Contrary to popular allegations of lopsidedness in appointment into public offices by the Buhari administration, a confidential document has revealed that overall, the administration has been balanced and fair in distribution of available public offices
A group, Fairness and Justice for All at a briefing in Abuja at the weekend declared that such arguments are indeed unfounded and a product of certain elements bent on causing disaffection among Nigerians.
According to Mr. Okey Ibe who spoke on behalf of the group, “a cursory look at the statistics of political office holders based on geopolitical zone revealed that North West with the largest number of states also has the largest appointment of 53, followed by South West with 47 and South-South with 46.”
He continued that the North Central came in fourth on the list with 45, South East has 35 representatives while North East came in last with 33 politcal office holders.
Ibe said “what has been happening since President Buhari came to power is a sort of balancing in the lopsidedness that against the North, which happened during the last administration.
“You must realise by now that Baba is not someone that does not talk too much and he is honestly frustrated by the persistent allegations of bias against some sections of the country.
“During the last administration especially, it is not a secret that the South-South and South East had a jolly good time and the best way to address the situation is to attempt a balancing as opportunities arise”, he declared.
The list, which contained 27 ministries, their departments and agencies including Central Bank of Nigeria and National Planning Commission also gave a break down in terms of which states actually produced the office holders within the zones.
In the North West, Zamfara has three, Kaduna 13, Jigawa 5, Kebbi 2, Sokoto 2, Katsina 10, Kano 19.
For the North Central, Niger State has 6, slots, FCT 1, Kogi 12, Kwara 9, Nassarawa 3, Plateau 7, Benue 8 while from the North East, Borno has 8 representatives, Yobe has 4, Adamawa 7, Bauchi 6, Taraba 4 and Gombe 5.
Form the South-south, Bayelsa has 6, Edo 16, Akwa Ibom 4, River 4, Cross Rivers 6, and Delta 9 while Anambra has 10, Abia 4, Ebonyi 3, Enugu 3, and Imo 15 representing the five states of the South East.
In the South West region, Ogun has 18, Oyo 5, Lagos 5, Ondo 6, Ekiti 4, while Osun has 9 representatives on the appointment list.
Ibe said that if Nigerians truly want to live together and forge a strong economically buoyant and globally respect ted nation, it was time the people queue behind President Buhari who is obviously striving to make the country great.
He insisted that why it appeared that the President is concentrating appointments in some sections of the country is that in the past, other parts of the country have had more than their due of appointments and now, there is an attempt to balance things up.
