A human rights lawyer,Festus Keyamo has said those castigating the appointments made by President Muhammadu Buhari are jobless politicians, as Nigerians are interested in good governance and not ethnic sentiments.
Keyamo,in a statement released on friday said:“The so-called ‘uproar’ over the perceived ‘lopsided’ appointments made so far by President Buhari is nothing but an orchestrated frustration of a few jobless politicians who depend only on government appointments as their means of livelihood and, of course, the noise of the latest opposition party in town,”.
Buhari had on Thursday made more appointments into key positions in his administrations fuellling suggestions that he favoures certain parts of the country,which his spokesman, Femi Adesina has denied, saying more appointments will be made to balance the spread.
Babachir David Lawal, from Adamawa State, was named as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation while Abba Kyari, from Borno, was appointed the president’s Chief of Staff.
Keyamo said the decade-long general division of government positions into ‘juicy’ and ‘non-juicy’ is worrisome, adding “the mentality that the ‘juicy’ positions must be shared equally among the major ethnic groups was a contraption of the old order”.
He said: “All public positions come with an equal responsibility to be honest, forthright and dedicated. To go further to classify them as ‘juicy’ or ‘non-juicy’ is just a euphemism for positions that have enough money from which to steal and those that are ‘dry’.”
“Therefore, any agitation from a section of the country to get ‘juicy’ positions is only an agitation for their kinsmen to be appointed to steal enough from which they would benefit”,he added.
Keyamo condemned the uproar that greeted the appointments, saying that all sections of the country should be happy with whatever position the president deems fit to offer their kinsmen.
“After all, the President still has a long way to go with appointments. He has not even filled up to five percent of available positions,”he added.
