Festus Keyamo, lawyer and public commentator.
in an interview with Punch’s Eniola Akinkuotu has said an Igbo man occupies the
best position President Muhammadu Buhari has given out so far….. Keyamo said:
You are from the South-South. Why
have you come out to defend President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointments which are
largely in favour of the North?
I am not a tribalist. If I was, I
wouldn’t have campaigned for Buhari. I just wanted the best for Nigeria. I
agree that some of the best brains are from the South while some of the best
are from the North. We have brains everywhere. However, why people are clamoring
for these positions that have just been filled is that people see them as juicy
positions and this is my problem. About 95 per cent of the positions are yet to
be filled. Buhari has filled just about five per cent of positions. For me, no
government position is different from the other and that is the ideal
situation. We should not classify some positions as more beneficial than others
because that is a euphemism for corruption. It is a euphemism to say that some
positions are better than others.
People were clamoring for the
position of Secretary to the Government of Federation and Chief of Staff
because in the past, the Peoples Democratic Party turned those positions into
money-making machines. Nigerians have seen the ostentatious lifestyles that
others who have occupied these positions have lived. And the nation allowed
them to get away with those crimes. And yet we say we want a change. We must
begin to change our orientation. So, we are saying that we cannot make a
holistic assessment until the President fills all these positions. For those
positions he has filled, they are supposed to be occupied by those who are
personally loyal to the President. I do not expect him to leave those positions
to be filled by his political party. For example, you cannot say the chief of
staff should be someone that is loyal to a power bloc in his party. That kind
of person would close everyday from work, pick his telephone, and report all
the activities of the President to his political camp. That would not be fair
because that kind of person would not be loyal to the President but by the
person who nominated him for that office. There are many positions that the
political party can fill that will not have direct access to the itinerary and
activities of the President. That is why I said people should be calm. There are
ministerial positions to be filled, heads of agencies and many others.
We must change our orientation such
that any appointment given to anybody from any part of the country must be
accepted with dignity and pride and patriotism. The argument is that certain
ethnic groups have seen some positions as being exclusive to them. They argue
that since the presidency has gone to the North and some positions have gone to
some other geopolitical zones, the next one must come to them. The clamour is
because they see these as hierarchies of juicy positions and I say no.
Is it coincidental that the
South-East, where Buhari got low number of votes, has not received any
political appointment?
Buhari got the lowest number of
votes from the South-South. But as I said, the appointments are not yet
complete. You say he has not appointed any Igbo but the biggest position so far
has gone to an Igbo man: Emmanuel Kachikwu who is the Group Managing Director
of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. It is just by modern political
divide that the man falls within Delta State but he is a Delta Igbo. They speak
Igbo. It is only by political delineation that he falls within Delta State but
there are Igbo speaking Deltans. He is an Igbo man but only on the other side
of the Niger. He is not an Urhobo man. What language does he speak? Is it not
Igbo? So what are we talking about? That is the biggest position and they have
it already. So, you can see that all this noise is being made by frustrated and
jobless politicians who just want to use ethnicity to get juicy positions. It
is orchestrated. We the elite should not be moved by this noise and selfish
agenda. Imagine a whole ethnic group campaigning for a position! Initially,
they said chief of staff, then SGF. Now, with all the noise they have been
making since May 29, imagine if one person from that region is appointed to
that position. That person will then see himself as a champion of his ethnic
group and his kinsmen will descend on that office in the area of contracts and
gifts. He will destroy the sanctity of that office and turn it into a political
chessboard because that person will see himself as representing a region in
that position. It removes professionalism from that position. So, we should not
campaign for offices on the basis of representing an ethnic bloc. Yes, every
region will get appointments but once he is appointed, he should not see
himself as representing that ethnic group but the whole country.
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