constitional provision for federal character is very clear that its application must be reflected in ‘every agency of government’. It is not a question of waiting until all appointments are made in future. Moreover there shall not be preponderance of people from one section in any agency of government in exclusion of people from another section…. there cannot be any better exposision of how the nigerian constitution should be upheld. there is no ambiguity on the constitutional provision for federal character and nobody can have any genuine excuse not implementing this simplest provision.