Igbo has best appointment under Buhari – Keyamo
In this interview with ENIOLA
AKINKUOTU, human rights lawyer, Mr. Festus Keyamo, speaks about
President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointments:
You are from the
South-South. Why have you come out to defend President Muhammadu
Buhari’s appointments which are largely in favour of the North?
I am not a tribalist. If I was, I
wouldn’t have campaigned for Buhari. I just wanted the best for Nigeria.
I agree that some of the best brains are from the South while some of
the best are from the North. We have brains everywhere. However, why
people are clamouring for these positions that have just been filled is
that people see them as juicy positions and this is my problem. About 95
per cent of the positions are yet to be filled. Buhari has filled just
about five per cent of positions. For me, no government position is
different from the other and that is the ideal situation. We should not
classify some positions as more beneficial than others because that is a
euphemism for corruption. It is a euphemism to say that some positions
are better than others. People were clamouring for the position of
Secretary to the Government of Federation and Chief of Staff because in
the past, the Peoples Democratic Party turned those positions into
money-making machines. Nigerians have seen the ostentatious lifestyles
that others who have occupied these positions have lived. And the nation
allowed them to get away with those crimes. And yet we say we want a
change. We must begin to change our orientation. So, we are saying that
we cannot make a holistic assessment until the President fills all these
positions. For those positions he has filled, they are supposed to be
occupied by those who are personally loyal to the President. I do not
expect him to leave those positions to be filled by his political party.
For example, you cannot say the chief of staff should be someone that
is loyal to a power bloc in his party. That kind of person would close
everyday from work, pick his telephone, and report all the activities of
the President to his political camp. That would not be fair because
that kind of person would not be loyal to the President but by the
person who nominated him for that office. There are many positions that
the political party can fill that will not have direct access to the
itinerary and activities of the President. That is why I said people
should be calm. There are ministerial positions to be filled, heads of
agencies and many others.
We
must change our orientation such that any appointment given to anybody
from any part of the country must be accepted with dignity and pride and
patriotism. The argument is that certain ethnic groups have seen some
positions as being exclusive to them. They argue that since the
presidency has gone to the North and some positions have gone to some
other geopolitical zones, the next one must come to them. The clamour is
because they see these as hierarchies of juicy positions and I say no.
Is it coincidental that the South-East, where Buhari got low number of votes, has not received any political appointment?
Buhari got the lowest number of votes
from the South-South. But as I said, the appointments are not yet
complete. You say he has not appointed any Igbo but the biggest position
so far has gone to an Igbo man: Emmanuel Kachikwu who is the Group
Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. It is
just by modern political divide that the man falls within Delta State
but he is a Delta Igbo. They speak Igbo. It is only by political
delineation that he falls within Delta State but there are Igbo speaking
Deltans. He is an Igbo man but only on the other side of the Niger. He
is not an Urhobo man. What language does he speak? Is it not Igbo? So
what are we talking about? That is the biggest position and they have it
already. So, you can see that all this noise is being made by
frustrated and jobless politicians who just want to use ethnicity to get
juicy positions. It is orchestrated. We the elite should not be moved
by this noise and selfish agenda. Imagine a whole ethnic group
campaigning for a position! Initially, they said chief of staff, then
SGF. Now, with all the noise they have been making since May 29, imagine
if one person from that region is appointed to that position. That
person will then see himself as a champion of his ethnic group and his
kinsmen will descend on that office in the area of contracts and gifts.
He will destroy the sanctity of that office and turn it into a political
chessboard because that person will see himself as representing a
region in that position. It removes professionalism from that position.
So, we should not campaign for offices on the basis of representing an
ethnic bloc. Yes, every region will get appointments but once he is
appointed, he should not see himself as representing that ethnic group
but the whole country.
But Section 13 of the
constitution states that the composition of the government of the
federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall
be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of
Nigeria and the need to promote national unity.
Yes, I agree but the government has not
been fully composed. Is it the SGF and chief of staff that constitute
the government? So what is the noise all about? Five per cent of all
appointments have not even been made. All these noises would have been
valid if positions had been filled and it is lopsided. What if the next
10 appointments made are all Igbo? Wouldn’t those people castigating the
government look foolish?
Do you think these fears are
misplaced in the light of Buhari’s statement that constituencies where
he didn’t get many votes would not be treated equally with areas where
he got many votes?
It is very simple. It doesn’t mean that
they would be schemed out. But if he says that, it is his prerogative.
If the President says he will leave certain sensitive positions to
certain areas because those ones directly have to do with his security
and if he leaves these other positions to a certain area, what is wrong
with that? It is the President’s prerogative. Like I said, all
appointments should be received with dignity and pride. That is why he
is the President.
The constitution states that each
of the 36 states must produce a minister. However, you have said that
all the appointments could be made at different times in order to save
costs. Do you think this would be wise in the light of the recent
allegations of marginalisation?
I believe that our priority as a people
should not be appointments but conservation of national resources. If I
know that a minister is supposed to be appointed from my state but the
President is making appointments in bits because we cannot afford 36
ministers at the same time, why shouldn’t I make the sacrifice because
by the time it is the turn of my state to produce the minister, another
state would not have. That is balancing and nothing is wrong with that.
If for two years, a person from Delta is heading a ministry and within
that same period, Edo State doesn’t have a minister and after sometime,
the role is reversed such that Edo has a minister and Delta does not
have, is that not equity? But the real issue is that people cannot wait
to touch public funds and that is why they are complaining.
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