The presidency has tendered an apology following the erroneous federal government appointments list published in a bid to dismiss the ongoing conversation about President Bola Tinubu’s lopsided appointments, which allegedly favours mostly his tribesmen and women from the south-south region where he hails and neglecting other ethnic groups in the country.
Most geopolitical zones of the country have been crying foul on President Tinubu’s imbalanced federal government appointments. The height came in a recent interview with Arise Television, when the senator representing Borno South, Senator Ali Ndume, described the president’s appointment as “unconstitutional” and warned him to rewrite the narrative before it boomerangs.
Senator Ali Ndume said President Tinubu’s appointment violates the federal character principles enshrined in section 14(3) of the 1999 constitution. Ndume maintained that he had the right as a senator to call out the president on such matters, despite being in the same political party (APC).
In an attempt to counter the claims, the Presidency published a list of President Tinubu’s appointees and their respective geo-political zones.
The list indicated that the President appointed 29 individuals from his home region of the Southwest, along with 35 from the Northwest, 22 from the South-South, 16 from the Southeast, 25 from North Central, and 24 from the Northeast, respectively.
However, the president’s critics spotted major omissions that indicated that the list was erroneous, insisting that there are key appointees in Tinubu’s cabinet whose names were not included in the list.
Those omitted names were alleged to be individuals from the South South and, by extension, the same ethic group as the president. These include the President’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, whose name was not on the list released by the presidency.
The list also further raised concern about the marginalisation and underrepresentation being suffered by the Southeasterners as they appear to hold only 16 appointments in the current administration.
Following the heated debate and controversy that ensued on social media in reaction to the list, Sunday Dare, the Special Adviser, Media & Public Communication/Spokesperson to the President, swiftly tendered an apology on behalf of the presidency and admitted that the list was erroneous.
“We have noticed a number of errors in the list of appointments tweeted. We are sorry. We will provide an updated list later. Thank you,” Dare appealed to Nigerians on X.
Meanwhile, Sunay Dare did not explain why Gbajabiamila’s name was omitted from the list.
