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From Fred Itua, Abuja
Principal partner of Friends Chambers and an Abuja based legal luminary, Orji Nwafor-Orizu has condemned what he described as excluding people from the South East geopolitical zone from major appointments by President Bola Tinubu.
He said such appointments don’t reflect the true federal system of government. “The appointments made by Mr. President so far don’t obviously include the South East and it is a dangerous thing. The presidents that ruled this country very well by putting the federal character into consideration were those who took time to understand that the appointments must be distributed. Good examples were Obasanjo and Shagari. They ensured that each geopolitical zone got where it should have position,” he told newsmen in Abuja.
According to him, the major positions in Nigeria are president, vice president, Senate president, Speaker of the House, Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the national chairman of the party, adding that Obasanjo and Shagari ensured that each of the zones got one.
He blamed former president, Gooldluck Jonathan, for kickstarting the imbalance in appointments.
“Immediately Jonathan came in, he took his position from the South South and gave the rest to the North. He didn’t give any to the South East and South West. That was the reason Tinubu and others teamed up to remove him. The South East was shy and they didn’t understand the politics. They would have joined hands to remove Jonathan, because he called them nobody.
“When Bulhari came, he made his appointments mainly from the North and people, according to him, complained in vain. The lawyer further said they expected Tinubu to address the anomalies, but was disappointed that when he came, Tinubu made his appointments from the Yoruba alone.
He urged President Buhari to stop Yorubanising appointments.
Reacting to accusation that the Southeasterners did not vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Nnewi, Alhambra-born prince said the party treated people from the zone with disregard, by asking how many people from the region they put in position during their campaign and election, for such people to have financial power and popularity and say the APC has done this and that.
“The APC didn’t give position to anybody from the SE,” he stated.
