President Buhari and His Appointments: It Is a Buhari’s Country –Sen. Abaribe

Posted by African Examiner Latest Headlines, Press Releases Saturday, August 29th, 2015

No one should be surprised over what is happening or the shape of the political appointments made by President Muhammadu Buhari.

To be fair to him, the President made himself clear in his recent state visit to the United States of America, with his now unfortunate theory of 95 percent and 5 percent reward for support.

Again, it could be the style of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC). That is to say, that the party has chosen as a style, to run a government that encourages alienation of a sizable portion of its people, as well as one that promotes exclusivity.

Every political party has its style, like the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) that adopted its own style of running an inclusive national government, which reflected the true character and national outlook of the Nigerian people. PDP’s style was inclusivity not minding the voting pattern of any section of the country or where its support base was derived.

For any party, there should not be any political barrier or alienation of any constituent part, because after elections the President is the President and father of all Nigerians irrespective of political leaning.

My hunch is that the appointments so far, which has surreptitiously thrown up the prevailing circumstance, has failed to encourage our people’s hunger and quest to build a nation state out of a heterogeneous Nigeria. The appointments as it were does not also support the effort to weave a more cohesive country that would metamorphose into a nation where unity and love will prevail.

The founding fathers of our nation had this in mind when the notion of “Federal. Character” was inscribed in the constitution and a commission created for that purpose. That a President of elder statesman status would willfully breach this fibre that holds this country together is highly regrettable.

Well, my take is that, ‘it is a Buhari country’, it is the reality, so he can play around with his choice as his mind and conscience directs him. After all he did not win election in the South East and South-South and yet he became President, therefore, the South should be orphaned for not voting for him. Perhaps that is the stark reality that the people of the South in Nigeria should face.

There is an idiom in Igbo language that “20 years or more is not eternity”. The Buhari government will also come to an end one day.

Nonetheless, it could have been good and politically expedient if President Buhari sees himself as President of Nigeria, which is the hallmark of a statesman and not that of President of a section of the country.

Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, Abia South, Abia State