APC leaders upset as Pres. Buhari appoints more Northerners

There was outrage in the ruling All Progressives Congress party on
Thursday over the announcement of new appointments by President
Muhammadu Buhari.
Leaders of the APC complained that the appointments were mostly in favour
of the North and Northerners.
“The President does not consult before making most of these
appointments and I can tell you that Nigerians are going to term the
party and the President as a northern party and the President of
Northern Nigeria,” a leader of the party said on Tuesday.
He said, “Though the President did not get much votes from the South-
East, we must not neglect the zone in key appointments.
“Even the South-West that supported and was the backbone of the
party, what are we giving the zone in appreciation? We need to be
careful before the party is destroyed.”
It was gathered that some leaders of the party are considering having a
meeting where the appointments would be reviewed.
But another senior member of the APC said such a meeting, would have to
wait until the party holds its Kogi State governorship primary on Saturday.
A member of the state executive of APC in a South-West state, said the
appointments were lopsided against the South.
He said,
“When President Olusegun Obasanjo took over, you saw balance in
appointments as he reflected federal character. President Goodluck
Jonathan too reflected a semblance of balance. Buhari is pursuing a
northern agenda. This is the same agenda pursued by the late Sir
Ahmadu Bello, when everything was pro-North. Buhari made six
appointments at a go and five of them are northerners.”
The Speaker of one of the Houses of Assembly in the South-West, who
spoke on condition of anonymity, also described the new appointments as
shocking.
The Speaker, who is a member of the APC, said,
“This is shocking. It doesn’t speak well at all. The South-West has
been completely neglected and the South-East too. The South-West
was neglected during the President Goodluck Jonathan years. The
South-West must rise up against this.”
Similarly, an APC chairman in another South-West state, who also spoke
on condition of anonymity, said the list of the new appointees left him
perplexed.
He said:
“This is not good at all. Why should he choose everybody from the
North? I am sure he did not confide in anybody before drawing up
the list and making the announcement. We will continue to watch. It is
condemnable.”
In the same vein, an APC member of the House of Representatives, said
the leaders of the party in the South-West were shocked by Buhari’s latest
appointments.
“He didn’t tell anybody. We are all shocked. The real shocker would
be when he is going to appoint ministers. The only thing that would
save us is that he is mandated constitutionally to choose from all
states, otherwise, he would have chosen all the ministers too from the
North,” the female member of parliament said.
Punch