Appointments: Buhari Not Implementing Northern Agenda, Says Spokesman

PMBThe Presidency has dismissed insinuations in some quarters that President Muhammadu Buhari is implementing a northern agenda as reflected in his political appointments so far.

Since assuming office on May 29, 2015 President Buahri has made at least 9 different appointments, the latest being the Director-General of the State Services, DSS, Lawal Daura, from Katsina State.

The other appointments are as follows: Acting Chairman, the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mrs. Amina Bala Zakari (Jigawa State); acting Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Mordecai Danteni Baba Ladan; and the Accountant-General of the Federation, Alhaji Ahmed Idris (Kano State).

Others are the State House Chief of Protocol, Mallam Lawal Abdullahi Kazaure; Aide De Camp, Lt.-Col. Muhammed Lawal Abubakar (Kano State); Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu (North west); and Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina (Osun State).

But the appointments were seen by many Nigerians to be lopsided, favoring the North-West in particular. Only one of the appointments came from the South-West.

But the presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, who spoke to Vanguard in Abuja on Sunday, debunked the claims that Buhari was acting a northern script against other zones in the country.

According to him, Mr. Buhari received a national mandate and was going to pursue it as such.

“The president does not have a northern agenda. He has a national agenda. He got a national mandate and that is the way he is going to exercise that mandate. I have already said it and I still maintain that”, he said.