Buhari Is President For The North” – Fayose

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has said President Mohammadu

Buhari was operating as a president of the Northern Nigeria only,

describing steps taken by the president since May 29, 2015 as tainted

in ethnic and tribal colouration, which is inimical to the unity of

Nigeria.

The governor, who descried what he called President Buhari’s

“Nothernisation of Nigeria,” said “appointments made by the President

so far negate the principle of federal character and it appears the

unity in diversity of Nigeria is being taken for granted by the

President.”

According to a statement issued on Monday, by his Special Assistant on

Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose

said it was wrong for President Buhari to have made 31 major

appointments and only seven will come from the South while 24 were

from the North.

He asked; “Under Buhari, are people from Southern Nigeria only meant

to be hounded and harassed by anti-corruption agencies and the

Department of State Security (DSS) while those from the North are

meant to enjoy federal government juicy appointments?”

The governor said, “apart from the lopsided appointments being made by the

President, I am worried that construction of Lagos-Ibadan expressway

has been slowed down while work has stopped on Lokoja-Abuja roads,

which are the major roads linking the Southern part of Nigeria with

the North.

“Also, we have been told by the Federal Government that the Second

Niger Bridge project has been suspended and one is now beginning to

remember how Buhari cancelled the Lagos Metroline Project in 1985 at a

loss of over $78 million (then) to the Lagos tax payers.”

Governor Fayose, who maintained that Nigeria can only move forward if

there was equity and fairness, said those who made the country’s

constitution and enshrined the principle of Federal Character were

mindful of the ethnic diversity of the country, adding that President

Buhari’s running Nigeria as if he was a Northern Nigeria’s President

was not in the interest of the country.

“They said the President made the appointments on merit and I wish to

ask whether there are no competent people in the All Progressives

Congress (APC) in the Southern part of Nigeria, especially South-East

where no one has been appointed.

“Are they saying Igbo leader like Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, who graduated

with a first class honours degree in Chemical Engineering at the

University of Lagos, is not competent to be appointed as Secretary to

the Government of the Federation (SGF)?

“To my mind, these lopsided appointments skewed in favour of the North

is a reminder of President Buhari’s tenure as Military Head of State

and I hope the President is not seeing Nigeria of today as that of

1984 because doing so will mean that he has turned himself to a

northern president, thereby justifying his notion that those who gave

him 97 percent votes must get more benefits than those who gave him

five percent votes.”