Buhari is a Northern President - Fayose

Press statement from the Ekiti state governor
Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has said
President Mohammadu Buhari was operating as a
president of the Northern Nigeria only, describing
steps taken by the president since May 29, 2015 as
tainted in ethnic and tribal colouration, which is
inimical to the unity of Nigeria.
The governor, who descried what he called President
Buhari’s “Nothernisation of Nigeria,” said “appointments
made by the President so far negate the principle of
federal character and it appears the unity in diversity of
Nigeria is being taken for granted by the President.”
According to a statement issued on Monday, by his Special
Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere
Olayinka, Governor Fayose said it was wrong for President
Buhari to have made 31 major appointments and only
seven will come from the South while 24 were from the
North.
He asked; “Under Buhari, are people from Southern
Nigeria only meant to be hounded and harassed by anti-
corruption agencies and the Department of State Security
(DSS) while those from the North are meant to enjoy
federal government juicy appointments?”
The governor said “apart from lopsided appointments
being made by the President, I am worried that
construction of Lagos-Ibadan expressway has been slowed
down while work has stopped on Lokoja-Abuja roads, which
are the major roads linking the Southern part of Nigeria
with the North.
“Also, we have been told by the Federal Government that
the Second Niger Bridge project has been suspended and
one is now beginning to remember how Buhari cancelled the
Lagos Metroline Project in 1985 at a loss of over $78 million
(then) to the Lagos tax payers.”
Governor Fayose, who maintained that Nigeria can only
move forward if there was equity and fairness, said those
who made the country’s constitution and enshrined the
principle of Federal Character were mindful of the ethnic
diversity of the country, adding that President Buhari’s
running Nigeria as if he was a Northern Nigeria’s President
was not in the interest of the country.
“They said the President made the appointments on merit
and I wish to ask whether there are no competent people in
the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Southern part of
Nigeria, especially South-East where no one has been
appointed.
“Are they saying Igbo leader like Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, who
graduated with a first class honours degree in Chemical
Engineering at the University of Lagos, is not competent to
be appointed as Secretary to the Government of the
Federation (SGF)?
“To my mind, these lopsided appointments skewed in
favour of the North is a reminder of President Buhari’s
tenure as Military Head of State and I hope the President
is not seeing Nigeria of today as that of 1984 because doing
so will mean that he has turned himself to a northern
president, thereby justifying his notion that those who gave
him 97 percent votes must get more benefits than those who
gave him five percent votes.”