A former presidential aide, Mr. Reno Omokri, Sunday, absolved President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of alleged favouritism in his appointments, describing his appointments as the most balanced in the country’s history.
President Tinubu has faced criticism from political opponents who assert that his top appointments favour his Yoruba ethnic group. The latest critic is Prof. Farooq Kperogi, who accused the president of “tribalism and Lagos-centric Yorubanisation of Nigeria.”
However, the former presidential aide criticised the feedback as unfair, stating that the critics did not consider the president’s appointments comprehensively. Specifically, Omokri mentioned that Kperogi relied on one set of appointments to support his conclusion.
“The membership of one committee cannot establish tribalism. It is intellectually lazy and a hasty generalisation to make such a conclusion from just one alleged example, which is not even accurate,” he said in a statement, Sunday.
He added that the critics would have reached a different conclusion if they had considered the appointments holistically and in relation to the nation’s order of precedence list.
Omokri pointed out that, unlike in the past, Tinubu ensured that the nation’s leadership’s top hierarchy, including the executive, legislature, and judiciary, was evenly distributed among the country’s six geopolitical zones.
He stated: “When you take appointments made by the president and weigh them according to their ranking on the National Order of Precedence of Public Officers and Other Persons, it becomes clear that President Tinubu is perhaps one of Nigeria’s most accommodating leaders, especially when you compare him with his immediate predecessor.
“If you examine the National Order of Precedence of Public Officers and Other Persons, following the president and his deputy, you will find that the President of the Senate, other legislative leaders, the Chief Justice of the Federation, and other judicial officers, along with the cabinet, reveal that the top appointive position in Nigeria is the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
“Under General Buhari, Babachir Lawal and later Boss Mustapha served as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation; both were Northerners like Buhari. Under Tinubu, Senator George Akume, also a Northerner, holds the position of Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
“Next is the Office of the Head of the Civil Service. Buhari appointed Mrs. Folasade Yemi-Osan from the North-Central region, while President Tinubu named Mrs. Didi Esther Walson-Jack from the South-South region to lead that office.”