The
Presidency on Saturday released what it called a ‘full list’ of all the
appointments made by President Muhammadu Buhari since he assumed office on May
29, 2015.
However,
the 159-member list contains several errors and omissions, an ongoing review by
PREMIUM TIMES has shown.
At
least 29 names of heads of agencies or parastatals were missing on the list
while data provided for another five were incorrect.
The presidency had been challenged by a
publication by Business Day which indicated that 81 of Mr. Buhari’s
appointments are either from the North-east, North-west or North Central.
In apparent response to that report as well as
several similar ones, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and
Publicity, Femi Adesina, released the list of 159 appointees on Saturday.
The BusinessDay report that 81 of the
president’s 100 political appointees are northerners is “misleading”, Mr.
Adesina, said in the statement. “To claim, suggest or attempt to insinuate that
the President’s appointments are tilted in favour of a section of the country
is simply untrue and certainly uncharitable.”
Mr. Adesina then provided a graphical
illustration of different states and the number of top appointees from the
respective states.
The graph shows that Ogun, a South-western
state has the highest number of appointments with 21, followed by Imo, a
South-eastern state; and Kano, a North-western state which both have 15 each.
Edo, a South-south state, and the president’s home state of Katsina both have
14 appointees each.
Mr. Adesina’s 159-name list indicated that the
South-west has the highest number of appointments at 42, followed by
North-west, 30, and North-east, 24. South-east, North-central and South-south
have 22, 21 and 20 respectively.
However, a closer look at the list provided by
Mr. Adesina show several omissions and errors.
Below are some of these omissions spotted by
PREMIUM TIMES:
FRCN, NTA DGs missing
The Director-General of the Federal Radio
Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN, Mansur Liman, who is from Mr. Buhari’s hometown
of Daura is omitted from the list.
Also omitted is Yakubu Ibn Muhammed, from
Bauchi State, who was appointed as the Director General of the Nigerian
Television Authority.
Ismael Ahmed missing
The Senior Special Assistant, SSA to the
President on Social Investment Programmes, Ismael Ahmed, who was appointed by
the Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo, while Mr. President was out of the country,
is also missing on the list. Mr. Ahmed is from Kano, North-west.
It is not clear if this omission was
deliberate as the announcement was done by Mr. Osinbajo.
Other SAs, SSAs missing
Ibrahim Bapetel Hassan, SSA Policy Research
and Monitoring from Adamawa State; Tolu Ogunlesi, Special Assistant on Digital
and New Media; Lauretta Onochie, Personal Assistant on Social Media; and Shaban
Sharada, Personal Assistant on Broadcast Media (Radio) are all missing on the
presidency’s ‘full list.’
Also missing are Nasir Saidu Adhama, Special
Assistant on Youths & Students Affairs; Abdulrahman Bappa Yola, Special
Assistant in the Office of the Vice President; and Bashir Ahmed, Personal
Assistant on New Media, all from Kano.
Missing September 2016 appointees?
On September 26, 2016, President Buhari
announced appointments of executives for 13 federal government agencies.
However, only seven of them are reflected in the Presidency list.
Missing are; Joseph Ari, Director-General,
Industrial Training Fund; Simbi Wabote, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content
Monitoring Board; Aboloma Anthony, Director-General, Standards Organisation of
Nigeria; Mamman Amadu, Director-General, Bureau of Public Procurement; Ahmed
Bobboi, Executive Secretary, Petroleum Equalization Fund and Sa’adiya Faruq,
Federal Commissioner, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally
Displaced Persons.
Abubakar Bello, NEXIM, CEO missing
In a widely-reported appointment, President
Muhammadu Buhari in April 2017, approved the appointment of Abubakar Abba Bello
as the new Managing Director of Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM). His name
was also missing from the list released on Saturday.
Heads of health agencies missing
On July 29, 2016, the Director Press of the
Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Bolaji Adebiyi, in a
statement said the President has approved the appointment of new heads of five
agencies in the Federal Ministry of Health.
Interestingly, four of the five are missing in
the latest presidency list.
Not mentioned in the Presidency list are
Babatunde Salako, the Director-General of National Institute for Medical
Research from Ogun State; and Chikwe Ihekweazu, the coordinator of National
Centre for Disease Control appointed in August 2016.
Also omitted are: Echezona Ezeanolue the
Executive Director of National Primary Healthcare Development Agency; Usman
Yusuf, the DG of National Health Insurance Scheme, who was recently suspended;
and the Director-General, National Agency for the Control of AIDS, NACA, Sani
Aliyu.
OTHERS
Also missing from the list are the Managing
Director, Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, FERMA, Nurudeen Rafindadi from
Katsina; Chairman, Board of the FCT Internal Revenue Service, Abdullahi Attah;
and Bayo Somefun, Managing Director, Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund.
Others are, Luci Ajayi, Executive Secretary,
Lagos International Trade Fair Management Board; and Emmanuel Jimme, Managing
Director, Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority.
Apart from the missing names, however, some of
those listed were wrongly described.
Babandede not from North-central
The presidency list claimed that the
Comptroller-General of Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, is from the
North-central. But checks by PREMIUM TIMES found this to be wrong. The Immigration
boss hails from Jigawa, a North-western state.
Roli Bode George not NDLEA Chairman
The presidency list identified the wife of PDP
chieftain, Bode George, Roli Bode-George as the CEO of Nigeria Drug Law
Enforcement Agency, NDLEA. The list also claimed the BusinessDay list wrongly
identified her as Muhammad Abdullah.
However, a further check grossly put the
presidency in the wrong. Mrs. Bode-George is not the CEO of the agency. In
November 2015, she was appointed acting chairman of the agency, a position she
occupied for 54 days before Muhammad Abdullah, a native of Adamawa State, was
appointed as substantive chairman on January 19, 2016.
Maryam Uwais not from North-central
Maryam Uwais who was appointed as President
Buhari’s Special Adviser for Social Protection Plan was listed to have hailed
from North-central; but a further check signifies that the wife of former Chief
Justice of Nigeria, Muhammadu Uwais is from Kano State.
Conclusion
The list is not exhaustive as PREMIUM TIMES
continues to verify the presidency’s list against available data.
The omissions do not, however, follow any specific pattern in term of regions; and so do not necessarily fault the presidency’s motive that Mr. Buhari’s appointments are not lopsided.
The omissions do not, however, follow any specific pattern in term of regions; and so do not necessarily fault the presidency’s motive that Mr. Buhari’s appointments are not lopsided.
Presidency reacts
When contacted, Mr. Adesina said the
presidency is aware of the incompleteness of the list.
“We didn’t say it was completely exhaustive,”
he told PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday. “There are some others not there. You will see
that all the boards of universities, governing council, the SSA on Job Creation
are not there. We didn’t say it was exhaustive. That’s not everything. It’s
just to show the majority number.”
Asked why the Presidency published an
incomplete list as ‘full list,’ Mr. Adesina said the publication was to prove
BusinessDay’s publication wrong.
“It’s just to show that the paper that
published 100 and said 81 was from the North is not right. It was a mischievous
story.”
He said the list will be updated from time to
time. “We’ll keep updating it,” he noted.
Source: Premium Times
