The Mirror Editorial: Lopsided appointments: Let’s look beyond Ndume’s accusation

The other day Borno South Senator Ali Ndume during a television interview reportedly accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of benefiting the people from his part of the country (southwest) with all the juicy appointments to the detriment of other regions of the country.

Specifically, the senator directed his ire at the president over the lopsided appointments at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).

It may be recalled that President Tinubu had last Wednesday announced a new team at the NNPCL, with Bayo Ojulari as the Group Managing Director of the oil corporation, succeeding Mele Kyari, amongst other appointees.

As to be expected, the Presidency didn’t take Ndume’s statement kindly.

In a statement by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Strategy practically took Ndume to the cleaners describing him as a hypocrite among other expletives.

According to Onanuga, “Senator Ali Ndume’s latest outburst on TV about so-called “lopsided appointments” by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu reeks of hypocrisy and selective perception. While the Borno senator grandstanded as a moral authority on equity, he forgot to tell his interviewer that two of his kinsmen featured in recent NNPC Limited top appointments. The Chairman, appointed by President Tinubu, is from Ndume’s senatorial district. If Tinubu and his surrogates’ choices are so “tribal,” how did two of Ndume’s kinsmen clinch NNPC’s top roles?

“As a politician, Ndume has proven time and time again that he is allergic to facts and addicted to theatrics. His habit of firing half-baked criticisms—only to be contradicted by facts—proves he’s more interested in headline-chasing, rabble-rousing, stoking divisive narratives than offering constructive criticism.”

President Tinubu, he Onanuga emphasized is deeply committed to fostering a government that embraces all Nigerians, irrespective of their ethnic or regional affiliations.

“The President’s appointments are—and will continue to be—based on merit, integrity, geographical spread and a demonstrable capacity to serve the Nigerian people, not Ndume’s cherry-picked tribal arithmetic. We urge Ndume to elevate public discourse and avoid misinformation and baseless criticism. This is a disservice to the nation and the behaviour least expected from a Nigerian Senator.”

While we are not looking at the propriety or otherwise of Ndume’s accusation, we are however constrained to say that this is not the first time the Tinubu administration has been accused of promoting a sectional agenda of some sort.

It may be recalled that the same hue and cry was all over the place at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), where a staff audit revealed that a majority of the staffers are northerners.

Besides the apex bank, there have been claims that some of the top ministries and departmental agencies have discrepancies in terms of appointments of persons from a section of the country who appear more favoured than others.

This kind of hegemonic domination by other tribes against the other certainly does no credit to the federation and has the propensity to breed hatred, disunity, and disharmony ultimately.

At the time the country is suffering from ethnic strife, religious crisis and socioeconomic turmoil capable of further disrupting the unity, the government must gird its loins and seek to do right by the rest of the country and not adopt deploy divide and rule tactics. No.

The government must not be seen to be promoting the embers of disunity but rather should be in the vanguard of those propagating peace and unity through meritocracy, equity and justice with respect for humanity at the core of the directive principle of federal character in line with the spirit and letter of the constitution.