Northern Youths warn President Tinubu against lopsided appointments

Some youths from the northern part of Nigeria have urged President Bola Tinubu not to engage in what they call skewed appointments, similar to his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari.

The youths, under the aegis of the Northern Youth Leaders Forum (NYLF), conceded that northerners have no right to complain about Tinubu’s perceived ‘lopsided’ appointments but expressed their opinion that the country should not continue in the same way.

Some northern leaders have criticised President Tinubu for allegedly favouring the south in his choice of appointees. For instance, Ahmad Gumi, an Islamic cleric, alleged that Tinubu had appointed more Southern Christians into key positions while ignoring northerners who, he said, aided him in gaining power.

Addressing the press in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, on Sunday, the National President of NYLF, Elliot Afiyo, said that Tinubu is widening the gap of alleged lopsided appointments inherited from Buhari.

Afiyo disclosed that Buhari, from 2015 to 2023, created a lopsided appointment gap of 80 percent for the north and 20 percent for the south.

However, he urged Tinubu not to follow the steps of Buhari in picking his appointees, “because the country must not continue in error.”

According to him, previous Nigerian leaders have since independence, engaged in biased appointments, favouring their zones at the expense of others.

The youth leader maintained that former President Olusegun Obasanjo tried to narrow the gap when he returned to power in 1999.

“But Buhari came in and created the gap to be 20/80. And even the northerners that they were saying that Buhari appointed were not northerners per se. We are now seeing that the appointments by President Tinubu are tilting towards the South West.

“I would say northerners don’t have the right to complain that the appointments or placements are lopsided. We don’t have the right to complain.

“But as advanced citizens, I ask: can we continue like this? Where are we going as a nation? So, there is a need for us to balance it,” he stated.