Buhari’s Boundless Clannishness

For a moment, I thought President Buhari will put aside his clannishness and show some respect for our Federal Character law in the appointment of an acting Inspector General of Police. A section of this country currently dominates headship of military and paramilitary agencies – The Army, DSS, NSCDC, Police, Customs, EFCC, Navy, NIA, Immigration, NSA and Prisons. It did not happen as Buhari again named a northerner Usman Alkali Baba as acting Inspector-General of Police. Our President evidently mismanages our diversity and unity. Nigeria has never had it so bad.

My very good friend, Human rights lawyer, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), was also disappointed and remarked: “Can’t President Buhari for once, just for once, in his opaque appointments, look beyond his religion and immediate environment, and forsake sectionalism, cronyism, prebendalism, tribalism, favouritism, and act as a true statesman? I thought he gleefully told Nigerians on 29th May, 2015, while taking his first oath of office, that he was for everybody and for nobody? So, Buhari had actually deceived Nigerians and is desecrating his solemn oath of office? I can’t decode Buhari’s defiant refusal to respect the Federal Character principle enshrined in Section 14(3) of the 1999 Constitution. Or, can you?”

No doubt, the injustice of the Federal Government under the leadership of Buhari is responsible for the growing agitations and insecurity in the South-east. Ohanaeze’s National Publicity Secretary, Alex Ogbonnia said: “It is unjust and unfair to sideline the South-east in the security architecture of the country. Injustice promotes insecurity; it promotes all forms of crisis and problems. With injustice, there is no peace anywhere. We thought that the President would be concerned about the level of injustice, agitations and crises we have in the South-east and would try to ameliorate these things but unfortunately, he is not thinking in that direction.”

Genuine patriots must persist in mounting pressure on Buhari to respect Section 14(3) of the 1999 Constitution for the sake of this beautiful country’s unity. Our President’s ethnic and religious bigotry is a threat to the harmony of Nigeria.