As the nation awaits the constitution of the boards of federal parastatals and agencies, there is growing anxiety in the polity over what insiders described as “appointments tilted towards the North.”
It has been reliably learned that appointments to the boards may be announced this week.
A top member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, expressed worries that this exercise would follow the existing pattern of appointments that were skewed towards a particular section of the country.
“There is a growing trend of federal appointments being tilted towards the Northerners and that of the board appointments won’t be an exception going by the information available. Juicy appointments are being reserved for Northerners to further placate them ahead of the 2015 elections,” a source said.
The North is angling for the Presidency in 2015.
The Yoruba are not likely to be accorded priority in the constitution of the new members of the boards just like they have been treated with the appointments made so far by the Goodluck Jonathan administration where the South-West was sidelined in strategic sectors. In the top hierarchy of the nation’s executive, legislative and judiciary, the Yoruba have no say.
President Goodluck Jonathan, from Bayelsa State, South-South, heads the executive arm of government and supported by Vice-President Namadi Sambo, from Kaduna in North-West zone.
The two leaders of the National Assembly – Senate President, David Mark and Speaker Aminu Tambuwal of the House of Representatives – are from the North. Mark is from Benue State in North Central while Tambuwal is from Sokoto State, North West.
Justice Aloma Mariam Muktar, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, is from Kano State, North-West.
A member of the PDP Board of Trustee, BoT, said that the Yoruba have no voice in the composition of the new boards as no public officer from the South-West was part of the selection committee which adversely affected the consideration of the Yoruba in prime positions in the constitution of the boards of federal boards and agencies, which may be announced next week.
“The President, Vice President, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives and a few others decided on the allocation of boards appointments. Unfortunately, the Yoruba have nobody to represent their interest.
This is why the South-West was also neglected in vital appointments,” a former member of the PDP National Working Committee, NWC, said.
PDP National Chairman, Alhjai Bamanga Tukur was also reported to have influenced some board appointments for the Northerners. The South-South and South-East were also given consideration in the appointments, according to sources.
Piqued by the marginalisation of South-West in the Goodluck Jonathan administration, prominent Yoruba leaders have renewed call for the redistribution of public offices and also asked for justice in Nigeria.
A high-powered delegation of eminent Yoruba leaders, under the aegis of Yoruba Unity Forum, YUF, had met with President Jonathan recently where they pointedly told him that the Yoruba race is being marginalised.
The 22-member delegation led by Rt. Rev. Emmanuel Gbonigi bluntly told Jonathan: “Mr. President, our people are quick to point out the unalloyed support which they gave to your election as president across party lines and how they now seem to be completely shunted off the mainstream of powers in the Nigerian polity.”
Source: National Mirror
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