PRESS RELEASE 23RD JUNE, 2008
YAR ADUA'S ETHNOCENTRISM STINKS STILL!
The ill-attempt by President Umaru Yar’Adua at the weekend to exonerate
himself from real allegations of northernisation of power in clear
violation of the Federal Character principle in the 1999 constitution has
further demonstrated that he has a dangerous mindset that threatens the
unity of Nigeria and its continued corporate existence.
After all the hues and cries over the lopsided appointments he has been
making, we expected a responsive President to begin to balance the power
structure in the country to allay the fears of shortchanged groups.
But alas the President has not seen anything wrong with all he has been
doing and all he has sought to do is to justify his conduct by dishing out
all manners of inconsequential, obscure and irrelevant appointments he has
given to Southerners.
Yar’Adua insults the nationalities in Southern Nigeria by equating some
Special Advisers and Assistants with all the key and sensitive positions
he has given to his own kinsmen.
Like we said in previous publications, Yar’Adua should have shown more
sensitivity in his appointments considering the fact that we have a
situation where all the three arms of government are in the firm grip of
Northerners. The President is from the North, ditto for the Senate
President and the Chief Justice of the Federation as well as the President
of the Court of Appeal and the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court.
Upon this Yar’Adua has chosen Northerners as the Secretary to the
Government (Baba Gana Kingibe), Attorney General and Justice Minister
(Michael Kaage Aondoakaa), Agriculture and Water Resources Minister (Abba
Sayyadu Ruma), Defence Minister (Ahmed Yayale), FCT Minister (Aliyu
Modibbo), Finance Minister (Shamsudeen Usman), National Planning (Muhammed
Dagash).
President equally ensured that the office of the National Security
Adviser, the Director General of the State Security Service (SSS), the
Chief of Army Staff are firmly in the grips of fellow Northerners.
All the subsidiaries in the oil sector – NNPC, PPMC and DPR have
Northerners as their heads. The major panels the President has set up – Energy Council, Electoral Reform and the Police Reform are all headed by
Northerners.
When challenged on his Presidential chat on May 29, 2008, the President
said he was basing his appointments on merit as if people of merit in
Nigeria can only be found from Sokoto to Kastina.
On that same programme he said he chose Usman Magawata as the NTA Director
General because the person who was senior to him (a southerner) had only
one year and few months to stay in service yet the same President
appointed Hamma Hammed as Comptroller General of Customs when he has only
six months left in service. Hammed was an Assistant Comptroller when he
was appointed and the three Deputy Comptrollers senior to him (all from
the south) have now been compulsorily retired.
Now he is telling us that having cornered everything that matters for the
North, Southerners should troop to the streets in jubilation because he
has appointed Blessing Omonibeke as Special Assistant on Domestic Matters,
Dr. Bola Babalakin as Honorary Adviser and Mr. Oronto Douglass, Special
Assistant on Research and Documentation.
They are also to go on their knees in appreciation that Dr. Salisu Banye
is Chief Personal Physician to the President and Dr. Abdulrasheed Yusuf is
a Personal Physician in the Presidency.
The President treated us to a lot of the ridiculous. But we expected him
to have gone to the sublime by telling us the number of drivers, cleaners,
typists, messengers and gardeners of Southern extraction in the Villa to
convince us there are more Southerners in his government.
It is quite absurd that we have a President who is so narrow and cannot
see the larger picture. The nation is in for bad times because if the
President cannot see anything bad in his lopsided appointments and the
need to urgently reflect national perspective, he cannot see anything
wrong with our being in darkness and other ills affecting our country.
It should interest President Yar’Adua to check out the list of the
countries that have disappeared from the world map post-cold war and he
would realize that the clashes that led to their crashes were not over
ideology but cultural.
The basic fault lines in conflicts around the world today are cultural
identities and President Yar’Adua may be pulling Nigeria in a dangerous
drift if he fails to listen to the voice of reason by addressing these
lopsidedness.
Afenifere insists that he should find competent men and women from all
corners of Nigeria to man key and sensitive positions. If he can only
continue to find merit in his own corner of Nigeria, he would do well to
excise the rest of the country where he can only get Special Advisers and
Assistants who amount to nothing in the power equation.
Yinka Odumakin
National Publicity Secretary